Fretless woes

[deathbloomslife]

Les still plays fretless regularly. He put the Rainbow Bass down for a little bit during the Brown Album and Antipop because he was being pigeoned holed for all of his tapping and the like. It has since been brought out during most, if not all, of his side projects. He also uses his 4 string piccolo fretless also, though somewhat less often, but it's still in regular rotation. I haven't known him to play his jazz since the Brown Album era.

I stand corrected.

-ryan-

 

[unatratnag]

U can get shadows pretty quick on a fretless with roundwounds and there is nothing abnormal about it. A little wear is nothing to be concerned about as long as u don't have hard grooves or it affects your sound; given proper technique and treating of the fingerboard your fretless can last a long time.

There's plenty of people that slap on a fretless, myself included when I see the application, and I don't understand all this hate for fretless slapping (particularly violence??) or maybe it's the internet not conveying tone well. Well anyways, on top of Claypool check out the likes of Michael Manring and Yves Carbonne. Fantastic bass players and they both can do some amazing things with a fretless (including slapping) and are very innovative. Cheers!

EDIT: I think manring has a dvd out there with techniques on slapping with a fretless... haven't seen it though *shrug*

 

[plexibass]

i just got my 1971 dan armstrong plexi fretless rebuilt and i have 1 thing to say to all of you fretless players out there........YOU GUYS ARE GODS TO ME. that is one hard instrument to get used to. i will post pix soon. i love the bass but just takes some getting used to.

 

[RBrownBass]

I don't understand the lack of understanding of why folks use rounds on a fretless. That's where a good portion of the traditional Jaco/Manring-esque (yes, it's been long enough to call it traditional) mwah comes from. BTW, Pedullas and some other basses come with a coating which gives the instrument even more mwah and adds protection. I don't care for the faux-upright tone flats tend to give.

As for the slapping, I don't do much of it (and none on fretless), and I have seen fingerboards that show wear from it, but the instruments exist to be played the way the owners see fit. And luthiers/repairmen exist to keep them in playable shape. Fingerboards, like the tires on your car, are replaceable.

BTW, that's not meant to excuse the teenage and 20something slappers who go into music stores and turn new fretless boards into not-so-new ones.

 

[Bardolph]

Personally I'd be a little irritated if music stores only had fretless basses strung with flats. I'm a harcore roundwound guy and if I can't hear what a bass sounds like with rounds I'm not going to buy it. Also, what's with the giant egos some of you have when it comes to hearing kids that like to play their favorite bass lines or do some slapping although they may not be very good? Plugging in a bass in a store and being a cocky prick about it is one thing, but somebody who might be new to bass and thinks slapping is really cool shouldn't deserve to have snobby comments said about him behind his back. If you truly feel the need to say anything, tell him hey, you really shouldn't play like that on a fretless board.

 

[dgce]

Personally I'd be a little irritated if music stores only had fretless basses strung with flats. I'm a harcore roundwound guy and if I can't hear what a bass sounds like with rounds I'm not going to buy it. Also, what's with the giant egos some of you have when it comes to hearing kids that like to play their favorite bass lines or do some slapping although they may not be very good? Plugging in a bass in a store and being a cocky prick about it is one thing, but somebody who might be new to bass and thinks slapping is really cool shouldn't deserve to have snobby comments said about him behind his back. If you truly feel the need to say anything, tell him hey, you really shouldn't play like that on a fretless board.

good points all around, bro.

r

 

[Bass2x]

I tried both Thomastic Flats and another brand of more traditional flats, and there wasn't any mwaah at all; none.

That may be a setup issue. I've had a couple fretlesses (fretli?) with flats and plenty of mwah. My current J has TI flats, beautiful strings IMHO.

 

[Bassmanbob]

So anyway, I'm at a music store in San Mateo, and They happen to have pretty decent Yamaha 5-string fretess. The first thing I notice? It's strung with round wounds... I try it anyway, and it does sound good... but... the mwah just gets eaten up by the round wound twang..

I take a look at the neck... and you can see where idiots have played slap bass on the lower strings... the winding marks are clear... I'm like ***?? that's freaking lame!!

I look around... out of like 30 basses,t ehy had about 4 fretless basses. ALL of them, including a $1,500 one of a brand I didn't recognize were string with round wounds...

If that is your sound, great, but it seems kinda dumb for a music store to risk pretty significant damage to a neck by sticking the rounds on...

:|

Do you really think that the store put those strings on the basses? Most stores I've been in don't even take the time to set up the basses. They certainly aren't going to spend the time and money to put new strings on them. Most fretless basses I've seen from the factory/ shop are strung with round wounds. Roscoe, F Bass, Fodera, Pedula, MTD, Elricks all come from the builder with round wounds. I'm sure lots of others do too.

Slapping on a fretless bass is not a sin.

"The mwah just gets eaten up by the round wound twang" Sorry. It's the other way around. Round wounds provide more mwah than flats.

If you're so worried about the finger board being eaten up by your strings, I have one word for you... Diamondwood. It's crazy hard.

Hey. If what I typed sounds like I'm yelling at you, I'm not. But fretless does not necessarily mean flat wound strings.

If you like the fretless sound, go for it, whether you go for round or flat wounds. I've had mine for about 9 months and it's been my main bass since I got it. Peace.