Anyone else skipping fretless all together?

[pringlw]

To each his (or her) own. In my case I'll say that I played a fretless for many years as my only bass in a hard rock band. It was almost more accident than anything that I had a fretless (got a good deal on a Ric that happened to be fretless, but I wanted the Ric).

Over time as I got used to it I came to love it as a fretless. Not because of Jaco "mwah" (not so important when you're covering Maiden) but for the feel and speed of the fretboard.

Today as an oldster getting back into it, I do try (badly) to play it a bit more like a Jazzy fretless. I'm learning that style of playing. But what's interesting is that I never worry about breaking out my fretless. Years of playing it like a fretted bass have left me simply "knowing" where the notes are. So when I break out my fretted bass I'm going for the rounds, not the "frets".

The irony is, after years of playing this way, sometimes fretted instruments frustrate me. If for whatever reason the bass is out of tune, or needs to be adjusted in terms of bridge intonation - on a fretless I can adjust. Little roll of the finger and - back in tune. On a fretted I sometimes feel "trapped" into the notes the bass wants to give me. Also fret buzz drives me nuts.

 

[Baryonyx]

I love my fretless jazz. I really need to get the input jack fixed, I miss playing on it!

 

[pbd]

We have a fretless in the house, its fun to play with everynow and then but the fretted instruments get the most playing time. Nothing against it.

Todd

 

[LAPetrarca]

Just recently got into fretless about a month ago with a Squire VM Jazz......it's another weapon in the arsenal......I don't see myself giving up fretted but, fretless is definitely different......but not necessarily harder IMO.

As someone said earlier, if you've got good fretted technique, the move to fretless shouldn't be difficult. Finding the right tone in my fretless is what I'm having the toughest time with right now.

 

[KrisH]

I bought an SX-like 6 string fretless. I'll admit, it's more of a novelty right now. My biggest problem playing it is the extra strings! I have fretless uprights, and the acoustic one gets lots of play time when my one band plays acoustically.

 

[tmw]

...I'd agree that fretless is almost a whole 'nother animal. I find that they're more work to play, but I like them. I like the tone, and the way you can go from one note to another with no fret noise. I must hasten to add that I really dislike hearing players go "Bwayooow...Bwayooow" throughout a song, and I avoid making that noise. I find it refreshing that I can listen to the notes and not have to look at the neck when I play. ...It's different, but it's kind of like when you go into a room in the dark and you already know where the light switch is and you just reach for it. With practice, most anyone can play one, but whether or not you want to is another issue...

Regards,
Rotorbar

+1. Well said!

 

[georgestrings]

As someone said earlier, if you've got good fretted technique, the move to fretless shouldn't be difficult.

Agreed - the main reason why I don't play one more often is that I find it more difficult to play and sing on a fretless - and my bands typically require me to sing a fair amount...

I'll always keep a fretless around, because I dig playing 'em - but don't see myself using one as a primary instrument unless I get into a band that I don't have to sing in...



- georgestrings

 

[Brass Nut]

Back in "the day", for me fretted was the only way to go.
Guess things change over time. My interest in being in a structured band are no more. I don't miss the arguments, people not showing up for practice, lugging tons of equipment, or even the presure of maintaining equipment of chasing the elusive perfect tone.
At my age, I play for my personal enjoyment and entertainment. I'll sit in on some tunes from time to time, enjoy open mike at a local Celtic bar, and some incidentals from time to time.
On my 3rd fretless and looking for anouther. They are pure enjoyment when the presure is off. Loads of fun, and for the idea of a limited voice? Not too sure of that. Different? yes. but definately not limited. Speed bumps are more restrictive.
then again, maybe it's what you want, like, or are used to.
I'm moving towards a more Fusion / Jazzy and layed back approach. Melody is comforting. Slowing things down and playing romanticly is a description I've heard that seems to cover it fairly well.
I can honestly say my fretted boards have not seen daylight now for over 3 yrs. Wouldn't part with a couple, but I just not into playing them when the smooth board has my attention. All personal preferance I'm certain.
Perhaps it's the AARP Generation???

 

[SteveC]

I'm struggling with this right now. I have a fretted 5 that is it. Feels great, sounds great, very versatile, etc. It works great for most of my gigs.

My current steady gig (economy has tanked the rest) is a jazz trio. While I canuse my fretted bass, and no one really complains, I know I "should" use at least a fretless, ideally an upright. Upright is not an option. An EUB would be OK, but I'm not in a place financially where I feel I can spend that money.

I bought a Squire, put in some Barts and it sounds better, plays OK, and if I wasn't doing "standards" it would maybe be OK, but I think my fretted sounds better - even with frets - for the jazz gig.

Not to take away from fretless players at all, but I think in my case I should play fretted electric and play either an upright or EUB for jazz. That's just me.

Sorry to derail the thread a bit...back to the topic at hand.

 

[mikezimmerman]

...
My current steady gig (economy has tanked the rest) is a jazz trio. While I canuse my fretted bass, and no one really complains, I know I "should" use at least a fretless, ideally an upright...

Really, you "should" use whatever sounds best within that setting. Now, maybe an upright would be ideal visually and/or tonally (at least for some groups). But since that's not an option and you're playing electric bass, I sorta doubt anyone except you cares whether your electric bass is fretted or fretless.

Mike

 

[dave64o]

I have two fretlesses (the plan is to sell one soon) and use to play them pretty regularly when I was just practicing and learning covers on my own. I recently started taking lessons and have been using my fretted basses exclusively just so I can focus on the lesson topics rather than the lessons topics AND my intonation.

I still pick them up once in a while but not that often right now but I do intend to go back to them someday. In fact I'd love to find another instructor, one who plays fretless, and study under him/her for a while.

 

[davidjbass]

I love to play fretless. Especially performing the same old boring cover songs over and over again. You know the one's that the crowd's like but you hate to do. I find that using a fretless makes playing these songs more challenging. Even though the songs can have simple bass lines I find that I have to concentrate more on my intonation while playing them. I also sing back ups which makes it even harder. I would love somedday to be an exclusive fretless player but I don't think that will ever happen. I love to slap to much. And even one of my biggest fretless heros Pino went back to playing fretted.
But I do like to own one and I find it nice to have it around. It's can be a great expresive bass tool.

 

[Orpheus55]

I find myself playing my fretless J-bass more and more for the sound, but I never really had any difficulty playing it after the first few (scarey) gigs. I have lines, but since we play in a darkened room, they don't help much.

 

[seanm]

I just can't justify buying a fretless bass that I know I will never gig with. I already made that mistake (or at least a mistake for now) with the 5 string.

 

[bassasm33]

Playing fretless has such a melodic sound, I would love to have one on demand along with my main bass, but at the moment I can only afford one. Fretless does require much more precision though, so in the meantime, I think I might just break out the old cello to work on my intonation...

 

[atheos]

I've played fretless a couple of times but I just didn't like it, the feel, the tone, nothing. I like my tone with clang and buzz, thank you. Fretless is too clean in my taste, naturally it fits some songs and genres perfectly but I'm not going to try metal with a fretless just because Metallica's Until It Sleeps has one in the verse. I'm not the most precise guy when it comes to left hand positioning, I often hit even wrong frets accidentally in faster riffs but I don't mind. Everything doesn't have to be so goddamn pure, clean, nice and perfect

 

[SLaPiNFuNK]

I prefer frettless...

if it werent for the wear on my fingerboard I would play it mainly...

but I do use it for gigs / recordings mostly, unless slap bass style... but will use for some slap...

 

[FiveStringsNme]

as much as I'm a fan of fretless (seeing how I started on an upright).. I can't find it working all the time...for a lot of the music I play, it's more for the effect, like overdrive.. I took out the frets on my first electric bass and use it, more so than anything, for pitch-training and whatever jazz I feel like jamming to.

IMO, I feel that it shouldn't be skipped altogether, it's another essential aspect of learning the bass guitar.. considering that it truly is the bridge between upright and ebg.

 

[Mutato]

I have no interest in fretless whatsoever.

 

[spade2you]

I mostly play fretless. I'm not against frets or anything, but I've gotten to a point where it feels more natural to me. For my purposes, there really isn't anything I can't do with my fretli.