I don't now why, but I was playing my fretted bass when I looked at it and put it down. I felt like I needed something different--that it wasn't cutting it anymore.
So, I walked into the local Guitar Center today, and as a present for my 16th birthday, my mother told me I could pick out a bass. Since I've already got my 5-string fretted, and I felt like I wanted something different, I picked up a fretless 4-string that looked so painfully plain and plugged it in.
The first thing I noticed is that it was a featherweight. I've got a chunky Ibanez and I'm used carrying an upright around, so having a little thing like this was pretty strange. The body is tiny--smaller than any bass I've ever played besides a viola-shaped Fender they had (which I also tried), and the neck is thinner than the billboard I've been used to playing on.
I started slapping it around a bit and I noticed that the board wasn't like any of the other fretlesses I've ever played. I asked a guy in the store what the deal was with the bass--he said a college kid had traded it in a while ago. They hadn't seen anybody pick it up since then and they didn't know what modifications the guy made to it, which was why it was only $200.
I tried to put it through its paces entirely and I can thoroughly say I'm in love with the bass. I'm waiting until the end of the week to go by and pick it up. The fingerboard is so smooth! I'm not sure what it is--there's a little wear on it from the former owner, but it feels like some sort of epoxy has been applied. It makes it as smooth as butter and the slapping gives it this percussive sound I haven't ever heard in a bass. It's almost as if I'm playing a drum-pad and playing the bass at the same time. It's not the dead-twang I get from some other fretlesses, or the metallic one I get from fretted ones. The closest thing I can describe it as is a muted bongo drum.
I played "Tommy the Cat" on it, my own licks I can barely play on the fretted and even some double-bass pieces--the bass almost seemed happy to play them.
It was so easy to play but my god, is it such an ugly creature. My question is, how much would it cost to get it repainted and adding some modifications to it to give it the "me" feel with some cosmetic touches? I need a good estimate on how much it would cost--if I should bother doing it at all or just enjoy Plain Jane as she is?
The only real modifications on it I want are to change the color from red to black and add some yellow stripes. I don't know if my next one is out of the question entirely or not, but I've always wanted to swap out a headstock with a scroll. I checked here before and the answer I got was "it's doable, but it'll offset the weight of the bass a bit towards the scroll."
So, I walked into the local Guitar Center today, and as a present for my 16th birthday, my mother told me I could pick out a bass. Since I've already got my 5-string fretted, and I felt like I wanted something different, I picked up a fretless 4-string that looked so painfully plain and plugged it in.
The first thing I noticed is that it was a featherweight. I've got a chunky Ibanez and I'm used carrying an upright around, so having a little thing like this was pretty strange. The body is tiny--smaller than any bass I've ever played besides a viola-shaped Fender they had (which I also tried), and the neck is thinner than the billboard I've been used to playing on.
I started slapping it around a bit and I noticed that the board wasn't like any of the other fretlesses I've ever played. I asked a guy in the store what the deal was with the bass--he said a college kid had traded it in a while ago. They hadn't seen anybody pick it up since then and they didn't know what modifications the guy made to it, which was why it was only $200.
I tried to put it through its paces entirely and I can thoroughly say I'm in love with the bass. I'm waiting until the end of the week to go by and pick it up. The fingerboard is so smooth! I'm not sure what it is--there's a little wear on it from the former owner, but it feels like some sort of epoxy has been applied. It makes it as smooth as butter and the slapping gives it this percussive sound I haven't ever heard in a bass. It's almost as if I'm playing a drum-pad and playing the bass at the same time. It's not the dead-twang I get from some other fretlesses, or the metallic one I get from fretted ones. The closest thing I can describe it as is a muted bongo drum.
I played "Tommy the Cat" on it, my own licks I can barely play on the fretted and even some double-bass pieces--the bass almost seemed happy to play them.
It was so easy to play but my god, is it such an ugly creature. My question is, how much would it cost to get it repainted and adding some modifications to it to give it the "me" feel with some cosmetic touches? I need a good estimate on how much it would cost--if I should bother doing it at all or just enjoy Plain Jane as she is?
The only real modifications on it I want are to change the color from red to black and add some yellow stripes. I don't know if my next one is out of the question entirely or not, but I've always wanted to swap out a headstock with a scroll. I checked here before and the answer I got was "it's doable, but it'll offset the weight of the bass a bit towards the scroll."
