Bass Flatter

[ilan]

https://guitarflatter.com/products/bass-flatter

Looks like a clever idea. Fits J-width necks only. For $49.90 I might give it a try.

[Pilgrim]

My first response was "what for"?  Then I checked the site and saw that it's a fretless "conversion."  I think you'd have to have pretty high action for it to work.  Might be worth it for those who are willing to do the repeated setups.

[Dave W]

Interesting idea, but the website doesn't give enough information.

[ilan]

You would certainly need to raise the saddles by whatever the thickness of this thing is. There is also he question of what a plastic board will sound like. But being clear you can see the frets.

[Basvarken]

How is it fixated to the neck, other than the strings pushing it down at the nut?

[ilan]

I just relized that I recognize the inventor - Gershon Weissfuhrer, an excellent tuba and bass trumpet player.

How is it fixated to the neck, other than the strings pushing it down at the nut?

I think that the plastic nut is not right above the original nut but slightly more towards the bridge, so the pressure of the strings on it pushes the whole board to the frets.

Found a video. It looks like the plastic board makes the neck feel wider and the edges are sharp.

[Basvarken]

From their site:

Used by some of the biggest names in the bass world, such as Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones) and Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam), fretless basses have received growing popularity and interest over the years, and for good reasons.


Really? Bill Wyman and Jeff Ament?   

[uwe]

Lieber Rob, not everything you haven't heard of yet, doesn't exist!





Wyman did play fretless too quite a bit, remember he was a double bass player at heart, but could never ever really play one because he found his hands too small. Hence his preference for short and medium scale basses and his penchant for playing his bass runs from the G string to the E string as opposed to the other way around like most electric bassists naturally do. He was always trying to emulate a double bass vibe. But he didn't do a lot of trademark slides - that is something only Jaco made de rigueur in modern fretless electric playing (a lot of Bad Company material was played with a fretless, yet you hardly ever hear a sliding note in Boz Burrell's playing on those recordings, there was a time when that was even regarded as a sloppy playing technique).





You've probably heard it more often on Stones songs than you think.

https://billwyman.com/2020/02/guitar-world-charts-history-of-fretless-bass-cites-bill-as-inventor/

*******

As regards this breakthrough product itself, while there are certain aspects of rubber and plastic I like in an adult context, dental guards have mysteriously never been among them.



An unattractive contraption if I've ever seen one.

[uwe]

Found a video. It looks like the plastic board makes the neck feel wider and the edges are sharp.

Truly amazing. Sounds like a crappy, lifeless fretless with a slightly loose bolt-on neck, hence the dead sound. Make your bass sound worse and still not like the real thing for 50 bucks only, I'm a huge fan already.

PS: I have a well-sounding fretless P, I know what it can sound like. What you hear in that vid is a pale caricature of it.

[Dave W]

From the YT description: "Flatter can be installed by anyone and requires no special tools or technical knowledge. You can be a complete knuckle-dragging beast and still put it on in minutes." 

I'm not impressed by the tone at all.

[Basvarken]

Lieber Rob, not everything you haven't heard of yet, doesn't exist!

A twelve string bass?! Get outta here! 

[uwe]

From the YT description: "Flatter can be installed by anyone and requires no special tools or technical knowledge. You can be a complete knuckle-dragging beast and still put it on in minutes." 

I'm not impressed by the tone at all.

Note to self: Dave agreed with me. This is a strange day already ...

[ilan]

Wyman did play fretless too quite a bit, remember he was a double bass player at heart, but could never ever really play one because he found his hands too small. Hence his preference for short and medium scale basses

Upright bass fingering (Simandl) enables people with tiny hands like my 5-foot teacher to play everything. With a 41" scale instrument there is no advantage for large hands – you can't play 1-2-3-4 guitar technique even if you're LeBron or Kareem.

Also, Stanley Clarke prefers 30" scale basses, and he has huge hands and plays an upright like a uke.

[uwe]

I can't help it, but ole Bill always said in interviews that the size deterred him. Of course it could have worked, I guess the greater distances just weren't to his liking and the way he played (and what: he didn't venture into the lower octave very often) he probably preferred lower tension anyhow.

[uwe]

Also, Stanley Clarke prefers 30" scale basses ...

That was like 50 years ago, Ilan, he hardly plays them live anymore. (Probably because of catching so much flak in the past for allegedly "cheating"!)

I love his playing, irrespective of what scale. He's a very "manly" player.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5Ukt9b8RPUg (A recent clip on a Strat-like shortie!)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/38UAHGQoyU4