Fretless and fretted different scale lengths

[funkinbottom]

Should I switch to 34" scale fretted to have the same muscle memory for both?

Personally, I would go the opposite direction and look for a short scale fretless.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

I spent a while going between a 35” Modulus Q6, David King 34” fretless 5, and my Starfire. As long as I was practicing on the fretless regularly, it was fine. Sadly, I haven’t had a gig where a fretless fits in a long time. I need to get that happening again.

 

[micguy]

Just like we can get used to stagnant salaries and poverty inducing price hikes and increasing madness on the freeways.

I fretless isn't more fun than horrible traffic or years in a dead end job, you're doing it wrong. ;-)

 

[micguy]

Sadly, I haven’t had a gig where a fretless fits in a long time. I need to get that happening again.

I do church gigs - short sets of music. It's rare that fretless works for a whole set (there isn't time to switch instruments), but during lockdown, we were doing virtual services, where tunes were recorded one at at time, and in that scenario, fretless worked on a fair number of times, so it got used a bunch.

So, if I were to start hoping for a situation where I could use fretless more, I'd be pulling for another pandemic. Hoping you find a better reason to go fretless.

 

[Bob_Ross]

I play several different scales.
Its never been a problem for me.

^^^This

I own two fretless basses: one is 34" scale length, the other 35".
I also own six fretted basses, four of which are 34" and two of which are 35".
I switch back and forth regularly and never notice any difference in technique that can be attributed to scale length.

 

[logdrum]

I fretless isn't more fun than horrible traffic or years in a dead end job, you're doing it wrong. ;-)

I know that your way is the right way but I don't care

 

[brianrost]

I've been playing my fretted G&L Fallout 30" scale bass with my band, and of course the Ray is 34". Should I switch to 34" scale fretted to have the same muscle memory for both? I have a decent ear for fretless, so maybe just rely on my ear?

I play 30”, 34” and 35” inch bass guitars and two uprights that are somewhere near 41” but not identical to each other. I go between these, sometimes on the same gig, and it’s not a problem.