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Zon fretless, good slap tone?

Discussion in 'Basses [BG]' started by pesci1313, Oct 28, 2001.

  1. Oct 28, 2001 #1
    pesci1313

    pesci1313

    Jun 2, 2001
    Urbandale, IA, USA
    i don't slap much(prefer fingerstyle and some tapping) but occasionally its just good fun to slap out a little riff. and i think its a fairly agreed upon fact that you can't slap with a fretless, but i've heard contrary statements about zon's with the composite fretboard. how is their slap tone, its a good tone? is it a typical slap tone or is it a different but good one? thanks
     
  2. Oct 28, 2001 #2
    Brad Johnson

    Brad Johnson Inactive

    Mar 8, 2000
    Gaithersburg, Md
    DR Strings
    It may be fairly agreed upon but it's wrong, you can. You don't need a composite board either, I slapped on a Carvin fretless with Ebony board with pretty good results.

    <--------- I slap on this one now.

    You won't get a slap sound identical to a fretted bass but my Zon Legacy Standard fretless 5 sounds pretty good to me slapped. It has it's own vibe. Depending on how you work it, you can go from a Mark King sound to a Bootsy to Louis Johnson, it's pretty flexible. My semi-hollow Elrick fretless has it's own sound, too.

    It's up to you to decide whether you like it or not. I've done entire funk gigs with my Zon. It's extremely easy to slap on.
     
  3. Oct 28, 2001 #3
    embellisher

    embellisher Holy Ghost filled Bass Player Supporting Member

    Apr 18, 2000
    Heber Springs, Arkansas
    I agree with Brad 100%.
     
  4. Oct 28, 2001 #4
    coyoteboy

    coyoteboy Bongo destroys villages and does my laundry Supporting Member

    Mar 29, 2000
    Sactomato, CA
    I played a Zon Fretless exclusively for a period of two years, and did quite a bit of (really poorly executed) slapping, and it sounded good and really stood up well. This bass had a coated board, which might have contributed to its slappability, but I'm sure the uncoated phenowood boards slap well.

    Actually, it was this Zon <----

    *I forget that picture is there....*
     
  5. Oct 28, 2001 #5
    Steve Mosher

    Steve Mosher

    Oct 23, 2001
    In addition to the Zon fretlesses, the Moses 5-string Starhawk Diamondwood fingerboard fretless slaps great.