Artistry:Calling all fretless players.

[Tehrin Cole]

Hey,everyone!Since I've joined this forum a few months ago,I've been involved in some pretty interesting topics,concerning our favorite instrument,...the BASS!!!So far,it's been quite informative,and my hat goes off to you all,...my fellow"lords of the low frequency"!In this topic,I'd like to address an instrument that has been sort of,touched on, but never elaborated:Fretless Bass!In my experience,many of my students,as well as colleagues,seem to shy away from this instrument,...almost to the point of outright fear!In the 40 years that I've been playing,I've spent 25 of those years playing fretless,...it's pretty much,my main axe.From the first moment I put one under my hands,I was immediately hooked,...and I haven't looked back,since!So my question is:If you are already playing fretless,what was your first experience like,for you?Secondly,if you're thinking about playing fretless,what would you like to know about it? Peace!

 

[markkoelsch]

I have been playing bass for about 28 years. I have been playing fretless for about 10. The first time I played one was a fretless 4 string, and it immediately hit me. I first really noticed it when the first Firm album came out. Tony Franklin can play. Anyways, it was shortly after that album that I played my first fretless.

SHoot forward about 12 years, and I started playing six string fretted as my main bass. About two years later, I got a matching 6 string fretless. That is probably my favorite to play...that and my Steinberger 4 string.

I found the transition pretty easy. First, I have a pretty good ear. Secondly, both of my 6 strings are Carvins, and the necks are the same shape and scale length, which helped a bunch.

Bring on the Pino...New York Minute anyone?

 

[SpamBot]

Meh, I have one, and I like it, but for me it was really just a gateway drug to upright.
A bassist I played with in high school (Been a drummer forever, bassist recently) was an orchestral and jazz DB player, and fretless was much easier for him to play.

 

[Spaldo]

i've always been a fretless player...it's especially useful in rock bands with 2-3 guitarists (think Jeff Ament)

i've always wondered why people shy away from it, you get such a versatile tone

 

[onewebfoot]

I can see the gateway-to-upright factor that spambot cites. Whether a gateway or not, a fretless bass (guitar) can still be just as compelling, either way. Jaco said frets got in his way, and having merely touched a Zon fretless (in comparison to that level of experience), even I can see that of which Jaco spoke.

 

[crustychef]

I just got my first fretless 3 days ago, a Warwick Corvette standard. Previously I've been playing a 5 string Ibanez SR755. The Ibanez is a great bass but that fretless Warwick just felt like an old friend giving me a hand shake when I started to play it. I'm a rookie bassist but I played cello as a kid and then switched to sax for 9 years and went to music school and all that. Now I finally feel that all those years I was playing the wrong instrument. Music school ear training and theory had really accelerated my playing with a fretted bass but when I picked up that fretless is all fell into place ever more so. I might sell my Ibanez, I like the fretless so much. It was kind of weird. Last night I was just trying to play along to Jaco's Giant steps (something I've spent years playing on Sax) and all of a sudden my ear locked into the changes faster than I could think of them. It was kind of creepy and super cool. My wife just looked at me a shook her head. She's been learning guitar and has no prior music background. All in all I play fretless cleaner than I do fretted I've discovered and it allows my more flexibility and texture to play with. Plus you just gotta love that slide and groove.

 

[crustychef]

Yeah I definitely want to get an upright someday.

 

[Mark Wilson]

I've got my own 'voice' on my fretless. i LOVE it.
Unfortunately, I don't play it often...I'm gonna play it now!!

 

[Rick Auricchio]

I'm playing 39 years, and 23 years ago I added fretless. I mix 'em up.

Of my eight basses, five are fretless.

Look at it this way: The bass is lighter without frets!

 

[Oric]

I have a fretted Jazz and fretless Squier Jazz... I like the fretless, but it doesn't seem different enough for me to warrant favoring it. I tend to play with a deeper thumpier tone however, and when I play basslines, it tends to sound like a fretted bass, so yea.

 

[GeneralElectric]

I own two fretless basses right now. A Jaco Pastorius CS model and a highway one p-bass fretless with a super skinny jazz neck (courtesy of Mike Dolan)

The first time I played fretless was last year. I had to go to a rehearsal without my bass (I didn't even want to go as it was over an hour away and pouring really bad out) and the guitarist who I was doing the favor for said I could use his brother's bass. A 6 string fretless. My first time playing fretless, and my first playing a 6 string.

My intonation wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close. I contribute that to the fact that I was playing with people so I could see real time when I wasn't playing in tune. I had to get one.

Now I never play fretless with groups these days, my work usually calls for fretted bass. However, when I go home, all I play is fretless. I find it more enjoyable and easier to play for me. When I get some work that could involve fretless, I get excited as hell.

 

[René_Julien]

So my question is:If you are already playing fretless,what was your first experience like,for you?

The first time I played a fretless was in a music store.
I actually went in that day because I was thinking about converting to electric guitar.
At that point I had been playing for over a year. I was in a trashmetal powertrio, I was the only one with a musical education. So I was filling in the part of lead guitar with a bass a la Cliff Burton.
A lot of people in the local musician scene were pressuring me into becoming a lead guitarist.

So, I saved up some money so I could buy a decent guitar, guitar amp and some pedals.
At the store the guitar section was crowded, so I went to the bass section.
Not much interest in basses anymore... until I spotted a cool Yamaha RBX260F fretless.
I wound up playing it for about 2 hours in the music store.
I was truly amazed by fretless. What's important to me for an instrument is that I can really express myself on it. Fretless beats electric guitar in that.
I bought the (cheap) Yamaha fretless, and with lots of money left over I bought also a Trace Elliot 4x10 combo.

A wise choice.
After that I found two experienced bassists who tought me a lot. With my new skill I got into more professional bands.
And I really like the way you can make a bass sound just by playing technique, both fretless and fretted.

I haven't regretted it ever since.

 

[millerfreak]

I was crazy over the double bass, couldnt hack it because i didnt have the money to buy it. And plus i want something that i can carry everywhere. So i defretted my cheap 5 string bass and i loved it to death. Fretless allows me to explore the bass in a very different way. If i was playing fretted i would be hacking slap, triplets, quadruplets, and all that stuff. But fretless is just totally different.

I really recommend fretless for every bass player.

 

[fretlessguy]

When I was 18 I was visting a local music store and saw the strangest sight: an off brand Precision copy that had..no frets. I had no idea they even existed.

Enamoured by the thing, the good merchant, whom I occasionally did work for, allowed me to take it home and try it out. I was hooked. Since I was entering my first year of school, I naturally couldn't afford it, but swore one day I would own one.

After college I became engrossed in my new teaching career and gave up on music for around 13 years. After my holiday from music, I started back to playing in a church ministry and fell in love with the bass once more. I then bought a beautiful lip stick red 96 Precision Bass. After a couple of more years I became infatuated with the 5 string, and bought a Carvin 5 string fretless Bolt bass. I sold the Precision to fund buying it, a decision that I later regretted doing. Later I would buy the Carvin ABG, which was naturally fretless.

Fast foward 10 years later, my wife and I are going to Oakland, Tenneessee to spend a spring break (we are both teachers and needed to get away) and I look up in a music store there....and there it is...my 96 P bass fretless. I knew it was mine when saw the nut had been modified to accept very heavy gauge strings. Also, there was this "amoeba like" dark spot on the back of the neck in the wood grain. I immediately took it off the rack, plugged it in, and played it. Then I put it in layaway and eargerly awaited my tax return.

Pushing the 50 year mark, I have recently purchased a short scale SX Jazz fretless, which is utilized when my arthritic fingers don't want to stretch to play my long scales. I have had a blast playing it and often play it when my fingers are fine.

So there you have it, my complete life story as a fretless bassist. I do play the fretted as well, really most of the time, but my first love is and always will be the fretless. Fretted basses I have owned have come and gone, but I still own every fretless I have ever bought.

 

[LAPetrarca]

Been a bass player for over 40 years. My first fretless experience was about five or six years ago when I got my Michael Kelly fretless ABG.

I had owned several ABG's and hated the fret rattle that every one had. I tried the fretless MK and guess what? No fret rattle! I bought it, put a set of tapewounds on it and now it's a very nice instrument!

About 6 months ago, I picked up a Squier VM Fretless Jazz. It came with roundwounds on it. I put a set of flatwounds on it and it immediately became my go to bass.......VERY nice! Lots of fun......very versatile too! Lots of different tones available!

 

[GM60466]

I started with and old Kay upright with a 41" scale. From there I went to a fretted Gibson EB 1 with a 30" scale. Around 1974, L D Young put an electric fretless bass in my hands. I've yet to find one that feels perfect in my hands, but I play about 70% of my music fretless. Later this year I'm planning to purchase A Pedulla 4 string. I hear that they are more bass than I'll ever need.

G

 

[Tehrin Cole]

My first fretless experience was life-changing,eye-opening,and spiritual!Before Jaco came along,I was already"hearing" fretless,...Jaco merely,soldified,personified,and put a period on what I was already hearing.I walked into a music store,one day,and tried a fretless Ibanez Artist series.After about 10 seconds,I was hooked!I didn't want to put it down!I realized immediately that,I could play whatever I heard,and shape the tones anyway I wanted,...it was the vibrato that did it for me!My first fretless was a custom-made instrument,from the now,defunct,Kharma Bodies.It had an ash body,birdseye-maple neck,rosewood fingerboard(blank),DiMarzio pick-ups(passive),a brass nut,a Badass ll bridge,and Grover machine heads.Fretless:Talk about total freedom!

 

[vinxbass]

After 34 yrs of playing fretted bass, last year I decided to buy a fretless. I bought a Squier FVM Fretless so that I could get into fretless cheap. My first gig with it was playing a couple of songs with my main band. It did the job, I needed to work on my intonation a little, but for the most part it sounded ok. I play exclusively 5 string basses and since the Squier is only a 4 string I don't get to play it as much as I would like, but then again I only got the bass so that I could get wet playing the fretless bass - it's done that for me.

 

[tomd999]

Hiya,

I learned on a fretless as a teen and didn't own a fretted until my mid 30's.

My older brother let me use his EB copy after he wore the frets out. My dad took it out in the garage, pulled the frets out and filled the grooves with plastic wood. I managed to find a '77 P fretless maple neck and I slapped together a parts "P" for a while until I hooked up with Lane Poor and managed to get my hands on one of his first Minimas. Quite possibly the best sounding fretless I have ever heard.

Recently, been thinking I need a Fretless J or P so if you know of one that reasonable, let me know.

 

[Tehrin Cole]

This is great stuff,guys! Thanks for all of your input,on this subject! So now,my next question is:Have you ever tried slapping on a fretless? Interesting!