Fretless - Yea or Nay?!!!

[Barklessdog]

Claypool redifined the fretless sound I believe. My favorite Claypool stuff is his fretless work.



Live version saw this tour a few years ago.

[uwe]

Too percussive for me, I like a little melody and harmony with my bass.

[Freuds_Cat]

I agree a  lot with what Uwe has said. Unless you have the chops of the mighty and wish to develop your own distinctive fretless style (Good luck with that btw) you need to tread the line between "Playing too accurately without any meaws" and (over playing ) sliding every note because you can.

Someone on this forum when I first joined made the point that when you begin playing a fretless the best thing to do is to "just play the damn thing like a normal bass". This IMHO is the perfect approach.

I have been playing a fretless bass for about 25 years and the way I try and keep my fretless chops is to make sure there is always 1 or 2 songs in the bands set that I can tastefully use it on.

The Crocs version of "Cant always get what you want" that I posted recently was played on my Cargill Fretless, even though the photo's that I used to make the clip showed the Jazz and Explorer.

I'm sure a lot of you have better ears than me and can hear me playing a few not quite perfect notes but as Uwe says the odd slightly sharp or flat note aint the end of music as we know it.

Its more about training your ears than your fingers IMO. If it sounds slightly flat then slide up to the correct note and after a while you start placing your fingers more accurately AND you train your ears to be more sensitive to pitch. You can get it so that the slide up actually sounds intended with a bit of work.

[Barklessdog]

I remember Tino, you remember Steve Lawson?

He said that it was better to start with a lined frettless to get you better acuraccy.

[Freuds_Cat]

Yeah John, Steve is a lovely guy too. I had a few chats with him on the UK bass players forum. Great player. He is very melodic and clearly differentiates himself as a Solo bassist. Which gets me past the whole is he really a bassist argument.

[lowend1]

I'll echo what others have said - do it well or "just don't do it".
Don't be a Wishnevsky.

[uwe]

It's - as always - the guitarist that is playing the wrong chords, darn idiot. The bass playing is immaculate IMHO.

[godofthunder]

Fer Christ sake put on some pants man ! Bloody horrible that was ! I played double in college for a bit just to try it. never had a fretless bass guitar till a few years ago when I found this, a 70's fender fretless neck with suspect body. I paid 400 for it at GC, it is a great sounding bass, I use it for the Bad Co. stuff we do. I have  a great respect for Boz now !

[lowend1]

Fer Christ sake put on some pants man ! Bloody horrible that was ! I played double in college for a bit just to try it. never had a fretless bass guitar till a few years ago when I found this, a 70's fender fretless neck with suspect body. I paid 400 for it at GC, it is a great sounding bass, I use it for the Bad Co. stuff we do. I have  a great respect for Boz now !

You'll have even more respect for Boz if you try playing the Bad Co on an old Ampeg Scroll Bass! Talk about a log for a neck!

[Highlander]

I remember seeing him play that beastie back in '74 - I would love to try one some day but I doubt I would ever have enough to spare to own one - always kinda fascinated by them... I still can't get over the fact that he's gone... just goes to show how out of touch you can get... 

Bret - sounded cool to me... 

Lowend - it's all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order... 

Brother Butcher - fretless too... 

Uwe - I kinda go with you on the Primus (new to me - did it sound slightly Chilli to me...? my daughter likes them but I can take or leave) and Bret - I agree re Steve Lawson (again new to...) is it "bass" or is it "melodic sound effects"...?

I like this thread - lots of things to explore...

[pamlicojack]

I briefly owned a fretless J-Bass Special but realized pretty quick that I couldn't have it as my only bass.  I traded it off for something. I can't even remember what it was.

Now that I play upright, I think they're great but I don't necessarily think I'd go back to a fretless electric...

[bobyoung]

I started playing fretless about 1977 with a fender P bass, had never heard of one and had never consciously heard one either. My first ambition was to have great intonation, I won't say I have it but people generally only know I'm playing fretless when I tell them or slide or something like that. I dislike all the Jaco stuff and just about everything that followed however although I admire him as a player and there are a lot of great lead bass fretless players, I also like Stanley Clark better. I play upright also. To me a good fretless player plays in intonation and doesn't slide all over the place, too many fretless players overplay IMHO. I also dislike most of what has happened to fretless bass over the past 30 years it has become a lead instrument. I use them interchangeably with fretted basses on gigs. I have sung lead with them before, it takes a while to get good at both, I was never the main vocalist however, maybe a few songs per set but did do a lot of harmony's. These days I go between a 72 fretless P bass and a new T-Bird, like them both. I also hate RW strings on a fretless bass, besides chewing up the neck unless it's treated they sound thin, I feel you get more bottom and growl from flatwounds but then again I use flatwounds on everything, right Dave?

[chromium]

I also dislike most of what has happened to fretless bass over the past 30 years it has become a lead instrument. I use them interchangeably with fretted basses on gigs.

Yeah I personally do not favor the epoxied boards, nor the extreme "mwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" sound that some of the modern Jaco-sound-influenced fretlesses aim for.  I think some players like Manring are tremendously talented, and I do get a kick out of seeing tasteful, prodigious solo playing like that (in moderation) - but it doesn't apply to anything that I do, and I tend to prefer a warmer, more upright-like sound.

That's one thing that I do like about my fretless- the fact that the board is just plain ol' unsealed rosewood, it sports a set of chromes, has a mellow sound (somewhat brittle sounding - IMHO - Stingray-EQ notwithstanding), and it'll sit in a mix more like a bass than a singing solo instrument.

[gweimer]

I had the EB-1 fretless for a couple years, and it was a lot of fun to play.  I debuted the bass at an open jam night, and found myself playing "N.I.B." as the first song.  Ironic.  I sold that bass, but just came across a local luthier build in a pawn shop, where I have my Hamer at the moment.  It appears to be a walnut/maple Fender clone with EMGs and a BadAssII on it.  They asked me what I would offer.  I may see if they'll take $100, but at least one guy there plays in a local blues band, so they're not idiots.

[Dave W]

I also hate RW strings on a fretless bass, besides chewing up the neck unless it's treated they sound thin, I feel you get more bottom and growl from flatwounds but then again I use flatwounds on everything, right Dave?

You were using flatwounds here, weren't you, Bob? 



I found out the bassist in this clip was Frank DeNunzio Sr.