Fretless Skills???

[deathbloomslife]

Wow, I'm sorry to all of you popping up another fretless thread, the actual second of mine within a three-day period, my humblest apologies...

...But this thread has its merritt. My question to you all of is, what special or aquired skills does it take to make a fretless sound good? I keep hearing that you need to be "advanced" or "really good" at bass to play a fretless. I played a fretless 'Vette 'Wick at Guitar Center two days ago, played the same way I do a fretted bass, and it sounded great through the Backline 600 head and Behringer Bugera coned 15" cab I plugged into. (thinking of making that my future rig. any opinons? any?)

Anxiously Awaiting Feedback, and Anxiously Awaiting a Fretless Bass,
~Ryan

PS, any of you know of any fretless Spectors???

[mikewho]

i had a similar experience...i was more comfortable on a fretless corvette than any other bass i've played, and i'm not what i'd call "advanced" at bass (i've been playing a little under two years). it's really easy to pick up that bass and not want to ever put it down...man, that's seriously my dream bass.

[embellisher]

The biggest requirement is good ears. It is not that difficult to play a fretless, but it is difficult to play one in tune.

You might sound good at Guitar Center by yourself, but the true test is playing along with a CD, a band, or plugged into a tuner. You will find out right away that your intonation isn't as good as it sounds when you are playing alone.

Playing fretless in tune also requires a large commitment of your time. It takes a lot of practice to play in tune.

I am moving this to Technique.

[Tash]

Spector makes fretlesses. The cheapest ones are the Spectorcore series, which start in the $500 range I belive. Going up from there all Spectors in the Euro and USA lines can be ordered without frets.

[Christopher]

a) Intonation

b) Phrasing

You don't need to be "advanced" to play fretless well. However, you do need to be a good enough musician to care about things like whether you're in tune (with yourself and with other musicians) and to take advantage of the unique phrasing options fretless offers, e.g. fretless vibrato, glissandi.

Intonation on the fretless benefits greatly from "proper" left-hand technique; understand that "proper" is somewhat subjective on the bass guitar.

[JohnBarr]

others have said it well, Intonation is key and technique is key to intonation
But he11, you can do it. If you picked up a fretless and it felt right, go for it.

fretlesskills

Could be a great sig.

John

[deathbloomslife]

so by intonation, you all just mean the way the bass is setup? like truss rod, action, string heighth, etc, etc??? And by playing in tune, you just mean playing the correct frets? Or, actually keeping the strings in tune?

Thanks for all of your input, definately helping me decide,
Just a tad mixed up, not even enough to be considered confused,
~Ryan

[Getao]

intonation essentially is the same as playing in tune.

Basically it means that every note is right on the pitch. AKA if you took a tuner to that note when you played it, it would line up exactly correctly on that tuner.

[Ladybass]

[quote=deathbloomslife]so by intonation, you all just mean the way the bass is setup? like truss rod, action, string heighth, etc, etc??? And by playing in tune, you just mean playing the correct frets? Or, actually keeping the strings in tune?

Intonation means that you have to be careful to play the notes at the exact right spot. On a fretted bass, that is simple, the frets show you where to put your fingers. On a fretless instrument, putting your finger half a centimeter to much forward of back, means that your tone is not right - it will be slightly below or above the tone you need to play.
I do not know whether you know that each whole tone (like C-D) is divided into 9 commas, each comma above or under means a slight change from the exact note. Four commas below a note is the bnote (like Bb below B) and five comma's above a note is the #note (like C# above C). All this is pure physics, as tones are waves.
If you have played until now on a fretted bass and you know the fretboard well, you will be "roughly" able to find the notes. You just have to listen harder to what you do, to "hear" that what you do is right. In the end, a fretless bass will give you more exact intonation, but it takes practice and a lot of listening.
I play both, and I now prefer the fretless - but I'm glad I started on the fretted - it gives you some rough knowledge of the whereabouts of the notes.
Ladybass