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Full disclosure - I'm a "body and neck wood affects tone" believer. I prefer Empress because it reliably gets me a bass that weighs around 7.5 lbs and sounds great. I have had a few that were at or under 7 lbs that sounded less resonant, a little muffled so I stay at or above 7.4 lbs when possible. The biggest problem under 7.4 lbs is the neck dive becomes obvious.
To my ears, Empress sounds like a blend of ash and alder and I like both of those woods. It has more snap and a little mid scoop compared to alder, but it's not as bright as ash, even light swamp ash.
I agree about the weight of non-empress G&L, but it's not just them. MusicMan, Fender, Lakland - a whole bunch of companies struggle to bring basses in under 9 lbs.
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Just joined the G&L club. Hope to have it in my possession by early next week!
All this talk of JBs lately is giving me GAS...
Me too. I was quoting out an Allparts jazz bass bass build with roasted neck and body, but I've always wanted a matching headstock.
I had been hunting a fretless bass for 35 years. Tried all of em. I wanted to have a 5 fretless in my arsenal that did for me what my Main bass did. Make me want to play it. I had a ton of nice fretless basses. Some factory, some converted. Because I'd have a great fretted bass, want it fretless, and tried it. Nothing checked all my particular, admittedly personal, boxes.
I'd also, in all those years, never owned a G&L. I tried very few, and none of the G&Ls I tried called to me. Nice basses, but not for me. I played maybe two in 30+ years. I should've kept that ASAT. But I did not.
Then, in a completely unique and random set of circumstances, I ended up with my G&L M2500 fretless. A one off, one of a kind custom, I believe.
But all that aside, this bass is one helluvan instrument. Build quality is very high. Materials used, too. Fit and finish is outstanding. Pickups and electronics are totally silent, and tonally it really impresses me every time I plug it in. Or, play it acoustically.
I don't know all the ins and outside of G&Ls models. I never once researched them as a viable option. I know the models, and how each seems to work after reading both here and everywhere. But I have no frame of experienced reference. I know the M series is not the L series, I know why and all the tech reasons, but having never heard em? I can't say a thing. What I can say is after playin scores of fretless basses, my search has stopped here. Powerful, versatile, and it makes me wanna play it. Constantly.
A caveat is I am not after the traditional type fretless tone. I am from a school of Franklin, Palladino or Norwood Fisher. I play heavier styles of music, and prefer uncoated boards and organic sounds. I get all that with this bass. It absolutely does "sing", as well, tho. As has been mentioned, lots of that has to do with technique. And setup. This bass is very sensitive to how one plays it as well. And tho you can tell the difference between my uncoated board and a Pedulla, for example, or Jaco's BoD, I absolutely can get those tones, except my bass doesn't have the coated board sound. A bit of reverb fixes that. My bass has great sustain, no dead spots, and it is a high quality ebony board. I use steel rounds. This board resists fine marks better than my previous 1990 Streamer Stage l fretless 5, with it's old growth ebony board. Coincidentally I traded that Warwick for my M Series. It's that good. Better, actually. By a wide margin.
This G&L lives up to everyone's positive words here on this thread. They are a ridiculous value. I'd suggest trying one. I had resigned myself to having to have a fretless built, too. But not now.
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So, Dave, I hear you got a new bass. How do you like it?
Just kidding. But, a-hem, I'm told that without posted pictures, it doesn't really exist...
Just kidding. But, a-hem, I'm told that without posted pictures, it doesn't really exist...
Who, me? It ain a new bass. I've had it a year, or close to. Without a thot of trading it for another, which had been my habit, for certain. One thing to note, my G&L has 21 frets. My Main Jazz also has 21 frets. Both 34" scale. Part of the reason this bass works so well for me is that switching between them is effortless. No thot. Fretless is a whole lot about muscle memory. Those identical stats really help. And, the guy who got my Warwick also benefitted, as his main is a 24 fret, 34" scale bass. Something that should have occurred to me far earlier than it did.
But ya asked fer a pic. Well, the bass is in my Avatar. But? Here's one anyhow.
I'm not much of a picture guy. So it's the only one I have. But it works. And so does that M Series.
But ya asked fer a pic. Well, the bass is in my Avatar. But? Here's one anyhow.
I'm not much of a picture guy. So it's the only one I have. But it works. And so does that M Series.
Yeah I haven't had a chance to try a G&L fretless yet so I am just going off sound clips. I do love my M2500 but not sold on the G&L fretless sound, but I guess it would be better with a nut adjustment maybe? Until I try one I won't really know.
Looks like there is a fretless JB5 available locally but not sure about being able to try it due to COVID. I'm waiting to hear from the seller.
I have a fretless L2000. I don't have clips but it most definitely has mwha.
I agree that a lot of this is technique, EQ and pedals. The bass itself is really a distant fourth in the equation, in my opinion.
It takes some work to get the classic Jaco mwha with an L though. If you want that, you are probably better off with a fretless Fender J or something like that.
On the flip side, the L will give you so many more sounds then the Fender J...it really depends on what you want.
I have a fretless Fender J and a fretless L...95% of the time, I'm on the L.
I agree that a lot of this is technique, EQ and pedals. The bass itself is really a distant fourth in the equation, in my opinion.
It takes some work to get the classic Jaco mwha with an L though. If you want that, you are probably better off with a fretless Fender J or something like that.
On the flip side, the L will give you so many more sounds then the Fender J...it really depends on what you want.
I have a fretless Fender J and a fretless L...95% of the time, I'm on the L.
You bring up a very good point for a comfortable fretless. I've converted quite a few fretted basses to fretless. Nut height is huge!!! It was one thing my few first efforts taught me. Gotta modify the nut. I had the Warwick partially because its nut was adjustable.
The nut on my G&L is darn close. The D is a bit high, but not enuff for me to fool with it. But there's another feature that I have not read about anywhere. I don't know if it is standard, or an accident. But, it's there.
My nut is not mounted perfectly straight across the board. It is "compensated". The G slot is closer to the bridge than the E slot. It is subtle, but definitely there. I would assume this makes the G intonate better, or, at least, change the range of where the G saddle is located when properly intonated. It's fretless. Perfect intonation is up to the player, and perfect does NOT exist. Ha! But, I think this is a very cool idea, and I'd like to think it was well thot out, not a product of bad QC. Either way, it works.
A lot of it is technique, but a lot is in how the bass is setup too. Of course that is just my opinion, but I have been playing fretless on and off for 20 years. I had 3 years where I pretty much only played fretless so I like to think I know at least a little about it. For myself the action has to be able to get low enough to get the string vibrating against the board to get the sound I want. That is mostly due to the nut, but also due to the bridge too. I don't think pickup config is as important as long as there one near the bridge I can get the sound I want (combined with roundwounds).
Really I would love to hear more fretless G&L sound clips if anyone has them
And thanks to sharing your experience
I can't wait to get it for sure! Looks like I should have it on Tuesday.
No, I actually just bought it from a guy on Reverb. It has all of the custom order paperwork with it. It's a 2017 with the Old School Tobacco Sunburst finish, has a quartersawn maple neck with Rosewood board and no dots.
I was actually looking for a Fender Jazz bass with blocks and binding when this one popped up. I made an offer on it that I didn't really expect the seller to accept, but he did. I've never owned a G&L, but have played one before.
The UPS tracker originally said it would be here on Tuesday, but now it says Wednesday. Need to find some patience!
Noodled around a bit in Photoshop. Behold the G&L L-2000 Deluxe 24 Fret
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Oh My - Overpricing and false advertising hits a new high (low?)- Latest: WI Short Scaler
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