What is the perfect fretless bass...?

Highlander · September 15, 2010, 01:19:55 PM

I need a second fretless...

I'm really pleased with my (fretted) Squier Jazz... (go for a fretless squier or build one up from spares...?) I'm also really pleased with my (defretted) RD Artist... I'm very tempted to defret my double octave Hohner Jack as the neck has the same profile as my Peter Cook Thunderbird, but she's such a good bass as she is...

What has been your favourite fretless...?

jumbodbassman · September 15, 2010, 03:16:14 PM

i built a fretless j bass in the 80's that still rocks. Warmoth swamp ash body, schecter neck (fret lines added later). all oil finish... Fender J bass pups now (dimarzios originally for the humm but the fenders just sound right... I have bought and sold and collected 20 other fretless basses since then BUT this one still is the one....

Aussie Mark · September 15, 2010, 06:27:18 PM

Nicest playing and sounding fretless I owned was a mahogany G&L L2000 with ebony board. I never was able to bond with the sound of fretted L2000s, but this one was really nice.

Freuds_Cat · September 15, 2010, 08:22:00 PM

Maton JB 4 Fretless
I loved this bass but could never quite come at the sound of the Dimarzio pups. They were quite dirty sounding and at the time I was after a more clean sound. Lovely bass, came standard with a Badass 1 bridge, Fitted neck, Ebony FB, Brass nut and Grover tuners. In Australia in the early 80's getting aftermarket pups was a very new thing and as a relative newbie it didnt occur to me.

I sold it (wish I hadn't) and replaced it with this:

Cargill Custom fretless
I still have and love this ol' girl. She gets played at least twice every gig. It has an insanely low action on an ebony FB, bone nut, countersunk Badass 1 bridge, and even though it has Active EMG J pups I still think it has a beautiful natural earthy woody open tone to it. Laminated neck through body (Maple/Rosewood). The neck is a standard Stingray nut width but the depth of the neck is very thin. Body wings are Australian Ash capped wth figured maple. She is an amazingly fast easy bass to play.

uwe · September 16, 2010, 03:25:28 AM

The question can't be answered really, but rule of thumb is that if a bass sounds great fretted and you enjoy fretless playing, a conversion to fretless will never go wrong soundwise (if the defretting is done well). With a bolt on you can of course just exchange the neck. I've had a few fretted "sleepers" that were aching to be liberated from the chains of their frets and the result was excellent everytime.

godofthunder · September 16, 2010, 05:57:53 AM

Not that I am any expert on fretless basses but I really love my '70s Fender parts bass. I bought it at the local GC for $350. It was made up of a 70's Fender neck and tuners, the body from a 70's mij bass, maybe Ibanez. I played it that way for a year or so and found a nice 70's Fender body on ebay for a good price and swapped out the mij body. What way for you to go ? Well anything on a Fender platform can be either fretless or fretted by swapping out the necks, plus after market parts are plentiful and relativly cheap, so my thought would be to build one from parts plus you can do it a bit at a time. Before and after pics of my P.

dadagoboi · September 16, 2010, 07:55:44 AM

Two ends of the spectrum for me. $115 (w/hsc) Squier plywood/maple Precision I defretted, faux finished pickguard, added decal and upgraded tuners . The LaBellas are at least 10 years old...and an Ibanez MIJ Gary Willis GWB-1 swamp ash/ebony with custom Bart and EQ bybass push/pull pot. The Squier covers any Pino kind of stuff I might attempt and the GWB just plays and sounds smooooth. Also have an Ibanez RB-650 alder/maple with DiMarzios that sounds good with a lot of the bridge J pup in the P mix. I think setup and strings has even more to do with a fretless sound than it does a fretted.

uwe · September 16, 2010, 08:50:35 AM

"I think setup and strings has even more to do with a fretless sound than it does a fretted."

Amen.

ilan · September 16, 2010, 09:49:55 AM

My first Fender bass was a '80 P, black on black with an unlined rosewood board, because I was into Brand X and Percy Jones. I have always regretted selling it, so a couple of years ago I matched a '73 neck to a '75 body and pickup and assembled an identical stealth P. Top row, 2nd from left.

But my favorite fretless is the big fat girl on the top left.

hieronymous · September 16, 2010, 11:33:53 AM

This is my current fave:

I don't have any advice to offer on fretless in general, what I've read in this thread so far sounds good to me!

Actually, I will say that the issue of dots and lines and markers could be important, since you already have a fretless you probably have an idea of what you want/like...

Highlander · September 16, 2010, 01:36:14 PM

Thanks for the thoughts and anymore mucho welcome...

The thoughts have definitely gone towards the Squier Fender (J) platform (as Scott's Ripper is well out of my range at-the-mo - the P does look rather nice, Bro

) with my throw-back interest in Jaco...

Carlo/Dada (I'd never get on with that raised section - I remember you discussing that with Uwe) rightfully and most welcomly mentioned strings and setup - views on strings you've had the most success with... I had standard 66 rotos on the RD prior to strip down and even with a bare wood face not noticed much surface issues but even though I have had an old aversion to flats, is this a route I should contemplate again...?

Quote from: ilan on September 16, 2010, 09:49:55 AM
But my favorite fretless is the big fat girl on the top left.

Ain't had my hands on a lady that shapely since my school days...

Quote from: hieronymous on September 16, 2010, 11:33:53 AM
... since you already have a fretless you probably have an idea of what you want/like...

Slightly tricky one, Harry, as the RD's neck is so different to the other three (all "D" profile with the RD much more "C") - The "Jack's" turn up on quite a regular basis and some fall over quite cheaply which is part of my idea for defretting one...

dadagoboi · September 16, 2010, 02:11:24 PM

Quote from: Kenny's 51st State on September 16, 2010, 01:36:14 PM
Thanks for the thoughts and anymore mucho welcome...

Carlo/Dada (I'd never get on with that raised section - I remember you discussing that with Uwe) rightfully and most welcomly mentioned strings and setup - views on strings you've had the most success with... I had standard 66 rotos on the RD prior to strip down and even with a bare wood face not noticed much surface issues but even though I have had an old aversion to flats, is this a route I should contemplate again...?

The 'ramp' is to encourage a more trad approach, definitely not Jaco's. Same with the flatwounds; Labellas on the P and Ibanez, chromes on the GWB-1. It's not about fretboard wear for me, it's sound. I want it to be as different from a fretted as I can get. IIRC Jaco had his pups rewound by Seymour Duncan, with the bridge being wound hotter, supposedly similar to a hot Antiquity set. A DiMarzio Model J w/66 rotos might approach that...and some polyurethane

Highlander · September 16, 2010, 02:23:05 PM

iirc, Jaco coated the top of the neck with some sort of epoxy resin...?

dadagoboi · September 16, 2010, 02:35:46 PM

Quote from: Kenny's 51st State on September 16, 2010, 02:23:05 PM
iirc, Jaco coated the top of the neck with some sort of epoxy resin...?

plastic wood and epoxy?
http://www.ricksuchow.com/press-group-234.html

Highlander · September 16, 2010, 02:52:41 PM

Yep, that's the info I'd read before...