For people who own and play fretted and fretless basses...

[bassybill]

Roughly how much of your playing time (practice/rehearsals/gigs/recording - whatever) gets spent on fretless?

Just curious is all. Please vote if you play both on anything like a regular basis.

NOTE - it's a public poll. Feel free to add comments, of course.

[StuartV]

I go back and forth about half and half. The last couple of times I played out, I played one set with fretted and one fretless.

I like to practice about half and half because I think each one brings out different weaknesses that I need to work on.

[StuartV]

Besides, I assembled my own fretless and I love the way it looks, feels, and sounds, and I like to show it off.

[bassybill]

^^^ That's a real beauty!

[jay tay]

As you can see, I only have the one fretted bass, it's only pulled out for the occasional song.

[AltGrendel]

99.999% on the fretless lately. I've found that I don't care for fretted basses any more.

[Gaius46]

About 95% fretless. I virtually never practice with my fretted basses and at gigs only use them for songs that absolutely require a fretted bass.

[nickbass79]

I pretty much alternate practicing fretless and fretted every other day, some days focusing more on my fretless because its a 6er.

[Matthew_84]

It depends. I chose 25 - 50. There was a time where I was 100% fretless for months, but I have re-designed my goals into roughly a three-year plan. This put fretless playing off until about the halfway point of the plan, but at that point it will be about 100% again. I will pick it up occasionally before then just to keep my chops decent and for the odd song, but that's it.

[MD]

I own a fretted bass but never play it (craigslist).
No 100%?

[meatwad]

My fretless hasn't seen daylight in ages. For nearly a year, it was the only bass I played. I would sometimes slide up to notes EXCESSIVELY, in all the wrong places, just to piss off a certain guitarist. Don't worry, he deserved it. He was one of those "I swing my hips to the dive of the whammy bar" type guys.

[Grateful]

In my current main project (Blues/rock), it would be in the 10-25% range. On my other, part time project (Jazz/Gypsy), it's the 75-90% range

[abstractart06]

Originally Posted by StuartV

Besides, I assembled my own fretless and I love the way it looks, feels, and sounds, and I like to show it off.

Wow!, that is one fine looking instrument. Very classy.

[smperry]

I've done more gigs on fretted, but probably play them equal amounts.

[Darkstrike]

I probably play fretless less than 20% these days.

Need to up it, really.

[lpdeluxe]

It depends on the group I'm playing with, and the material being performed. Here are pics of the fretless basses I've owned (still have the Godin):







One interesting side effect of playing fretless is that I no longer have fretted basses with "medium jumbo" frets. All three of them have small guitar frets.

[Darkstrike]

Dang! That Godin is lovely!

[dhsierra1]

including double bass my fretless work is around 75%. I use a fretless P w/flats and a Turner Renaissance RB-4 fretless.

That said, there are times when that ker-thunk and ke-rang of a fretted J with roundwounds are what the doctor ordered, though I don't go for the Marcus Miller or Chris Squire sound so much, more the Berry Oakley to JPJ range of things.

[kreider204]

Upright: 75%
Fretless: 20%
Fretted: 5% (even that's a bit generous)

I'm mostly playing with my college's concert band (upright) and jazz ensemble (mix of upright and fretless) these days. I dust of my fretted bass once in a while to play along with CDs, but that's about it.

[Dan B]

Right now, less than 10% because my only fretless is in dire need of a proper set up and neck refurbishment.

It's a Peavey Grind that had a ghetto defret job; I bought it for the intention to learn fretless, and while it does that job just fine, its action is WAY too high and the neck is screwed up from sitting in the previous owner's closet for 5 years.