OMG Fretless Are Awesome

[Kaden Daniels]

I agree Im new to fretless but the Squire seems to have a ton of that Mwahh peopls speak of I love it

 

[static0verdrive]

You can adjust the amount of "mwah" via the truss rod, FYI. Less relief / more flat = more mwah, and more relief = less mwah. Handy if you want to play your fretless where a band leader or song selection isn't as well suited to fretless (with proper technique it can be very hard to tell if it's a fretless or not!) and the fretlines fool many a person into thinking it's fretted lol

 

[rolandm]

Well, it's a bit more than just the setup of the trussrod, to be honest. It's the approach of your fingering (pads vs. a hard stop on the tips of your fingers,) and plucking (towards the neck vs. towards the bridge).

 

[Gard]

Can I play, huh, huh, can I, can I????



Das Stormtrooper:

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Words cannot describe how much a "part of me" this bass is....

 

[Kaden Daniels]

interesting I neck has very little relief right now as well as a very low action that must contribute to the mwah then

 

[rolandm]

Generally speaking, "mwah" is the string getting a very small amount of its vibration hitting the fingerboard very close to where your finger has stopped the string. When you stop it with the tip of your finger, you get a clearer and more precise tone. When you stop it with the pad, though, it's got less of a hard stop and that helps to produce the mwah. This is also why plucking the string closer to the neck helps, because plucking there creates more energy in the belly of the string, and allows more movement at the stop.

Turning your neck pickup down will also accentuate the sound, as it is typically a midrange frequency you hear it in mostly. Roundwounds will help increase this because they are more piano-like in the frequencies they will reproduce vs. the bulk of flatwounds. That's not to say flats or tapes cannot produce a nice mwah. Just that rounds do it a bit easier, all things being equal.

 

[Kaden Daniels]

Well Just my luck I use rounds and play have have always played right by the neck

 

[lele_sakko]

Here is my squier after painting in sonic blue!

 

[Doner Designs]

My first fretless had a piezo bridge which really highlighted how bad I play. Now I have a fretless P strung BEAD and it's much easier to play without sucking so badly (because intonation errors are harder to hear).

 

[bassbenj]

Well, it's a bit more than just the setup of the trussrod, to be honest. It's the approach of your fingering (pads vs. a hard stop on the tips of your fingers,) and plucking (towards the neck vs. towards the bridge).

This is true, but fingerboard relief is important too. After playing my G&L L2500 fretless for years I decided just for grins to play with the mwah level (I decided it needed more) After breaking the truss rod nut loose without snapping the rod (whew...Thank you WD 40) I proceeded to give it much more Mwah. I was totally surprised to find that I really hated how it sounded! Bleah! So then I cranked it back some. In the end I had just a little more mwah than it had before and now sounded absolutely perfect.

So it's really about tweaking in a host of things to give you the exact tone you are looking for. And when you get that tone it's GREAT!

 

[SteveC]

Can I play, huh, huh, can I, can I????



Das Stormtrooper:

Link Removed

Words cannot describe how much a "part of me" this bass is....

I don't have a cool name for mine (on the right) but here it is...