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I thought playing fretless was easy!

#162
Ken J said:
Playing in the dark helps with ear and finger position training. try it.
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I tried this a little while ago and learned something that is probably already obvious to most of you.
How do you find your place on the fingerboard in the first place?
Pick a string, any string. Fret a note; when it's the same pitch as the next higher string, you've found the 5th fret.
You now know where you are...

(Yes - I already understood this relationship -- using it as a position-finding technique was a new discovery.)
 
#164
ArtechnikA said:
No room for an upright -- but I did acquire an EUB a few months ago...
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I got mine a couple of years ago and began working with it extensively. Now, I find myself looking for more and more songs to play live with it! At first it was the 'Old School' country like Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. Now, I'm playing Wagon Wheel and some Clapton with it...

It's gone from 4-5 songs a night to about 40% of our show.
 
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#167
Orpheus55 said:
I live in a community where there are a great many bands, but I am the only bassist that I know who plays a fretless (MIM Jazz); the other night, a guy from another band asked to sit in for a few tunes and I graciously handed him my bass. When he saw it was fretless, he declined to play; walked off the stage even. Should I have felt guilty?
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He didn´t even try to??

I would, but that´s me. I´m willing to try out everything bass related. This is how I learn.

I have already giged out with the fretless without taking the fretted with me. In a way I forced myself to do it. And it turned out well, now I have gas for onw....BADLY!!!!
 
#168
I really love playing fretless and find it easier than playing a fretted bass because you never get that buzzing sound like when you don't quite nail the fret squarely. The problem is that it seems to hurt my fretted playing, so I keep back to fretted in order to stay comfortable with both.
 
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#174
I finally made the jump and played only my fretless at church this past weekend and it was great! Just a bit of apprehension and stress as there are between 2k and 2400 attending the two services.

Just for a point of reference - I have played both trombone and cello extensively in the past and have been working on fretless off and on for the last 1.5 years. For the past couple of months ALL of my practice has been on fretless even though I had been performing on fretted. It got to the point where playing a fretted bass felt constraining and that is why I decided to go ahead with playing the fretless. I did bring a fretted bass "just in case" but was not even tempted to switch.

There was one short (2 bar) section in the second service where I felt like I was out of tune and really had to concentrate on my intonation. We had a pretty extensive practice before the first service and nobody realized that I was on fretless until I told them. As the entire band is on IEM's, you can really hear mistakes when they happen. I had some really nice comments from the Music Minister, band leader and the sound person - apparently that bass sounds massive in the mix (Roscoe!). I was able to listen to the recording and it was pretty good!

There are still some things I still do better on fretted but I'll be working to make fretless my main voice.

Dan
 
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#175
Yeah, nobody realized I was playing a fretless too till the bassist from the other P&W team asked me if she could use my bass to do a reahearsal with choir and orchestra. She doesn´t have much experience with playing with choir and orchestra and there I go and hang her a fretless bass. The look on her face was priceless. I felt a little guilty.
 
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#176
I had another bass player ask if he could borrow mine, I had no problem lending this guy my bass, and I was going to be present as well, but he wasn't sure about the fretless thing.

Imagine if I played fretless left-handed...
 
#178
Emanuel Apascaritei said:
He didn´t even try to??

I would, but that´s me. I´m willing to try out everything bass related. This is how I learn.

I have already giged out with the fretless without taking the fretted with me. In a way I forced myself to do it. And it turned out well, now I have gas for onw....BADLY!!!!
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Well, of course you have fretless GAS Badly! No surprise to me. My main axes are a fretted/fretless pair of G&L L2500 basses. And I must say that over time the the Fretless one has become by far my favorite! But alas, a fretless really can't do it all so I have the pair and anyway that always gives me a backup bass in case of trouble.

My G&L is lined (because it was used and the previous owner bought it that way) but I prefer unlined because everybody thinks it's fretted because of the lines. I had another bass player borrow my Carvin AC50 lined fretless once. I don't know if he knew it was fretless but he did really well on it so I assume he played fretless too (His bass was a hollow body simlar to mine only fretted).
 
#180
bassbenj said:
My main axes are a fretted/fretless pair of G&L L2500 basses. And I must say that over time the the Fretless one has become by far my favorite! But alas, a fretless really can't do it all so I have the pair and anyway that always gives me a backup bass in case of trouble.
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After many years and basses, I think this is the way to go. I have a pair of Roscoe basses - fretted and fretless.
 

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