I voted Yes. It's not really necessary as such but since getting mine recently I wouldn't be without one. ...
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Is a fretless necessary? Poll
- Thread starter Sufenta
- Start date
I owned only a fretless for about 5 years and never really missed the frets but then my guitarist really had a bee in his bonnet about a more aggressive sound so I bought a fretted. For my technique I would say that I can approximate a fretted with a fretless better than the other way around. If I had to pick one it would definitely be fretless.
JAUQO III-X
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I don't think it's all that hard to deal with even without fret lines (I have three right now--trying to sell the 5-string Brice, but no one's interested, apparently) and none of them have lines.
Although we picture the rainbow as a belt consisting of seven stripes of certain colors, it is formed by infinitive amounts of smoothly blending tones, instead of hard and fast changes between just seven stripes. So is our aural spectrum. With a fretless, you just experience it that way. The choice is up to you.
I have 2 Fender Fretless basses and love playing them. Haven't gigged a fretless though. Hopefully soon when I learn a few songs that require it....
I'm just about to buy a fretless! Once I sell a couple things, I plan on buying a Squier Vintage Modified Fretless. This will be my first jump into fretless. I really liked the VM when I played it at GC, and I'm wanting to develop my ear.
I do find that continuous pitch instruments seem to be more expressive that discrete pitch instruments.
but no, they are far from necessary.
but no, they are far from necessary.
I think someone already said it but if your going to be a bass player you need a bass .. unless you can sing low enough .. theres an idea .. another Poll ?
I've played tuba (during my school years when I coudln't afford to buy an instrument.. really underated instrument but I woudln't take it to a hard rock audition)
I've played double bass (until I stupidly sold it pizz and arco)
and I now have both fretted and fretless electric (one each)
I never found fretless to be less agressive .. I played mine for almost every song in a hard rock band in my 20's .. the growl was great for the nasty heavy sound where the P bass special I had at the time just wasn't as mean sounding .. and my band mates agreed
I believe that you can pigeon hole fretless if you want but don't feel slapping on your fretless is all wrong if you like the sound (doesn't michael mannring play fretless).. my bass has a very hard ebony board that has almost no marks at all on it after over 20 years and I can get a nice crack when popping and a nice ring when slapping .. where fretless has come along way is in the fact that there are alot of different strings that can take your fretless from the dark thud to quite a bright ringing tone, this is also dependent on your playing style
when I only had a double bass and a fretless I had my fretless setup with round wound strings and people were often suprised that it was fretless
I love the decay on a fretless its almost like an after taste hahahah fretted bass just gets quieter as the sound decays .. I think fretless changes in timbre ? I think thats the word I was looking for
good luck with the fretless
I've played tuba (during my school years when I coudln't afford to buy an instrument.. really underated instrument but I woudln't take it to a hard rock audition)
I've played double bass (until I stupidly sold it pizz and arco)
and I now have both fretted and fretless electric (one each)
I never found fretless to be less agressive .. I played mine for almost every song in a hard rock band in my 20's .. the growl was great for the nasty heavy sound where the P bass special I had at the time just wasn't as mean sounding .. and my band mates agreed
I believe that you can pigeon hole fretless if you want but don't feel slapping on your fretless is all wrong if you like the sound (doesn't michael mannring play fretless).. my bass has a very hard ebony board that has almost no marks at all on it after over 20 years and I can get a nice crack when popping and a nice ring when slapping .. where fretless has come along way is in the fact that there are alot of different strings that can take your fretless from the dark thud to quite a bright ringing tone, this is also dependent on your playing style
when I only had a double bass and a fretless I had my fretless setup with round wound strings and people were often suprised that it was fretless
I love the decay on a fretless its almost like an after taste hahahah fretted bass just gets quieter as the sound decays .. I think fretless changes in timbre ? I think thats the word I was looking for
good luck with the fretless
I own a fretless but I don't think it is necessary. I think that just about any type of music that calls for electric bass can be served by the most common 4 string fretted bass.
