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Typical effects for fretless?

#2
Play what sounds good. I personally like chorus and sometimes flanger. Overdrive and Wah sound good.

Compression is a good tool, but don't overdo it. You can crush your signal and lose the ability to control dynamics with your hands.

Effect compatability comes down to personal taste and opinion.
 
#3
JPrinos said:
Hello all,

I was talking to someone who claimed that they would only play fretless with a flanger.

Is there a suite of processing that players tend to use with fretless basses?
i.e. compression with flange or anything of the like.
Click to expand...

Would ONLY play fretless with flanger? Never heard that before.

Personally I use the same effects whether I'm playing fretted or fretless, but yes, there are some effects that are often used with fretless basses: Reverb, chorus and octaver are the first ones that come to mind for me.
 
#5
I play fretless and I have all kinds of different effects, none are a chorus or flanger. I throwdown with filters and dirts and modulation and octaves. It's just what sounds you like. If you don't like the effects with your fretless, don't use 'em. Anybody that says you can't do something creative is usually a blowhard that doesn't completely know what he is talking about.

That said, no one's suggestion is going to be wrong, just not gospel.

IMO.
 
#6
Compressors come in handy if, like my bass, your bass tends to have a very loud mwah characteristic. Mine can get a great deal louder than a typical fundamental, so I sometimes use a compressor if I'm playing an expressive piece.

A good old Boss OC-2 is great for octave doubling. and a Boss chorus will do nicely as well... Be gentle with the settings though as turned up they'll begin to destroy the fundamental note... leaving you with a wishy-washy 1980's-like thin tone.
 
#10
I use my fretless with all of my effects, especially the most extreme ones. When trying to ape a synth I usually pick fretless over fretted bass so I can do nasty unstable-tuning noises and portamento effects.

Get an OC-2 and a Pulse Synth from Robot Factory, use them in parallel using an LS-2 and stick the lot in the loop of a good envelope filter, or before a filter with an exp. pedal input. Have fun being Bernie Worrell for the day. :)
 
#20
I mostly play my fretless basses clean, maybe a lil compression if needed. Though for the cool "classic" fretless sounds for you to experiment with, go with an octaver, chorus/flanger, compression, reverb and you'll pretty soon see you can have a great deal of fun with that for a start..

My weapons of choice for doin that, would (so far) be:

Octavers
Boss OC-2, EHX Micro Pog, I like them both, they are different birds and good at different things.

Chorus
Danelectro Cool Cat, Killer chorus!

Flanger
Danelectro Hash Browns, Nice vintage feel flanger

Compressor
Aphex Punch Factory, It just does the job, no questions asked
Art Tube Levelar, I swapped out the factory tube for a lil cleaner tube (dont remember the name etc.) that gives more gain and less noise, great compressor this one too!


And reverb I still haven't found anything that has spellbound me yet (and since I am not a live player I most often add that in the computer when I have recorded what I need so the need hasn't yet been that urge to me).

Good luck, and have fun!!!

D.Don
 

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