Fretless realizations...

[Joe Nerve]

Nothing to see here. Just feel like writing . I'm sure you all already know what I'm about to say.

I swapped the flats on my acoustic fretless for nylon strings, and now ERUREKA! Its fun to play.

When I first started noodling I was astounded.

There was a time about 15 years ago that I took a fretless to a cover gig, and played the entire gig, but when I started playing this bass -I SUCKED- ! My tuning was way off. I wondered if 15 years ago I just didn't realize how much I sucked, and played the gig, well..., sucking.

So I played more.

And more.

And I did it for a few hours.

And now I don't suck any more.

My takeaway. Fretless is NOT like riding a bike. At least not for me. I can't NOT do it for 15 years and hop right back on. It took time to tune myself up.

I was kind of shocked at the difference even after just those few hours playing. My fretless has little dots on the fretboard where the frets would be, and I had to pay close attention and listen real closely. It didn't take long however for muscle memory to start doing its thing, and now 2 days later I'm playing in tune with hardly looking at the neck at all.

Just felt like sharing .

 

[kesslari]

You go, Joe!

 

[SteveCS]

Welcome back to the smooth side, Joe

 

[GrapeBass]

Nylons on a fretless AGB are the bombe, perfect balance of attack and tone, IMO closer to upright, just not as close as an EUB (which gets even closer).

 

[Joe Nerve]

Nylons on a fretless AGB are the bombe.

I have things to do today - and I can't put this bass down . What a waste that bass has been with flats on it!!!! It had no mwah... not much more than just thudding, and it was difficult to play. Now this thing sounds AMAZING. I'm getting psyched to break out my looper and start playing around.

As I was writing that I realized ONE good thing came out of that fretless. When The Nerve was recording our final album I gave a demo to our producer at that time (Ron Thal - AKA Bumblefoot). We were going to collaborate and work it into a song, but he wanted to leave it exactly as I recorded the demo, and just work around it. I fought him on it, he won, and this is what came out of it... everything but the bass and lead vocals are Ron, not me.

I didn't re-do any of the vocals or fretless. They came off a crappy recording on a desktop multitrack, Korg D16 .

 

[misterCRUSH]

i don't have much to offer as far as switching. I started on fretless and have only ever played fretless since. I do have a good way to work on playing without looking at the neck. when I started I played scales for hours while watching tv. I wanted to see what was happening, so I looked at the neck less and less. I actually still do this, but now it is much easier to just watch the tv while playing since the muscle memory is sound.

 

[luciens]

I started on and played the fretted bass for many years, but started switching about 15-20 years ago when I bought an L2K FL. I've played FL ever since.

I'm also returning after a layoff of a couple years. As much as I'd like to say that it's slowly returning, I suck as a general rule so there isn't really any skill, musicianship etc. to return to. But I still keep playing anyway.

As for flats vs rounds on the FL, my jazz basses are still wearing the Fender 9050m flats they came with. And I'm not wholly disappointed with their sound. Rounds do give better sustain, but the flats do take away the muaah and give me more of a fretted tone. Which is my preference as I'm not really a muaah fanatic.

As for intonating with little to no visual cues, as I said I suck, so I still keep a good eye on the fingerboard. Sometimes I get away with not looking but not very often....

L

 

[Papageno]

I swapped the flats on my acoustic fretless for nylon strings, and now ERUREKA! Its fun to play.

Do you mean tapewound strings?

 

[roccobass]

Nothing to see here. Just feel like writing . I'm sure you all already know what I'm about to say.

I swapped the flats on my acoustic fretless for nylon strings, and now ERUREKA! Its fun to play.

When I first started noodling I was astounded.

There was a time about 15 years ago that I took a fretless to a cover gig, and played the entire gig, but when I started playing this bass -I SUCKED- ! My tuning was way off. I wondered if 15 years ago I just didn't realize how much I sucked, and played the gig, well..., sucking.

So I played more.

And more.

And I did it for a few hours.

And now I don't suck any more.

My takeaway. Fretless is NOT like riding a bike. At least not for me. I can't NOT do it for 15 years and hop right back on. It took time to tune myself up.

I was kind of shocked at the difference even after just those few hours playing. My fretless has little dots on the fretboard where the frets would be, and I had to pay close attention and listen real closely. It didn't take long however for muscle memory to start doing its thing, and now 2 days later I'm playing in tune with hardly looking at the neck at all.

Just felt like sharing .

Hey Joe!
Where you goin’ with that fretless in yo’ hand?

 

[crobasster]

I prefer flatwounds on my fretlesses, nylonwounds didn't liked, only on acoustics .

 

[jjfret]

Do you mean tapewound strings?

@Papa I love that cool avatar

 

[GretschWretch]

That big sucking sound you hear from fifteen years ago is Joe on fretless. Seriously, almost every fretless ABG I have is loaded with nylon tapes. I tried flats, and with them the basses just sound "tubby."

 

[ElGoodo]

Hi Joe,

Yea, it was definitely not like riding a bike for me either. I did a number of years on only fretted basses and when I went back to fretless it took a little extra time to feel comfortable. Not uncommon IME.