Dirty Fretless

[Musicschild17]

I'm building a 4 string fretless bass and I'm kind of lost on which pup and preamp to drop in it. I'm really trying to get a MM sound mixed with a fretless growl and make it work for more modern styles of music as opposed to a jazz tone but I'm not quite sure if you can do that.

I play mostly fingerstyle but I do like to slap and I rarely use a pick. Main influences on my playing style would be Flea, Les Claypool, and James Jamerson but I tend to play less active than those guys. My personal style is more of a root approach with other notes added for color and I tend to be a pocket player, but I do occasionally like to take a more leading role.

If anyone has any sound clips of fretless pup/pre mixes that would be awesome, while I appreciate any and all input everyone has I would much rather let my ears decide if I can have that happen. The bass is going to be a one pickup configuration in the MM sweet spot and for the pre I really want a mid control, so probably something like V/B/M/T. Any suggestions?

[luknfur]

FWIW:

Perhaps I've just missed them but I don't recall seeing a plethora of fretless MM's. My guess is you'll be lucky to get one clip let a mix for a comparison but perhaps this bump will get you one.

Plenty of info on MM's and 3 band eq's, you just have to do your footwork and make your choice.

FAQ Dimento's stuff has my experience to date with both. The Bass Mod link in the first paragraph of the Trouble Shooting Guide has info on mods.

[Musicschild17]

Thanks, I'll check that out.

The most notable MM fretless player I can think of used to be Pino Palladino before he switched to P-basses.

I'm open to just about any combo of pup/pre, be it EMGs, barts, anything really, I'm just attempting to get something close to a MM tone out of a fretless bass. Most fretless stuff I've heard has a cleaner tone than I'm looking for but it has a certain sound to it that I'm trying to mix in. I don't really know how to explain it exactly, except to call it "dirty fretless".

Addition: I just read through the Dimento FAQ, wow, that's a lot of info. It gave me a lot to think over though, which is good. Thanks again for pointing me in the direction of that awesome thread!

[fullrangebass]

Check out Mick Karn. I think you will love his tone. I sure do

[Johnny Mack]

Originally Posted by Musicschild17

I play mostly fingerstyle but I do like to slap and I rarely use a pick. Main influences on my playing style would be Flea, Les Claypool, and James Jamerson but I tend to play less active than those guys. My personal style is more of a root approach with other notes added for color and I tend to be a pocket player, but I do occasionally like to take a more leading role.

this sounds darn close to my preference/influence/style...

for the record, i will never tell others to buy certain brands, i'm kind of a gear communist or something.

anyway, i play on a fretless p-copy with regular ol' dimarzio p's and am blown away with the sound. i wasnt sure at first and probably wouldve used something else if i had the cash. it has a good audible tone with some natural distortion, but "woody" at the same time. i EQ with a deep low presence and a good hi-mid boost and average treble, which i personally LOVE for ME.
the sound works real well for supporting the band as well as a lead.

the point is, i can cover the bass audio spectrum from clean earthy mwah to dirty zingy growl with an experiment that i had mixed feelings about.
if you have a good idea of what would work for you, there's a good chance your instinct is right.

i'm starting to wonder if this has anything to do with the original post at all.

[trb6pJM2]

There's a couple things that i can try to just let you take a look at, heres a bongo fretless playing some of Donna Lee, AMAZING sound, so, I'm not much for electronics, but, whatever is in there is great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-3IpGPFV60

and, you might be a little skeptical, but there's a bass that's been discussed on Basses. It's the spaceman steel fretless bass, it has some amazing fretless tone, and at the end of the video he plays a little slap and it sounds just great, so, see if you can find out what there is in that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVVB2OfbBUY

[Musicschild17]

FullRange: That is damn close! I had never heard of Mick Karn until now, thank you for telling me about him! This guy is awesome!

J Mack: Thanks for the advice, I feel like you do a lot of times about the gear thing, I find I tend to read TOO much into something and miss the "just do it" attitude. I think I'm going to just go with my gut before I go insane thinking over and over about the pup everyday.

trb: Thanks for the vid link, I really dig your bongo it's got great MM tone. I've seen the Spaceman vids, it's a really neat concept with a very unique kind of sound!

I'm leaning towards dropping an EMG35DC in there with the EMG BQS and laying it down in the MM sweet spot. I know it's a little different from an MM style but the coil setups are similar and the midrange sweep of the BQS is very alluring. I won't start building for a little while so if anyone has any other ideas/recommendations/clips to add by all means please do so, I'm down for hearing different input!