Fretless

[AltGrendel]

You're right of course, but I have a Rickenbacker for that. I'm old school and enjoy playing with recordings. In discovering the fretless, I find (for me) that it shines for simple things like CCR's "Green River" or a country ballad. That is, instead of impressing myself or others that i'm playing a more challenging instrument, i like that I'm able to use my fretless to always play in tune with the other instruments on the recording, whether it's Lovin' Spoonful or Vivaldi, because of its microtonal ability. With all due respect to great, gymnastic fretless players like Jaco, Pino, Manring and Tony Franklin, my point is that the fretless can also serve beautifully for simple, warm bass lines, not just as a virtuoso instrument.

That's pretty much how I feel about it too. I'm a huge CS fan, so a Ric would indeed be the right tool for the job. I only play Yes on fretless as a training tool for intonation and ear, not in a band context. It's actually quite fun.