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Fretless in rock?
- Thread starter Joesoef
- Start date
Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam. Pick up the album Ten.
He uses a 12 string on Jeremy, and a fretless Mike Lull on pretty much everything else.
He uses a 12 string on Jeremy, and a fretless Mike Lull on pretty much everything else.
Sting used to play a fretless P in the early Police days.
And Boz Burrell mainly played a fretless with Bad Company.
And Boz Burrell mainly played a fretless with Bad Company.
Tony Franklin. Boz Burrell of Bad Company. Pino Palladino. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. Norwood Fisher of Fishbone. John Myung of Dream Theater. Lots of guys, includin myself, have used fretlesses for Rock and Heavy styles of playin. Little bit of distortion and the tone over the top!
in Temple of the Dog he went fretless in almost every song to. I gotta say his tone is sweet in Ten and TotD, really mellow, but present. makes me GAS for a fretless everytime I hear him
I have a gear list of Jeff Ament's in an old issue of BP Magazine. Mike Lull fretless four, Zon fretless four and a fretless Wal 5! And some other fretted basses. This just after their second record, so don't know what he used it on, but a fretless Wal 5, let alone the others, must've sounded pretty sweet!
Colin Edwin of Porcupine Tree used a fretless Wal for a while. He seems to have switched to fretted basses lately, but I hear he still plays the Wal on tour for certain songs.
On Edit: Jeremy Plato of Cross Canadian Ragweed plays a fretless Dean Edge 6. It could be argued that they are more country than rock, but hey...
On Edit: Jeremy Plato of Cross Canadian Ragweed plays a fretless Dean Edge 6. It could be argued that they are more country than rock, but hey...
FWIW, I use a fretless in a classic rock band.
It works great.
If you're thinking of going that direction, I'd fully encourage it.
Makes me wonder why more rock bassists don't use one.
Oh yeah, Geddy Lee uses a Jaco fretless jazz on the tune Malignant Narcissism. I have a sneaking suspicion that we haven't heard the last of that bass and that it will show up on future Rush recordings.
It works great.
If you're thinking of going that direction, I'd fully encourage it.
Makes me wonder why more rock bassists don't use one.
Oh yeah, Geddy Lee uses a Jaco fretless jazz on the tune Malignant Narcissism. I have a sneaking suspicion that we haven't heard the last of that bass and that it will show up on future Rush recordings.
Stanley Sheldon played a fretless Fender Precision in Peter Frampton's band and it's all over the "Frampton Comes Alive" album.
http://www.youtube.com/v/t8HTWZgd_UM?fs=1&hl=en_US
http://www.youtube.com/v/zLgeTtYwQ7o?fs=1&hl=en_US
http://www.youtube.com/v/t8HTWZgd_UM?fs=1&hl=en_US
http://www.youtube.com/v/zLgeTtYwQ7o?fs=1&hl=en_US
Another thought here is that a lot of rock tunes featuring fretless are played in such a way that it's not always apparent that the bass is a fretless one. You can make a fretless sound quite like a fretted bass so that the listener may never really know what's being used.
If a lot the hallmark fretless techniques like slides and vibrato aren't being used, you might not hear any difference from a fretted bass.
If a lot the hallmark fretless techniques like slides and vibrato aren't being used, you might not hear any difference from a fretted bass.
I am pretty sure , he never used a zon fretless (ever) or a mike lull fretless (ever) . His Fretless bass includes a Wal MK-II and initially a Washburn AB20 Fretless
Geddy Lee plays a fretless Jaco Pastorius signature bass. Not sure what tracks it's featured on, however.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
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