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Why the hate towards lined fretless?

#301
blowinblue said:
Can you imagine lines on this instrument? Well, neither can I. ;)

ImportedPhotos00169.jpg
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Yeah sure why not? :bassist:
 
#303
Kinda funny. Jaco's had lines. Victor Wooten's fretless has black lines (you can sorta see them here)

But us TB hacks say you play better without them, or that people that have crappy intonation need them. If anyone on TB has better intonation than Victor on his fretless (lined or unlined!), please post clips. :p

Final answer, it doesn't matter, stop arguing and play what you prefer.
 
#304
Bryan R. Tyler said:
That's just silliness. You play with your fingers. The only way to play in tune is to put your fingers in the right place. If you only use your ears to guide your fingers, then the only way you know if you're off is if you've already played the note out of tune. Use everything to get your hand in the right place- ears, eyes, finger- I'd use scratch and sniff lines if they had them ;) It's no more difficult to learn on a lined bass. If you rely on your eyes too much and don't develop your ears, it's the fault of the player, not the bass. And there's simply no reason why you can't develop both equally well.

No line is less pitch correct than a side dot. And neither of those are more fallible than your hearing.
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:cool:
What I'm saying is I've played lined fretless that the placement of the lines were not pitch perfect.
So if a beginner player or any player, placed his fingers where the lines tell him to. His intonation would be wrong.
You still must use your ears to play in tune.
As for your finger comment, your ears tell you where to put your fingers on a fretless.
 
#306
Mojo-Man said:
As for your finger comment, your ears tell you where to put your fingers on a fretless.
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Only after you've already played an out-of-tune note. Your ears can't tell you if you're in tune or not before you play your note. That's like telling a beginning driver not to look at the lines on the road- he'll know he's out of his lane when he bumps into another car :p
 
#307
BassSaxMan said:
Kinda funny. Jaco's had lines. Victor Wooten's fretless has black lines (you can sorta see them here)

But us TB hacks say you play better without them, or that people that have crappy intonation need them. If anyone on TB has better intonation than Victor on his fretless (lined or unlined!), please post clips. :p

Final answer, it doesn't matter, stop arguing and play what you prefer.
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I agree. This thread is hilarious.

I am about to order a very very expensive lined fretless (tomorrow or Wed) and don't really care if that makes me a dumb dumb to any TBers.:p

I love TB and most TBers, but honestly, I could care less about opinions as to why lined sucks and why it will make me play worse than unlined. We all have opinions and I bet there are even posts in this thread by TBers that haven't even played lined and unlined fretless basses.:rolleyes:

I have owned at least 5 unlined fretless basses and 4 lined.... I prefer lined after playing both for years. I am buying lined. End of story.:)
 
#310
I've been playing FL since 1969 - had & have all flavors

I haven't read through this whole - my head would explode - so Ill say it

It's an immature visual macho thing - all about the 'clean' look & impressing others

Okay flame away
 
#313
Tropic said:
It seems like every time (well not every time) I see some topic about fretless, as soon as a lined fretless enters the thread, people seem to think it inferior to unlined or make it seem not as good. Why is that? Am I missing something here?
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Some people have an ego with it I guess as "a real player wouldn't need them". Well thats all well and good until you have the gig moment when you completely miss for whatever reason and need to find your spot quickly. 99 times out of 100 you won't need them or miss them, but that one time that you're playing a show and you miss a slide or you're doing some crazy tapping thing, those little fret position markers or fret lines, may be little life savers. Just a thought.

I'm guessing it's the same people that have issues with players playing a bass with a pick. I just see it as another tool in the tool box. Ok, I'm stepping off my soap box now. ;)
 
#317
XBASSX said:
Who gives a f*** what people think. I play an unlined board but I would have no qualms about owning and playing a lined fretless.
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+1

I have a unlined at the moment....and even after all the years of playing fretless (I've had both types), I am still more comfortable playing past the 12th fret on a lined fretless.

My current fretless:

fj_fretless.jpg
 
#319
jgroh said:
Love the look of unlined, however I really like lines for reference. Its one of those things that you will probably never have anyone come up to you in person and say anything about lines/no lines, only exists here on TB.
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+1.

In fact in my experience, very few people at gigs even know a lined fretless is a fretless bass. Most lined fretless basses look fretted from more than 10ft away.

I have done full sets at gigs with a lined fretless and by bandmates didn't even know I was playing a fretless. It was a rock gig and I was playing in more of a fretted style, but still.....
 
#320
I see nothing wrong with a lined fretless. They are great for people making the move to fretless, and not so bad for those of us where the demands of real life has reduced our ability to practice. In my experience, back when I was more active, the lines were nice to have for the first few days or so of owning the bass. They helped, but were soon forgotten/ignored. They never got in the way, or impacted the sound, so I never saw a downside.
Do they look as elegant as an unlined? No. Is that important? Not so much for me. They are no more inelegant than a fretted neck. And what's wrong with that?
 

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