Give up fretless?

[Dirk Diggler]

Doc it's all about time and practice with fretless.
It's like the old joke about getting to Carnegie hall man, it's practice, practice, practice.
I would do the opposite and play only fretless for a while.

Learn to embrace the outness, and it's almost always way too easy to go flat, so always think up.
That's all I have, good luck.

 

[roccobass]

NO! Perish the thought on selling your fretless. It is an entirely different animal for sure, but it opened up avenues of groove for me that I didn't have before. I still have one fretted, but it rarely sees the sun anymore.

Sure the intonation may be trickier, but as previously stated. You can get removable dots from any number of sources. Not just in white, either. . Just a question. Just using the vid as reference. Do you not play with any vibrato by choice? It might help in the mwah dept. Just a thought.

Btw, thanks for providing the BEST BASS FACE I've seen for months. You meant business with that groove!

 

[DWBass]

I had a fretless briefly. Acoustically it had the mwah. Amplified......nada! I just didn't have enough interest in spending a lot of time on it so I got rid of it.

 

[Ralph Manak]

If, in fact, slow is the way to go, turn playing fretless into a meditation. (neighborhood sign from North Oakland, 2009)

 

[DrBnz]

I'm gonna have to agree with ya. I've tried to like fretless. I've had a few...yes, they are sexy to look at for some reason. But I absolutely sux at them and anything that makes me sound that bad just isn't worth having.

 

[bass12]

If You like the fretless and don't need the money you'd get from selling it then I would hold onto it for now. You never know what might change in the future. I go months and months without playing my fretless but when I do pick it up I'm always happy I still have it. Granted, mine doesn't just just like a regular electric without frets (it's semi-hollow with tapes) - but still.

Regarding the lack of "mwah": do you think that's a matter of playing style or is it more the set-up/bass?

 

[oren]

I hear ya, Doc. I just sold the last of my fretless electric basses. Of course, I mostly play upright these days, so I have plenty of opportunity to engage in inadvertent microtonalism. But somehow, I always felt like it was harder to play in tune consistently up and down the neck on a fretless electric than it is on upright. So my fretlesses mostly sat gathering dust, glaring at me reproachfully. We just downsized into a condo, so I’ve divested of a lot of stuff and am down to my upright, a P bass and a J bass (along with an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar). That should be plenty to keep me busy in my dotage!

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Senor Queso
Fretless isn’t only about mwah. Its also about laying down some fat angry bass!! If you like lines put a few on with a number 2 pencil. Invisible to the audience, there for you, cheap and reversible with spit and the end of your finger.

If it makes you happy, even now and then, keep it and be happy now and then!

I appreciate you and how you do talk bass!! Good luck!

Thanks!

 

[Dr. Cheese]

If You like the fretless and don't need the money you'd get from selling it then I would hold onto it for now. You never know what might change in the future. I go months and months without playing my fretless but when I do pick it up I'm always happy I still have it. Granted, mine doesn't just just like a regular electric without frets (it's semi-hollow with tapes) - but still.

Regarding the lack of "mwah": do you think that's a matter of playing style or is it more the set-up/bass?

The lack of mwah is from my playing style and the fact I tend to use both pickups instead of just the bridge.

 

[Prodigus Filius]

I've given up on fretless 4 times now. 1 cigarbox lined two stringer. 1 Yamaha lined. I Mikro lined and unlined. And 1 unlined Pbass style el cheapo. I suck at fretted and double suck on fretless. I really think it's fretted only from here till I'm six foot under

 

[Bunk McNulty]

A brief episode with a double bass in the teenage years demonstrated how bad my intonation was. That's why I always say fret is my friend.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I've given up on fretless 4 times now. 1 cigarbox lined two stringer. 1 Yamaha lined. I Mikro lined and unlined. And 1 unlined Pbass style el cheapo. I suck at fretted and double suck on fretless. I really think it's fretted only from here till I'm six foot under

Lined fretless is pretty easy for me. My Pedulla was perfect and I miss it. Contrary to what some might think, I did not lose my Pedulla in a fit of GAS. I was caught in an emergency and pawned it. I lost track of time and when I went to redeem it, the bass had been sold. Maybe I will pickup another lined fretless, but the temporary lines would be great because I love the tone, light weight, and comfort of my RSD.

 

[pyrat56host]

Any time I think I should give it up, I'll hear a great fretless tune/player and it all comes rushing back. It's in ME. I did stop wasting money on any big purchases, though....I have a really decent parts fretless Jazz bass that is really great...it's the oldest bass I own. Everyone loves it when I play (including my favorite audience/see pic), so I must be doing something good w/ the bass. IF you love it...hold tight...it'll find YOU.

 

[Ric Vice]

I hear ya, Doc. I just sold the last of my fretless electric basses. Of course, I mostly play upright these days, so I have plenty of opportunity to engage in inadvertent microtonalism. But somehow, I always felt like it was harder to play in tune consistently up and down the neck on a fretless electric than it is on upright. So my fretlesses mostly sat gathering dust, glaring at me reproachfully. We just downsized into a condo, so I’ve divested of a lot of stuff and am down to my upright, a P bass and a J bass (along with an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar). That should be plenty to keep me busy in my dotage!

Oren did you sell that exquisite Godin LR Baggs Acoustibass you owned? It took me a decade to source a fretless one.

 

[Cleezmo]

If you don't NEED the money from selling one or both, I'd hold on to them, or at least one of them. I have a 5-string fretless that admittedly does not get played much. But I like to look at it in the rack or hanging on the wall. And I find that about 2 or 3 times a year, I'll go through a 'fretless phase', and play it for quite a bit for a few weeks. Now, of course, the first few days of that phase always remind me that intonation is a result of practice and muscle memory, so I don't sound great in the first few practice sessions, but then it comes back and it's all good. If I HAD to sell off one bass tomorrow, the fretless would likely be the one to go given the playing time it gets, but as long as I'm not in that situation, I like having one in the arsenal just to have for those moments when I feel like 'Hey, I haven't played the fretless in a while' and cue up my fretless playlist.

 

[Ric Vice]

Lined fretless is pretty easy for me. My Pedulla was perfect and I miss it. Contrary to what some might think, I did not lose my Pedulla in a fit of GAS. I was caught in an emergency and pawned it. I lost track of time and when I went to redeem it, the bass had been sold. Maybe I will pickup another lined fretless, but the temporary lines would be great because I love the tone, light weight, and comfort of my RSD.

Here’s the thing Doc. Not being able to nail the pitches on an unlined Fretless is as much a function of fingerboard radius ( neck profile is also a factor) as it is hand position and ears. I’ve played Double Bass since I was a kid and it’s easier to intonate that instrument than it is a Fretless electric. So. I searched for one and ended up with a Lakland 55-94 lined fretless. As far as I’m aware only the Takamine T-10 has a curved radius fingerboard like an Upright does and the body of that bass isn’t designed for comfort. Just my take of course. A Fretless electric has its limitations.

 

[oren]

Oren did you sell that exquisite Godin LR Baggs Acoustibass you owned? It took me a decade to source a fretless one.

Hi, Ric - yes, just sold it this past weekend. I had it listed in the usual places for a while with no response, so I put it on consignment at Old Town Music here in Portland. They said the person who bought it said they had been looking for one for quite a while. I’m sad to see it go, but happy that it went to someone who will play and appreciate it!

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Here’s the thing Doc. Not being able to nail the pitches on an unlined Fretless is as much a function of fingerboard radius ( neck profile is also a factor) as it is hand position and ears. I’ve played Double Bass since I was a kid and it’s easier to intonate that instrument than it is a Fretless electric. So. I searched for one and ended up with a Lakland 55-94 lined fretless. As far as I’m aware only the Takamine T-10 has a curved radius fingerboard like an Upright does and the body of that bass isn’t designed for comfort. Just my take of course. A Fretless electric has its limitations.View attachment 7531564

I never thought about fingerboard radius before. That is probably why doublers like Pattitucci and Clarke don’t use fretless electrics.

 

[iqi616]

I would do the opposite and play only fretless for a while.

I generally practice songs on my fretless that would be performed/recorded on fretted. Anything to keep my fingers hitting the right places.

 

[GIBrat51]

I’m considering giving up fretless because I never play with a lot of mwah or place much emphasis on my fretless being fretless. I could just use frets and favor the bridge pickup when I want to sort of get that vibe.

My other issue is that my nicest fretless has an unmarked neck and I have good relative pitch when playing with other instruments, but I am not that close playing by myself. On my cheapest fretless, my Glarry, this is not an issue since I marked the notes with a Sharpie on the side of the neck. I can’t bring myself to mark the neck of my pretty black fretless RSD.

I am not buying another bass. I made retirement purchase already, and I know that I strongly prefer fretted bass most of the time. I will keep my RSD, but I know somebody else would get a lot mode use out of it.

This me playing my RSD yesterday.

Well...
I do try hard not to tell others what to do; especially a player who's much better than I am. You know what you want much better than I do. But, that said?
I have to agree with the suggestions re putting side dots on your fretless basses. I know that the fretless Rick 4001's had dots where each fret would be, and I imagine some other fretless basses do, too. Personally? All 4 of my fretless basses are lined (being mostly tone-deaf means I can't really play by ear), so I just use the line edges to do the same thing. And, no; I don't do a lot of m'wah-ing, either. But, I do play a lot of older Rock songs - and other stuff - that was originally performed on an upright, and you can tell just by looking at the tabs. I find that they're much easier to play on a fretless. And there's quite a few '60s Rock songs with sliding fret changes; the Kink's "Tired of Waiting for You", for example, is chock full of them. Not having to bump across a couple of frets dozens of times makes my fingers very happy. And, the song sounds better, too...
So, as I said; please yourself, by all means. Personally, though, I find my fretless basses very useful for a lot of what I play - even without a lot of m'wah...