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Looking for a cheap fretless.

#22
bassbenj said:
There is a lot of Squire love here, but I have to agree with the Rondo. My lined fretless SX jazz bass purchased some years ago for $99 is STILL one of my favorite basses. (Now they are slightly over $100) Solid alder body with a nice strong mellow tone to love. I happen to own a Squier P/J 5er and it's terrific in so many ways, but I must admit (even though it is a very minor effect) that I really don't much like the feel of the Agathis bodies that Squier use. Alder just seems nicer to me (and mahogany is my favorite but usually takes much more money to get one of those)

Squier is not a bad deal, mind you but when you aren't sure if something is for you (like say, fretless) then a cheap SX bass to live with for a while can give you a relatively inexpensive way to see if that is for you.
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I recommended the Squire fretless jazz, but I do see your wisdom in recommending the SX fretless Jazz. I had a short scale version of it a few years ago and still wish I had it. The only mods I made were putting a Fender bridge and string tree on it. Really good bass.
 
#23
The thing with Rondomusic.com is to keep checking every day. Models are shipped from China rather randomly. I was looking at the Brice HXB-405 Fretless (5-string) and Douglas WVEB-833 (Short-scale Violin Bass) for weeks until the Douglas WOB-826 (6-string) showed up. Which I bought. They might not have a specific fretless model right now, but might later. Of course, that's depends on how quickly you want a fretless bass. By the way, I didn't go with the SX-models because I wanted more "frets." 24 to be exact, which turned out extremely useful for how I play.

Also consider getting flatwound strings for a jazz-warm sound. Might as well try them on your current fretted bass just to hear the difference, unless you have already. Or just do that ol' tone monster trick and add a foam mute next to the bridge to deaden the strings.
 
#25
Pocket4 said:
If you happen to have & like a Fender/Squier body, I would recommend just picking up the Mighty Mite ebanol fretless neck.
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I've looked at these necks for a possible purchase for a Precision and they look good to me. I personally don't like fret lines as I find them distracting. I got side-tracked with buying a Rogue fretless off eBay for about $70 with ebonol fingerboard that feels very nice, although I'm upgrading the pickups to Seymour-Duncan SPB-2 and may not use the J pickup at all. The stock pickups on the Rogue can be eq'd to work fairly well. I think the ebonol is key to a nice fretless feel. I haven't found anything as close to ebony as ebonol. Rosewood and other types of wood used for fretless just don't seem to have the right feel to me, especially compared to an upright bass.

Lloyd Howard
 

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