"Cheap" fretless?

[Rock-Bassman]

Hey want some suggestions on what is the best fretless in the 100-200 range? Just want to play around with it.

 

[SpamBot]

Just buy the cheapest bass you can find and de-fret it. That'll be a lot cheaper, and it'll be adequate since you said you'll kust be dicking around with it.

 

[bassteban]

Hey want some suggestions on what is the best fretless in the 100-200 range? Just want to play around with it.

I bought a RAL P-copy from buffordbass, then sold it to snyderz. Sweet little bass, although the fingerboard needed planing. Well worth the $100 I paid for it; IMO well worth the $100 I sold it for after some fine-tuning.

Edit: On defrettting, I've done it twice, & it's not that tough, but unless you have some woodworking experience I wouldn't go that route. There are lots of cheap smoothies out there- watch the FS ads.

 

[Rock-Bassman]

Well I thought about that but I blow at woodwork. Tried to defret my guitar (ya ya It doesn't sound good but it was $20...) and I broke it!!! Like 8 of the frets dragged huge chunks out so I threw it out... wasn't fixable..

 

[Rock-Bassman]

Oh woops directed to first respomse

 

[bassteban]

Oh woops directed to first respomse

No sweat, bro- it helps to quote the post you're responding to.
But again- there are tons of cheap yet decent basses out there these days. Do a lot of research, search out lots of threads on *fretless*, *cheap fretless*, etc. SX's are very popular here.

 

[alangrus]

A Fender Jazz Bass is always a great starting point because of the midrange quality. You will play it on the bridge pickup mostly. What happens a lot is that guys buy a fretless thinking its not only cool but easy. Then come to find its not easy and sell them at a loss. So be patient and work this site, Craigslist and feeBay for an abandoned Bass. Give it a Home!

A real fretless has no frets and no residual fretlines as a crutch. With Side Dot Markers you dont need fretlines. Like this one with La Bella Deep Talking Bass nylon tape wounds:

Link Removed

 

[martyman5000]

I really wish bassists would listen to wisdom like alangrus

 

[Rock-Bassman]

Alangrus:
Wow... I fell stupid that I didn't think of that... gotta check that out!

 

[yellofury]

to each his own
I personally like the fretlines
atleast for me at this point in my playing

about the 6th time I posted this pic but hey I love this bass
SX P/J about 115 bucks

 

[bassteban]

To each his own. I prefer unlined(or at least semi-visible, like bubinga on mac ebony), but go back & forth w/PU blend. I like it passive & thumpy, I like it active & growly. I could not make the high F on my 7 sound like a fretless, so I replaced it w/a very nice 6. I guess my point is vive l'difference.

 

[shyboy]

That's what I did, bought a cheap used Yamaha BB300 for $100 and had a local luthier pull out the frets and fill them in with epoxy, probably cost me another $100.

 

[vinxbass]

Let me get this straight, your looking for a fretless bass in the $100-$200 range? Then get a SX that should do for something new, or look in the classifieds for a Squier FVM Fretless, but you may pay a little more for the Squier.

 

[DeanT]

Yep, SX is probably your best bet in that price range. There are others but they're usually made of plywood.