Whoops - I should've listed that! It's a G&L LB-100. The stock pickup comes a little overwound so it's got a bit of a distinctive voice compared to a stock P bass.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Where the Fretless Ps at?
- Thread starter Matthew_84
- Start date
Whoops - I should've listed that! It's a G&L LB-100. The stock pickup comes a little overwound so it's got a bit of a distinctive voice compared to a stock P bass.
BobDeRosa
Commercial User
- May 16, 2012
- 2,444
- 4,402
- Disclosures
- Owner, Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camps
Another vote for the Mighty Mite. I’ve had three with good results.
Get yourself a loaded body. Some assembly required.
Get yourself a loaded body. Some assembly required.
Looks like ‘97 or so before first fretless Jazz, according to my history of Fender book.
I was an idiot , I sold my last fretless P and even as I walked out the shop I knew I did a bad thing . Now I want another one , but I can't find one with the feel and tone I want .......AAHHHHHH !
When they don't make what you want, you make what you want.
I forgot to mention Squier. It’s a lined neck but seems OK for the money. But I’ve noticed, as you did the scarcity of P’s.
Lots of J’s though. One did recently sell on Reverb.
Lots of J’s though. One did recently sell on Reverb.
Can't really blame the seller. Who knows how many CL flakes he's had to endure in the past. But... Yeah...
I've moved my Squier fretless back and forth between a P and J body. I greatly prefer the sound of the P with fretless. Mwah ain't my thing. I like the little subtle muting and finger sounds you can get with fretless, and the P pickup seems to bring those out.
I'm in the process of building this one though TBH, the Precision body is just a temp until I get a Jazz one for it.
The very best P bass I’ve ever owned, a mash-up of assorted parts I had hanging around in boxes and drawers. The neck is a ‘70’s Tokai, the body is of an unknown origin but most likely Asian (Korea or China) and everything else is just spare parts … I think the pickups are from an older SX, but not sure. I wouldn’t sell it for anything.
Another in the build your own camp. I bought a Squier CV 60's P used for $180 and added an allparts neck with an unlined ebony board. I never have been comfortable with narrow width necks and this vintage profile neck in tinted laquer feels like home. I went for Gotoh lollipops instead of reusing the squier tuning pegs so the all in cost was just under $600. I love the way the bass feels and often get compliments on the sound.
It seems like that’s exactly what I will have to do, LOL!
Do you recall where you got that neck?
Yeah, I’m the same way!
Don’t get me wrong, having a fretless Jazz (or something with a nice bridge pickup) is nice for some stuff (like learning melodies/solos), but I love a P as my main player - for both fretted and fretless instruments.
I am also a very big fan of the simplicity of a P, which is largely why I don’t want a PJ if I can help it
I did not know that. I would have assumed that the fretless Jazz would have preceded the fretless Precision. Thanks for posting this info!
I just read this article and I wonder how accurate it is???
A quick history of the fretless bass | Guitar World
Intriguingly, it seems that no-one actually knows for a fact when the first electric bass was actually defretted. However, the most likely theory is that the earliest fretless player to receive much widespread attention was Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, who played a home-made fretless as early as 1961, when Pastorius was only 10 years old. It began life as a standard fretted instrument, as the laconic four-stringer revealed in an interview some years ago: "I was playing in an R&B band in 1961 when I bought [the bass] from this guy our drummer knew. Before that I'd been playing bass on the bottom two strings of a detuned guitar, so I was glad to finally have a 'real' bass. Unfortunately, it was bloody horrible!… it rattled with every note because the frets were so worn. I figured I'd just pull out all the frets and put in new ones when I could afford some. But when I pulled 'em out, it suddenly sounded really good! So I never put frets back in, and I think it was the first fretless electric ever. I used it on every Stones album and many of the singles up to 1975. Even without an amp, it sounds wonderful — it's got the sound."
So many cool fretless P basses!!! As I described earlier, here is mine: Allparts build purchased from TBr 4Mal.
I was actually looking for a fretless J (and had some sort of unfounded negative bias toward fretless Ps, probably because Jaco) But I talked myself into it and I am glad I took the plunge.
Lined ebony board (w/ dots), Fralin pick up, hipshot tuners, TI flats, under $500.
new PG courtesy Stratosphere $10
Oldschool thump and warm organic furry P vibe = priceless
I was actually looking for a fretless J (and had some sort of unfounded negative bias toward fretless Ps, probably because Jaco) But I talked myself into it and I am glad I took the plunge.
Lined ebony board (w/ dots), Fralin pick up, hipshot tuners, TI flats, under $500.
new PG courtesy Stratosphere $10
Oldschool thump and warm organic furry P vibe = priceless
Is not a fretless Precision bass an oxymoron? I was under the impression the Precision was all about the frets in the first place.
