Finding myself playing fretless over fretted basses

Definitely more fun without the speed bumps. I'm pretty much all fretless all the time these days. (Although you might not think so just by listening to me — I don't go for that over-excessive mwah-all-the-time tone. It can be nice, but I find it doesn't really work all that well in a lot of songs.)

 

Yes. My first 6 string was fretted (I've forgotten the brand) and it was what I first figured out the 6 string on. After that, though, my next was a Gibson era Tobias 6 string lined FL (horrible bass) that was later replaced with a Carvin Bunny Brunel unlined 6 which I played as one of my main basses for several years.

The only thing I missed on the fretted was how it was easier to "play guitar" in the upper registers without having to worry about intonation.

But that was all. I never got hugely good at playing up past the 12th fret on the Bunny because I started putting the 6 string down for pain/wear-and-tear reasons for fewer strings before I got really good at it. But I was slowly losing my hesitation at going up there even then after only a few years playing full time 6string unlined FL.

I still play FL exclusively, though now age and wear and tear have relegated me to 4 string jazz basses. I might get a 5 string one day, but my days with anything higher than a G string on it are unfortunately over.

But one of the advantages of the FL is it takes a little less effort to get a good "pop" on the note, just by design of a string broadly pressed onto a piece of wood by a finger, vs a string held against a thin, hard metal witness point.

I also can't stand the clinking, clicking, crickling, crackling of a fretted bass if I can possibly avoid it. You can get rid of a lot of it by turning down the treble but somehow it's always still there. An FL significantly reduces the tinkling and ticking from the get go. You do get the occasional string slap against the board, but it's not near as bad as on the fretted.

L

 

Not really. Unless you're really into trying to get a DB sound out of an FL (which is actually pretty hard to do and I don't recommend it) or really want the muaah and fluid playing, etc., you can still play the FL just like you did your fretted bass.

In fact, probably the best way to get used to the FL is to start playing your "standards" that you already know from the fretted on the FL. And play them the same way with the same plucking style, dynamics, etc. That'll develop your "claw" (FL players all have a kind of a claw to their fretting hand) and intonation better than anything, because you already know the songs and the notes. All you have to learn is to intonate the notes.

In other words, to start with, just think of it as a bass with no frets on it and play it that way.

Later you can start playing around with the kinds of things that are FL specific, but that's entirely optional.

L