Once you go fretless....

[pepelaici]

Ralphe Armstrong has always been a fav of mine. More people need to discover Enigmatic Ocean!

Yessss !!! With Jean-Luc Ponty...
But I've discovered him with the second Mahavishnu Orchestra.. together with Ponty also...

 

[spade2you]

I've heard a bunch of his stuff, but am extremely partial to the Enigmatic Ocean stuff. Such a meaty tone and paired extremely well with Steve Smith's drummer. Start to finish, everyone was on fire for that one.

 

[pepelaici]

I've heard a bunch of his stuff, but am extremely partial to the Enigmatic Ocean stuff. Such a meaty tone and paired extremely well with Steve Smith's drummer. Start to finish, everyone was on fire for that one.

A+ and 1+ I agree

 

[spade2you]

A+ and 1+ I agree

I guess I'm kinda surprised it's not a part of most bassists' vocabulary these days.

 

[pepelaici]

I guess I'm kinda surprised it's not a part of most bassists' vocabulary these days.

Are you talking about Ralphe ?

 

[spade2you]

Are you talking about Ralphe ?

Ralphe in general or Enigmatic Ocean. I had never heard of it until a few years back.

 

[Orpheus55]

If you like the sounds of roundwounds on your fretless, I'd suggest trying D'Addario Chromes flatwounds.I just put them on my fretless Jazz and I love them. They sound much more like roundwounds than any other flatwound I've tried, and they feel great, and won't eat up the fingerboard.

These are fantastic strings for fretless--and P-basses!

 

[Thomas Swenson]

I love fretless, and enjoy it more than my fretted basses for the most part. Most of the time I am fretless between my Warwick Corvette fretless and the upright bass. Boy, there are some nice basses you guys are displaying here. I agree that the line6man's new Warmouth build is really cool! I love that thumb rest. Is it Rosewood on the black bass?

 

[line6man]

That second Warmoth id giving me big GAS !!!!
Very nice.

I agree that the line6man's new Warmouth build is really cool! I love that thumb rest.

Thanks guys!

Is it Rosewood on the black bass?

I can't tell whether your talking to me or pepelaici...
Mine is an Alder body with a Padouk neck and a Pau Ferro board.

 

[Dubadays]

I don't know if I'd ever want to play fretless. I've been playing double bass for about a year (That's the only experience I have with fretless other than violin), and I am pretty good at it if I do say so myself, but there's still that instance where you get a little over-excited and overshoot a note you were going for. Maybe that's just me though.

 

[HogieWan]

I thought that tapewound strings were mellower than flats?

I thought so too - that's why I got them. They turned out much brighter than the chromes they replaced. I really liked the sound, so they stayed. I tried them on my variax after hearing how bright they were, but the nylon definitely mellows the tone over the piezo bridge, so they are much more mellow on piezos, but brighter on mags compared to other flats

 

[spade2you]

It must depend on the brand, I've never heard a set of flats that sounded deeper than LaBella tapewound strings.

 

[zenman]

So you defretted the board & now you're worried about the strings scratching it?

I got into frettless for a while. Great for the ear. But eventually decided that its just not my thing.

Dennis

 

[Jaco who?]

Never go back? I love my fretless jazz, but I have too much fun trying to do Gary Grainger/Marcus Miller/(insert pretensious name here) slap licks to play it all the time. Kinda' surprised no one mentioned DR sunbeams yet.

 

[zombywoof5050]

I felt the same about fretless for a good while after I first got one, but now I'm back to mostly fretted and feel more at home on it.