Anyone just play fretless bass?

[SeattleSunn]

I play 80% fretless in my current band, but there are a few songs that are so much easier ( and sound so much better) that I always use a fretted on them. Songs with lots of octaves, and or large shifts up and down the neck can be played a lot 'crisper' with frets. I would say add a fretless, and put the money, or time you would spend on the conversion into a new bass.

my $.o2

 

[nostatic]

I've always been a big fanboy of the matched fretted-fretless pair!

Crazy talk!

 

[neckdive]

I've only played unlined fretless for about 2 years now. It feels very natural to me now. I find it extremely difficult to play a fretted bass now if I pick one up in the store to noodle around on. I can play lined fretless a little (if I happen to find one in a store) but the lines are confusing to my eyes and ears.

 

[bassgruvn]

Crazy talk!

Now that's a pair of basses.

 

[Slade N]

im at about 2 months into fretless this time, tried it a long time ago but i wasnt liking it then. i think it in part had to do with it was lined, my new one is not. i also am willing to put the time into it unlike when i was younger. my goal is to be able to play anything i want on it but in the end if i play it will be a choice not my only options.

id suggest that you save up for a good used fretless and dont alter your current bass. in the mean time, try playing on the frets to get you used to being more precise

 

[BlushResponse]

I'm about 95% fretless for live shows. If I had the time or inclination, I'd switch back and forth between fretted and fretless depending on what the song requires, but I'm lazy. I like how a fretless has way less clacky finger noise, and since there are no frets, you never deal with that clicking sound when the string hits the fret. I feel totally at ease playing fretless. For those instances when I hit a sour note, I can just as easily slide up or down to correct myself; something that's much more noticeable on a fretted bass. Of the three basses I own, two of them are fretless. All 80's and 90's era G&L's.

 

[bassgruvn]

I play a 5 string Fretless bass about 90% of the time, but I keep a Coppolo KPB5 around because there are just some days my old ears yearn for the old school fretted P bass tone into a tube amp.

 

[Dash Lashes]

i dont have a fretless yet, but my plans are to play fretless only in a year or two

_dash

 

[theduke1]

I play Fretless on Praise Team and 50/50 in my band. I also have two G&L 2500 they don't match, sound great

 

[gnarlyWarlock]

With practice, you will be able to play that fretless and nobody would be able to tell the difference (if they were not looking directly at you!) but it is the journey to that point that you might sound a little fretless-like. Put some time into it and you will be able to use a fretless for everything. It's a skill but can be mastered.

Though you intonation might be spot on, you can't achieve the same sound envelope; you have to account for the metal on metal contact that gives fretted basses a distinctively brighter tone than fretless basses.

 

[CatSquare]

I'd love to have good enough intonation to only play fretless, but let's just say I can pull off the blues with... Ahem... A lot of blue notes.

 

[zontar]

I started playing Fretless bass about 15 months ago-since then I have played my fretted bass a few times--and I still play guitar & started mandolin almost 4 moths ago.

But when I play bass, I play fretless about 99% of the time.

 

[Dash Lashes]

it's the so called "precision" bass that ruined it all

(fretless fan)

_dash

 

[Yaphet]

Crazy talk!

Not for nothing... I love seeing this pair- the epitome of the awesomeness that can come out of Ken's shop

 

[Hopi76]

I only pick up my fretted basses if I'm playing slap or something aggressive.

 

[A-Step-Towards]

Id never convert a bass of value to just try out fretless, buy a fretless and sell it if you dont like it. If you have a cheap bass, yank the frets but I wouldnt on any bass worth over $100 in order to just test fretless out.

 

[Skasteadyb]

If it's your only bass I would not do it. There's no turning around once it's been converted.

 

[Hamish MacCleod]

I play fretless only... works for me.
If I wasn't sure, I'd buy a pawn shop bass, pull the frets and mess around with it. Around here there are a lot of 4 and 5 string basses in pawn shops at about $100.
Rondo

 

[AnalogKid4003]

I own 3 fretless and two are unlined but my fretless game is weak lol. I don't play them enough I can't keep my hands off my GL jazz.

 

[Marial]

90% fretless for me, but I don't do anything crazy complicated.