Fretless Rock Bassist - anyone?

[heath_the_great]

check out some joe satriani/steve vai albums, most of the various bassists use fretless's...stu used one on the for the love of god recording, phillip bynoe used one on the first g3, stu uses one on the satch dvd...but theres generally 1 or 2 (minimum) songs with fretless on each of their albums

 

[LajoieT]

His fretless P-bass though Ampeg tone slays me, and I'm generally not a fan of "The Ampeg Sound". Odd...

It's all in the fingers!!!!

 

[john turner]

I hear he's all right, but nothing on Jaco. 'Cos, you know, Jaco only needed four strings, this guy needs at least 20 on each bass.... j/k Mr Turner.

heh.

 

[Matt Till]

I also believe Jason Newsted when he was in Metallica played some tracks of fretless on the black album....correct me if I am wrong folks!!!

Ok.


He played fretless on load.

I don't think he played fretless on the black album.

 

[peteroberts]

Dave Gilmour played a fretless in "Hey You" (The Wall)

really? David Gilmour played bass??

 

[johnvice]

Bill Wyman / The Rolling Stones
In 1961 (when Jaco was 10) Bill started playing a defretted bass and played it on every Stones album until 1975.

Rick Danko / The Band

Boz Burrel / Bad Company / King Crimson

Kenny Passarelli / Elton John / Barnstrom (with Joe Walsh)
he turned with EJ and played on the "Rock of the Westies" LP

Les Claypool / Primus
Strange music / awesome bass

Bernard Odum James Brown band
Okay more funk than rock. He played on JB's LP "I Got The Feelin'"

Rand Forbes / The United States of America

John Giblin
Okay, he's not known for being in a band but you gotta here is fretless mastery on the album "Never for Ever" by Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel's self titled third album 'Peter Gabriel"

 

[jerry]

You can also hear Tony Franklin's playing on a few of guitarist Gary Hoey's albums. Tony also had a video out about fretless bass that you might find on E-bay or Amazon.com used.

I'm also looking foward to my copy of JT's C.D.

 

[Matt Till]

really? David Gilmour played bass??

I think she meant Roger Waters... but I'm pretty sure he didn't play that. The album credits another bassist, but doesn't say what he plays on. And during the Roger Waters live video of the Wall, you hear the solo, but it doesn't show anyone playing it. You know if Waters played that, he'd want closeup shots of him playing it.

 

[john turner]

actually, gilmour did play bass on a few songs - money for one, iirc. i'm not sure if he played on hey you, though.

 

[jerry]

Roger Waters was ghosted a lot, on the albums after about '73!

 

[josh_m]

Nathan East played fretless a bit with Clapton didn't he?

 

[Blademaster Dez]

Sean Malone w/ Gordian Knot

+1

I have the Cynic album where Sean Malone not only plays a Kubicki fretless, but also Chapman Stick. I never thought fretless and stick could be used in metal so effectively. Cynic's "Focus" album is worth checking out- it has great songwriting and interesting lyrical themes. The only thing IMO that kills it is Paul Masvidal's cookie monster/vomity vocals; In a brutal death context it would be great, but this is more death/prog where cookie monster bellowing doesn't quite fit.

Still, the musical performances from Malone and co. are great. Even if metal isn't your thing, it's still interesting to hear how Sean Malone utilizes fretless and stick into it.

 

[Wil Davis]

Pino Paladino

 

[Steph Dawe]

I think she meant Roger Waters... but I'm pretty sure he didn't play that.

actually, gilmour did play bass on a few songs - money for one, iirc. i'm not sure if he played on hey you, though.

Nup, he definitely played on Hey You.

 

[john turner]

cool. like i said, i wasn't sure, but i knew that gilmour played bass on some of the stuff.

 

[Steph Dawe]

cool. like i said, i wasn't sure, but i knew that gilmour played bass on some of the stuff.

That's ok. Any opportunity to correct you...

 

[john turner]

That's ok. Any opportunity to correct you...

heh heh. -wags finger-.

 

[James Hart]

heh heh. -wags finger-.

That'll be enough finger wagging now Turner... don't make me have to edit your posts


and yeah, I'd always heard Hey you was Gilmore too. Good call Steph

 

[Lyle Caldwell]

Waters did the bass on Money. Gilmour did all of the fretless bass work up through The Final Cut, and a lot of other bass work with Floyd, but Waters did Money and a lot of other stuff. Just not fretless work.

Right now I'm listening to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, and trying to cop the (upright) fretless riffs on my fretted bass. Fun to fake.

 

[savethegibbons]

Early Opeth too (another progressive style death metal band). Their old bassist played fretless on both Orchid and Morningrise.