Fretless - Yea or Nay?!!!

[hieronymous]

I bought my first fretless while I was in high school - an unlined Fender Japan Jazz Bass. But I wasn't mature/experienced enough to play it well, so it usually just sat there gathering dust. I finally gave it away.

Recently, however, I started playing fretless again - the bottom neck of my Alembic doubleneck is fretless, and has dots where every fret would be - that really helped! And I recently purchased an early-'70s Guild M-85 fretless, and lo and behold - even though it only has dots for 3rd, 5th, 7th, etc., they are where the fret would be instead of inbetween! The fretless I had in high school had them where they would be on a fretted bass - no wonder I had so much trouble!

So I am enjoying playing this Guild, but it can still be frustrating to hit the notes right on. I'm just noodling around the house - I don't think I would play out with it, at least for a while.

Also, fretless often brings Jaco to mind, but of course there are other players and other approaches to use. I am definitely not going for a Jaco vibe, just trying to do my own thing.

SO - any one else have experiences, positive or negative? Absolutely love fretless playing or despise it? I'm actually more interested in hearing the negative opinions, believe it or not!

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Tony Franklin is The King of Fretless aka The Fretless Monster!!

www.myspace.com/fretlessmonster

I love Boz Burrell's playing too!!

Those 2 - especially Tony--inspired me to get a lefty fretless '78 Fender P modded with a J pickup to be like Tony's Sig Bass....which Fender doesn't make left handed.
I love playin' it & have begun crafting a tune on it.
When I get good I'm gonna work up some music to the title Bungee Jumping.

[Barklessdog]

The Negitives-

Better have dead nuts intonation and or constant vibrato or people who have good ears will be sickened.

Reminds me of the 80's 0 90's Duran Duran or even worse David Bromberg smooth jazz. I guess there is always Mick Karn & Percy Jones to look up to.

Micheal Manring & Steve Lawson do some nice things with fretless, still it has that whole "meow" sound, love it or not.

[rahock]

I never owned a fretless so I'm kinda talking through my hat here, but my limited experience in playing fretless on someone elses bass just seemed to make me a sloppy player. I've heard a lot of players who really made it work......most don't. They have a nice feel, but when it comes down to making it sound good (like playing in tune), I just plain get sloppy. This is the same thing I witness when I see most  people play a fretless.

I suppose if I spent some time getting serious with one I could make it work, but I fail to see why the heck I would want to do this when I have so many other things to do

Rick

[gearHed289]

I like my fretless. It can be very inspiring. Sometimes I'll use it just to come up with nice melodic parts, and then use a fretted for the actual track. And then sometimes I'll actually use the fretless. Tough to pull off live though when you're playing rock.

Tony Franklin kills. My #1 has always been Percy Jones.

[Highlander]

I was about 10 when I first played bass at school, acoustic double, in music lessons - I had to stand on a stool to reach the neck... never took it up but finally bought an electric when I was 16... My (maple) RD came along when I was 20... I had my RD's frets ground down, as an experiment, around '83, as I could not afford another instrument at the time, then permanantly removed a couple of years later - the fret slots were filled in with a dark strip, so to a non player or when you are not close, you can not tell the difference...! it looks fretted...! this also meant that I knew exactly where my fingers were meant to be, so this speeded up how quickly I learnt to play
I don't think I have any true influence re playing style, although there are numerous songs that were an influence... I don't appreciate the funk style of playing...
I have been out-of-the-loop for sometime so am just getting back into playing - the challenge for me, re fretless, is to play it loose enough but to keep it tight on the tuning - playing something in a totally different manner... it is just another way of playing. I can play rock just as well on the fretless as I can fretted, it just makes it more of a challenge, which I enjoy...
Try out a fretless, play your favourite song, see how different it sounds, or how differently you can play it - fingers or pick... fretless does not just mean funk...

[Pilgrim]

I made this bass into a fretless as a luthier and refinishing exercise.  It turned out great, but I seldom play it.  I played enough upright bass in high school and college that I LIKE having frets now.

[Blazer]

Love fretless playing guys like Mick Karn, Pino Paladino, Jaco (who else), Bakhiti Kumalo (Paul Simon band) make that thing sound so good and players like Les Claypool take it to outer space.

Here's my list of favorite tracks with a fretless.

[Nocturnal]

I've messed around with a few fretless basses. Just enough to know that I shouldn't try it for real. I love Mick Karn's stuff, but I'm no Mick Karn!

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Love that Kate Bush!

[uwe]

I think that "fretless makes you sound like Jaco" is a clichée, nobody really sounds like him (and I for one never cared for his bony tone and generally prefer Stanley Clarke). I'm a much better fretless player than I used to be (albeit I play it in a non-conformist way mostly with a pick) since I do it  more often (having a fretless Fender at home and not just the fretless Gibsons in the office helped). I'm a busy player, but a fretless inspires me to go against my nature. When I sometimes play fretless with the band, I don't see an expression of relief on their faces when I put it down to grab a fretted instrument - which means they don't really care and I must be doing something if not right then at least not too badly wrong. I've played fretless for a track in live situations too and do not remember being stoned off the stage for it. If you're not singing/have a frontman role, playing fretless is feasible (and I was certainly no talent when I started, but have now lost my apprehension doing it), but both Sting and Jack Bruce were/are sometimes  out of their depth/of tune when playing fretless live and singing. That said, I don't consider the occasional flat or sharp note while playing fretless a musical nightmare. Play it too accurately and without any "meaws" and it becomes pretty much pointless to play one.

[gearHed289]

If you're not singing/have a frontman role, playing fretless is feasible (and I was certainly no talent when I started, but have now lost my apprehension doing it), but both Sting and Jack Bruce were/are sometimes  out of their depth/of tune when playing fretless live and singing. That said, I don't consider the occasional flat or sharp note while playing fretless a musical nightmare. Play it too accurately and without any "meaws" and it becomes pretty much pointless to play one.

Yes, yes, and yes!

[rahock]

The singing thing may be where the wheels came off for me.....I'm singing 60-70% of the time.
Rick

[ilan]

I just put down my fretless ('75 P) when I saw this thread... It's been maybe 2 months since the last time I took it out of its case. I should definitely play it more often. When I don't practice, I play inaccurately. But the two bands I currently play with don't need a fretless bass.

22 years ago I got into fretless because of Sting. I liked what he did with his blank plank P. Not a lot of mwah and sliding harmonics, just tasteful playing. Percy Jones with Brand X also used an unmodified (I think) fretless P (no bridge pickup).

[chromium]

I started out playing double bass, and actually got onto a fretless electric early on.  At the time, I was really into stuff like Brand X, Japan, Peter Gabriel's "Security", Chick Corea's Electrik Band, Kai Eckhardt, Jonas Hellborg, and the like.  Still have the bass - an early 80s Stingray:




I used to play it quite a bit, did my decade long hiatus, and when I came back to playing again I found that my tastes had moved away from much of that music, Stingrays, and fretless bass in general.  Now I play fretted bass almost all the time, and dabble (poorly) on the upright.

I do feel that the time I spent on fretless helped my freted bass technique.  It forced me to become very conscious of my finger placement, and whenever I would get on a fretted bass thereafter, I found that I was fretting notes consistently right behind the fret, using all four fingers, very deliberate movements, etc...  If anything, I think it forced me to clean up my left hand technique early on.