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I'm basically a fretless player : sixers for the ego, one of them having 31 positions ("frets") for even greater ego. I'm also playing a 6 strings 3/4 EUB : ego, I told you. They all are unlined and my intonation is always good as I play with ears not eyes as everyone is telling it. In fact, I hate side dots at the fretted position as they are just confusing me when I take a look at the fretboard. The problem with the lines is that, in the beginning, you'll have a tendency to play right on it which will make you sound sharp. You'll also notice that your fretting fingers will not have the same hardness from day to day so you'll have to correct it by ear. There are four tricks for the beginners and others : 1. Use opened strings to check your intonation as they must be perfectly tuned. 2. Play chords from time to time, again to check your intonation : this is unforgiving. 3. Use a very good tuner like the TC Electronic Polytune in strobe mode to check if you are perfectly in tune. 4. When playing a fretted bass, play on the frets to develop your muscle memory. Use your ears, then lined or unlined won't make any difference. And don't forget to have your fretless bass perfectly set up by a real luthier as it's the key to perfect intonation. I would also add to play as often as possible in the higher positions to develop your ear precision.

Any excuse to post a pic of my beloved 250 SMX. It doesn’t matter which class D heads I try (and some of them are pretty good), none of them come close to classic TE 😎

Here's what I did with my Jake last weekend...

Please gentlemen, let us not resort to violins.

No, really? The point is there is no need for lines. Do what violinists do and use your ears. Jaco had lines because he took the frets off a standard Jazz, not because he needed them

Hi , i started working with Adrian about 2 years ago and the lead time for a custom bass was around 8/10 weeks (roughly). Its now up to 16/20 I guess (if you keep in mind those are made to order only , so delays can happen i suppose. That's just the way it goes....). And prices have gone up to kinda control demand (even if Adrian is not about money, he told me he would never build a 5k JB). Factory has recently expanded to be able to use all machines at all times (in previous place while X was using machin Z, Y couldn't use machine B) and keep up with orders. 1st time i went to Public peace (about 2 years ago too i suppose) it was literally FILLED UP with basses. My DREAM place to be ....probably about 500... not sure. Well its now getting emptier and emptier. Every time we go there's less ... (im about 90 minutes away i guess) ... starting from 4 instruments in 2005.... proof with patience ... anything can be done. 4 instruments , 3 luthiers , a Factory about to go under... 13/15 years later there's around 450 custom bass per year (600 total , around that) and about 14 luthiers full time... Amazing success story and i got so much respect for the boss for that....

And Lord Percy discovered Green. The original Trace Elliot design team.

Basically, how big is your ego? Si

The blue one is long gone. As is the Sigma. Just another pair in a long line - I should add that they went to fund the return of a very special bass so I don’t mourn their loss.

This is my third - I bought a B10 with a busted neck and the lefty B20 with a right handed B20 neck fitted (still has the original model  sticker on the back). It has the B10 body and preamp, B20 neck, pickups and hardware. The body was bashed about a bit so I sanded the whole thing to a matt finish except the ABT logo, with a touch of relic-ing to smooth out the dents. My first was a white B10, picked it up in the early nineties. I defretted it but lost it after losing contact with a guy who had it in his workshop. Second was another B10, this had been taken back to bare plywood and played lovely. I had a declutter and put it on eBay where it fetched the grand sum of £26

@BreadBin I had 3. Sold the de-fret B-10, gave the 5 string B-105 to a kid in Ghana. The B-20 has same finish as that LH body,actually had 2 of those. 1st was a white one bought from Machinehead Music in Harlow 87/88.

Bought a musicman Sterling from Peter. Good guy, great communication, knowledgable and cares for his equipment. I would not hesitate to deal with again, recommended.

Ive played a Precision once. It was a JV Squire. Sounded fantastic with a drummer. But like an SR5, which I adore. it isn't very versatile. Maybe I don't need versatile.

Instagram tease

Put your ear to the floor and you'll probably be able to hear/feel the bass.

Flatwounds, roundwounds, tapewound, halfwound, groundwounds...they're all addictive :-) I've had TIs on fretless, tried some Fenders on a P bass, but have always felt they're a bit, well flat. The Fenders felt very stiff and maybe I didn't let them break in enough and when rounds went back on it was much better. I then got some Labella low tension on a RW P and I just found them uneven, the E almost dead and the D and G bright and thin. Again maybe this break in period. So patience, although Labella are sending a replacement E. They're good for low volume practise, let's see how they work in rehearsal and live. The Fender flats went on a UV70 and they're working for me, I can get a bit of zing if I want, like the feel, and seem to suit the VTC better than rounds in that all settings sound usable. So, addictive in as much as is my eternal search for the "tone".

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F332562140349 £45 plus a fiver shipping. Oops. Wrong thread.

I saw this. I just blew the money I had saved towards a Boss bass chorus on a Zoom B1on. Not in the same league but thwre are some nice toys on there; it's for home practice, not live though. I will have to buy a dedicated chorus at some point. I saw an Eden for £55 on eBay yesterday.

The same for me but the song was Footloose. Once we changed drummers and started playing it at the correct speed it was a hell of a lot easier to play and more enjoyable

I find the charm of P basses to come thru when played as part of a band. Mine has La Bella flats on it, which I also didn't get at all for a while until I did some recordings as voila there was an ace, fat, bass sound. Alone, mine sounds pleasant if fairly unremarkable, but as part of a band, it occupies its own sonic ground away from the cymbals, guitars and keys, which is just how I like it. But horses for courses innit - if that isn't what you're after, that's not a problem.

Finally - NAMM Bass blog! See here: https://wp.me/p2ZbyY-Av

Well that looks nice. If you don't get on with it, you probably won't lose a lot if you decide to move it on. Having tried both, I'm firmly in the unlined camp - you need to use your ears anyway, and I think it looks better. Side dots on the fre positions help if you get disoriented.

Even worse when the perp is the drummer! At least singers can be jollied along a bit by the rest of the band, whereas it's usually just down to the bassist to try and sort the tempos out if the drummer is at fault. I speak from bitter experience....

Never heard of fakes ? The first well known being the one owned by Slash... At that time Gibson had a strict serial system, so the quote is correct, the rest is only because it's the more sought after model and that they are very easy to fake. Money, money, money...

It should have been released last year but his pcb fab messed up and he had to reorder 3 years worth of pcb stock again. There is a prototype pictured on that thread I sent you a link to. It's 125B size (roughly boss sized enclosure), north facing jacks, 3 controls (hpf frequency, lpf frequency and gain), 2 face mounted push switches to turn off hpf and lpf individually, footswitch for bypass and xlr output. No idea on price yet, but his other kits of similar complexity are €70 - 80 including a powder coated and screen printed enclosure.

New Album Released TODAY!!! https://umusicmena.lnk.to/TheRoomFP BUY, DOWNLOAD AND STREAM!!!

My sources inform me that Mr Brynner's suave man-about-town-ish-ness and slightly menacing persona were the factors that swung it for him with the casting director; the absence of hair was an unexpected bonus. That and the fact he's a cheap hire, being brown bread and all.

Seemed to spend a lot of today down the cellar with routers, band saw, scroll saw, etc, etc but relatively little to show for it! Most of the work has been getting the neck ready for adding the oak back wings but it's been more about squaring up and getting things flat and parallel rather than anything special to see. While I was down there, though, I did push my hobby-grade bandsaw to its limit to cut a slice of amboyna offcut for the headstock plate: ...and then get it on the scroll saw to give me the plate ready to glue. Also added the two small wings on the headstock to give me the required width: The other thing I've done is drawn the body section full size to work out the convex / concave curves top and back so tomorrow, should be able to cut the two oak panels....

My 2 Elwood Ls. Both 33" scale.

That low B was the absolute winner for me! Good man, I'm working on the High Tech stand this weekend with Ben, he was telling me about your new one. It's going to be sexy! I've got to say the Vigier lot are all absolute gems, such a great bunch!

And I've just had the sofa pic of mine!!!

I think it's basically one of these but with a few detail/hardware differences: Cimar was Ibanez' parent company's budget brand & shared some crossover in styling. I think most of them came from a different factory, who presumably sold slightly differently specced versions under the Seiwa brand. I've encountered Seiwa before but never seen one of these. Interesting.

World conspiracy against Trace Elliot... During the 80s the Earth moved from it's orbit ever so slightly raising concerns that the "oomph & kick" from TE was responsible. World Governments insisted on weedy Class D amps knowing that they don't move objects in the same way.

Having played both, I much prefer unlined. Either way you will still need to use your ears and if you are going to use the lines then you'll be staring at the fingerboard. A quality unlined should have side dots probably at the 'fret positions' 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12 etc. and, if you need to look, they are easier to see than the fingerboard lines would be. Worse still is when a lined fretless has side dots in between the 'fret positions' - that is really very stupid in my view and is worse than no help.

She's just quit this band - shame.....

Not a clue, different universe to the one I live in!

For God's sake, don't tell Discreet!

I'm definitely in the 'diggin' camp. Grew up listening to Geddy, Flea and Bill Gould... all my technique came from those guys...

You leave my hole career out of this.

I’m a reasonably recent convert to the P Lovers’ Club. I guess I spent years loving bass in general but it’s only recently that I’ve truly started enjoying the distinct characteristics of a P vs a J vs an MM etc. I personally enjoy them all but there’s no shame in realising you only truly love a specific kind of bass. Why force yourself to like an instrument? Life’s too short. We all want a bass to feel great AND sound great but ultimately if we don’t like the basic sound our instrument makes then I don’t think there’s any point in playing it. Music is primarily an aural experience after all. If you’ve found your “voice”, don’t be afraid to stick with it.