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Fretless?
Oct 23, 2021 9:27:12 GMT -5
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Post by rickyguitar on Oct 23, 2021 9:27:12 GMT -5
Any enthusiats here? I studio I was recording at had a fretless Rogue bass. Rogue lacks quality but I really enjoyed it. I borrowed a cello years back and like it too...but not the bowing
I just may but a fretless Squire just for fun.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Oct 23, 2021 9:51:51 GMT -5
Bass is not my primary instrument, but I've been fretless for years now. What has kept it appealing for me is that I found the tone blends better with acoustic instruments than a fretted bass, and I was doing a lot of Church related stuff with acoustics. A combination of being fretless and using flats meant I didn't have to monkey with EQ forever.
Some people who went fretless realized they could still do everything with a fretted bass, and found the fretless thing was just a Jaco craze and they felt they had to be fretless for proper street cred. Lots of '80s songs were fretless, too. At the very least it is fun to have in your arsenal, and practicing with one does improve your technique a fair bit.
I've long had it in the back of my head regarding fretless guitar. Practically they are near useless, but a lot of fun and a great practice tool.
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Post by hushnel on Oct 23, 2021 9:53:19 GMT -5
My first home made bass is a fretless, turned out really nice too. Had a lot of influence from the old FDP. I had a fretless previous but sold it to a neighbor after the home made mahogany fretless was completed. flic.kr/p/WWiGQjI’ve made two more since then, both are short scale. One I took to Wooten Woods and had all the instructors and participants sign it. Even got Holly to sign it. A cool souvenir from a great week. flic.kr/p/KtxQWh |
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Post by Laker on Oct 23, 2021 13:46:16 GMT -5
I’ve owned two fretless basses but just never worked at it enough to be comfortable playing fretless. The first was a nice natural finished Fender Precision that I think was around a ‘75, and the second was ‘00 Lakland 55-94 that was a twin to the fretted Lakland I regularly play. The Lakland I sold to a good friend who lives and plays in the Bradenton, FL area who had been in Bluesman Bryan Lee’s band until Bryan’s passing last year.
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MoJoe
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Post by MoJoe on Oct 24, 2021 5:01:39 GMT -5
Absolutely.
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Davywhizz
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"Still Alive and Well"
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Post by Davywhizz on Oct 24, 2021 11:36:31 GMT -5
I love the sound, but the same goes for fretted. My ideal bassist would cover both. We had two members of our band over the years who only played fretless. Both were trained musicians, one played classical double bass as well, the other was a multi instrumentalist. I don't know if that was a coincidence, but I suspect you need good ears to play in tune all the time. PS I once met Jaco, but that's another story.
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jeffscott
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Post by jeffscott on Oct 25, 2021 18:58:38 GMT -5
I've been playing fretless bass ever since Unorthodox Behaviour was released and I heard Percy for the first time (1976). I removed the frets on the 1972 Telecaster Bass I had at the time. I have owned many other fretless basses since (by Yamaha, Alembic, Zon, Rick Turner, Rickenbacker, and Martin Keith).
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matryx81
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Post by matryx81 on Oct 26, 2021 12:13:57 GMT -5
 This is set to arrive tomorrow. I ordered it with a toggle switch that lets me choose series or parallel on the bridge pickup. It also has side lines on the neck. I am curious about how a granadillo fingerboard will sound. I like fretless quite a bit, even if I do not play it as my primary. |
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Post by morrow on Oct 27, 2021 14:05:53 GMT -5
My old fretless .  |
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Post by morrow on Oct 27, 2021 14:10:57 GMT -5
There’s also this little rig . Tricky to keep intonation in the upper register because it’s so small . Fun to goof around on .  |
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Oct 27, 2021 18:56:53 GMT -5
This is set to arrive tomorrow. I ordered it with a toggle switch that lets me choose series or parallel on the bridge pickup. It also has side lines on the neck. I am curious about how a granadillo fingerboard will sound. I like fretless quite a bit, even if I do not play it as my primary. I haven't used granadillo (at least not that I can remember) but I bet it will be great. Indian rosewood is a lot softer than people realize, and is just a tad too spongy for fretless sans any treatment, unless you stick to flats or tapewounds. I'd guess a bit more sharp and aggressive than brazilian based on the hardness specs/pictures I'm seeing, but I will wait to hear you report back!
My current fretless fingerboard has a particularly hard piece of ebony. It works well, though I sometimes wish it had a bit more character in the midrange - ebony tends to sort of flatten things.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Oct 28, 2021 9:22:11 GMT -5
Bass is my 2nd instrument and I play it for recording projects. I think I understand (and respect) the instrument well enough to not be the stereotypical guitarist wanking on bass. When I first bought a bass for recording it was a fretless MIM Jazz and a day into it I realized I was over my head. I returned it the next day and got a fretted Jazz bass. A few years later I bought an acoustic Michael Kelly fretless because I was big into the west coast swing thing and thought it'd be a good substitute for a pseudo standup. I think I used it one project and eventually sold. Truth be told I wish I still had it.
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Post by hushnel on Oct 28, 2021 11:45:17 GMT -5
I meet a guy on the UMGF, he had a Magic Fluke, Flea Ukulele he wanted to trade. I offered up an Ashbory bass that I wasn’t using. It was a good trade. The silicon strings often broke and I could only get strings by sets. After the uke arrived and I started learning the chords and putting song sheets together, I found a ukulele forum to learn more about the instrument. A bunch of good guys. One I met was Owen Holt, a ukulele maker. I soon discovered that he made short scale basses named the U Bass at his business, Road Toad Music. I believe Kala is making them now. I contacted Owen backline and we talked. He told me he would gladly sell me the parts I would need to build my own. It basically was his black Pahoho strings, modified tuners and transducer assembly. I ordered the set and built my first fretless 20” scale cigar box bass. I have some very sturdy cigar boxes that were perfect. The second one I made was for this guy who kept badgering me to build one for his son. I told him every time, no! it’s too much work, taking up time I don’t have. I ran into him again at the Coral Gables Blues Fest, I went to meet up with Albert, a good buddy of mine that played with Jr. Wells for awhile. So this Dr. Dude showed up, his son was playing with Albert at the time, and again with the cigarbox bass, same conversation. He asked, if I did sell one what would it cost. I thought about it and came up with a go away don’t bother me price of $700.00. Awhile later he asked if he could get me a beer, no thanks, I stopped drinking years ago, “can I get you a water then, sure. He came back and handed me the glass, wrapped around it was a check for $700. I built it. There is only one other out there, the third, and he is a FDP and Moe’s veteran. I was glad to do it. His wife contacted me and had me make it for her husbands Christmas gift. flic.kr/p/2gbiHew |
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Post by Laker on Oct 28, 2021 16:44:02 GMT -5
My old fretless . |
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Post by Laker on Oct 29, 2021 6:45:40 GMT -5
^ I was going to say that the violin was my first fretless too, but for some reason I couldn’t post anything but the photo so I thought had deleted the post. Anyway, I started on the violin when about 8 years old.
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matryx81
Wholenote
I think I know the reason but I can't spell it.
Posts: 773
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Post by matryx81 on Oct 29, 2021 9:04:37 GMT -5
This is set to arrive tomorrow. I ordered it with a toggle switch that lets me choose series or parallel on the bridge pickup. It also has side lines on the neck. I am curious about how a granadillo fingerboard will sound. I like fretless quite a bit, even if I do not play it as my primary. I haven't used granadillo (at least not that I can remember) but I bet it will be great. Indian rosewood is a lot softer than people realize, and is just a tad too spongy for fretless sans any treatment, unless you stick to flats or tapewounds. I'd guess a bit more sharp and aggressive than brazilian based on the hardness specs/pictures I'm seeing, but I will wait to hear you report back!
My current fretless fingerboard has a particularly hard piece of ebony. It works well, though I sometimes wish it had a bit more character in the midrange - ebony tends to sort of flatten things.
My initial report is that this thing is a tone monster. I will be using this as my primary performing fretless. I am grateful I ordered the toggle switch and will likely leave it in series (my TMB 300 basses can only run parallel or single coil). |
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Post by morrow on Oct 29, 2021 16:33:14 GMT -5
That’s one really big violin .
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Fretless?
Nov 26, 2021 2:25:58 GMT -5
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Post by LTB on Nov 26, 2021 2:25:58 GMT -5
This is set to arrive tomorrow. I ordered it with a toggle switch that lets me choose series or parallel on the bridge pickup. It also has side lines on the neck. I am curious about how a granadillo fingerboard will sound. I like fretless quite a bit, even if I do not play it as my primary. mm Very pretty bass. Hope you get a lot of years enjoyment playing it |
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Post by Taildragger on Nov 26, 2021 14:12:53 GMT -5
Being a relatively late "guitar-to-bass" immigrant, I struggle enough to play fretted well, so unless/until I master that, no fretless for me.
Why pile on the challenges?
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matryx81
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I think I know the reason but I can't spell it.
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Post by matryx81 on Nov 26, 2021 21:05:06 GMT -5
Why pile on the challenges? The sound of a fretless. I have 3 in the stable, 2 of which have some form of lines (one has the mini ghost lines and the bass pictured in my above post has lines on the side of the fingerboard). |
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Post by hushnel on Nov 30, 2021 12:17:22 GMT -5
The decay of a note played on a fretless is more natural sounding. It doesn’t sound or bleed with the next. Most of us mute the strings, some of us may not even notice we do it, for this very reason.
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Post by Taildragger on Nov 30, 2021 17:03:20 GMT -5
I guess I (maybe too much) also associate fretless with the "mwaaah" sound, which I'm not crazy about.
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