you will call me a liar...Dean fretless

[roosterbike]

ok today at a local flea market, thru some very smooth talking and trading of what nots....i aquired a Dean Rhapsody fretless 4 string ....
Beautiful condition...how much do you ask? an unbelievable 20.00 (twenty) dollars.....if i hadnt done it id say i was lying too....im still in shock and scored hugh brownie points with my wife.....
Heres the deal, ive never had or played a fretless before....
The E and A are fine, but D and G are very "buzzy"....is this normal? i adjusted the neck and its a little better....it has standard strings on it....any suggestions?

 

[sleigh93]

This is relevant to my interests...

 

[WoodyG3]

I will not call you a liar.

I may be stating the obvious, but could it be that the bridge saddles for the D and G strings are set too low? Maybe the nut was filed too deep? You can also check the relief on both sides of the neck and sight down it to see if it's twisted, has a "hump" or something similar.

 

[JTE]

Buzzing on open strings could be the nut, or the relief, or the saddles. If the buzz only happens when you stop the strings, it AIN'T the nut. Do a correct set up which means staring with a good analysis of the whole thing, But start with getting the relief correct before you do anything else. If you don't know how, go to the hardware, repair, set-up forum of TB and read the stickies.

John

 

[Joe Gress]

No pics no bass. Dems the rules.

I would also just take the bass in to get it adjusted and set up. You'll enjoy that $20 bass even more.

 

[ryco]

A buddy of mine acquired a Dean fretless 5er at a garage sale for $50 last year.
Plays nice! Two octave neck!!

What's with ppl giving these things away?
The build quality seems just fine.

 

[roosterbike]

No, its not the open string, its the "fretted" notes.....or is that just part of the fretless sound, ive neve played one till now

 

[JTE]

I like my fretless basses with almost no relief at all. So, do a proper set up, starting with setting the relief, then the saddles. How much relief is pretty personal, but almost straight gives me the the "mwha" sound at my command, depending on how hard I press the strings to the fingerboard.

John

 

[basskopf]

so what are the "standard strings" that are mounted? do you mean roundwounds, which would be a sin on a fretless, or flatwounds? try a nice set of thomastik infelds (jazz flats) and see what happens to the buzz. of course this will only be a partial solution if you have the buzz only on two strings, but worth trying.

 

[roosterbike]

The standard strings are just that, plain old cheapies.....the previous owner had them on here.....it does have a little buzz on all 4 strings i just noticed it more on the d and g...
Neck has very little releif and does need a intonation set up badly, so i guess im off to the shop...

 

[millsbass5]

I had a f-less way back in the day,so,I'm definitely no authority on them.But,I have read that some players like a lil' string buzz on their f-less.As it seems to bring out the f-less characteristics(mmmwhaa!) more.

 

[WoodyG3]

...do you mean roundwounds, which would be a sin on a fretless...

I guess that means I am a sinner, then.

 

[ric stave]

Ask yourself:

...what would Jaco do?