I've dipped into the fretless waters a few times, currently with a 5'er jazz sx with Nordstrands and a new harness. The bass sounds great. I love that fretless play removes the metal-to-metal tone of fret/string contact -- just warm woody tones.
But -- I'm also almost constantly singing in my band. If not lead, than harmonies. And I've found that I just can't keep the polyphonic lines going well enough if I can't slightly put the bass on "autopilot" - and that means I rely on the frets to dial in the intonation so I'm not so focused on finger position. On the fretless, the intonation gets "in the cracks" - not badly, but enough that I won't gig with the fretless. Ironically, I do have an electric upright that I use for a few songs, but those are slow, simple basslines (Desperado, Norah Jones, etc), and I can pull that off. For general basslines, the fretless doesn't provide the effortlessness for me while singing.
Anyone else singing and playing fretless at the same time?
But -- I'm also almost constantly singing in my band. If not lead, than harmonies. And I've found that I just can't keep the polyphonic lines going well enough if I can't slightly put the bass on "autopilot" - and that means I rely on the frets to dial in the intonation so I'm not so focused on finger position. On the fretless, the intonation gets "in the cracks" - not badly, but enough that I won't gig with the fretless. Ironically, I do have an electric upright that I use for a few songs, but those are slow, simple basslines (Desperado, Norah Jones, etc), and I can pull that off. For general basslines, the fretless doesn't provide the effortlessness for me while singing.
Anyone else singing and playing fretless at the same time?
