Linus27

I'd say yes and no that it has changed over the 35 years I've been playing. I've always loved that rounded balanced P Bass tone, even if on some occasions I've never had that. My bass playing is pretty melodic so my natural tone is a 60's Jazz with rounds, so smoother and less bassy than a P Bass but also a bit thinner. Nowadays, I like to have more bottom end to fill the sound out although my playing is still just as melodic. I also play fretless and use an octave pedal a lot. I flick between a Stingray with rounds, a P Bass with Cobalt flats and a 60's Jazz with rounds. Some sounds really suit the attack of the Stingray, some songs really suit the warm bassy tone of the P Bass with flats and other songs really suit the articulate musical Jazz with the rounds.

So just an update, I turned the truss rod a quarter turn clockwise (looking at the truss rod face on) which seemed to tighten and it made things worse with most of the frets (or lack of as it's a fretless) and open strings buzzing. So I turned the truss rod anticlockwise a quarter and then a quarter again which felt like it was loosening and now no more buzzing on any of the frets and the bass plays beautifully. So I guess that as I had to loosen the truss rod for the Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats, they are actually a looser tension string over the Rotosound flats, even if under the hand they don't. With my new found confidence, I'd always thought the action on my fretless Stingray could do with being a little lower so I turned the truss rod wheel clockwise a quarter on it and it improved it so I gave it another quarter turn which improved it even further. Much lower action higher up the board and its playing much better than it did before.

I hadn't either which is why I asked the original question. I wondered if they were Japan or US only as they had so past me by I'd never even seen them advertised either on any music shops or discussed much. I love how they have kept the dots on the face of the fretboard to make it look like the bass was once fretted but has been converted to a fretless.

I did speak to the owner of this bass as he was on here and he did offer it to me when I was looking for a Fretless Stingray but alas my funds did not stretch that far. Its a gorgeous bass.

Ok that's cool, thanks Chris

How long is the turn around at the Bass Gallery to set up a bass?

So the buzzing is around A and B on the D string and E and F# on the A string.

No not yet, they are next on my list 👍

It is a bit puzzling but I was also recommended to try them and told they are lower tension after other flats I'd tried I couldn't get on with. So I'm just as confused as well 😂

Ok cool, thank you. I've just been playing some more and I'm just getting a little bit of buzzing mid neck on the A and D string. It's only very slight but it's there. Again that points at lower tension right if the neck is bowing that way?

Unless I'm getting my low tension and high tension definitions mixed up?? If the strings feel more taught, is harder to bend or move, is that higher tension? If the string is looser and can bend easier, is that lower tension? The Ernie Ball Cobalt Flat are more taught and harder to bend than the Rotosound Flats.

So I've just replaced my Rotosound 77 Flats 45 - 100 with a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats 45 - 100 on my fretless Precision. Observations are that they are much higher tension and I can't bend the strings as much as I used to be able to with the Rotosounds. Still very playable but noticeably different. The Ernie Ball flats are also sitting much closer to the fretboard but they are not buzzing so I've not needed to adjust the height yet. I'm wondering that the higher tension is making them sit closer to the fretboard? What I do like is the tone. They sound lovely and a lot more zing, expression and mwah. Certainly not as deep sounding as the Rotosound flats which sometimes sounded a bit flat. So really happy with how they sound. One other thing I noticed is the Ernie Ball flats have that stickiness to them that has been mentioned in this thread. Hopefully that will go the more I play them. Early days but happy so far.

I'm waiting for the OC-5 to come back into stock as well. From researching a whole bunch of Octaver pedals, it seems the OC-5 is one of the best for tracking and nails the OC-2 tone. I recently got the EBS Octave pedal as well but I was really disappointed with it. It was really nice tonally but the tracking was terrible so it went back for a refund. I just hope the OC-5 becomes available again soon.

Future Islands are great. I really like the bass player as well, he gets a great tone out of his basses. Here he is using a Precision that sounds very compressed. Would love to know what his setup is.

Thank you for the info, sounds lovely and I know what you mean about Japanese build quality. My favourite basses are Japanese, especially Fender's, just something different about them that makes them so much better. I adore my fretless Japanese Jazz, its 35 years old but nothing has come close to it yet. Thank you very much, I really appreciate it, I would definitely be interested if you decide to part with it so please do let me know. I'm not totally convinced my fretless Stingray is for me so looking at other options. Thanks again.

Oh wow, that is gorgeous, you lucky thing, looks stunning. How does it play and sound, typical Jazz neck and tone? If you ever decide to part with it then please let me know

Has anyone ever seen of have one of the Fender Made in Japan Traditional 60s Fretless Jazz Basses that came out a few years back? I have never seen one available or for sale and it something I would love to get my hands on. https://en.audiofanzine.com/electric-fretless-bass/fender/made-in-japan-traditional-60-s-jazz-bass-fretless/ https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2019/01/26/fender-unveils-limited-edition-made-in-japan-basses/

HAHAHAHA you can't blame me, I only have 3 basses now and none of them have frets

Blimey, I remember the days when you had 3 or 4 basses

Personally, if you have played fretted for a while or have good technique, then leave the fretted packed away and just take the fretless. My switch was when I went to a 3 day song writing session and I took my fretless along as well. Picked it up in one of the sessions and found I could play it with very little problem and just played it all the time and haven't looked back I now play unlined fretless only and actually find switching back to fretless takes some adjustment. I even sold my 1975 Jazz that had lines and blocks on impossible to play as there was so much clutter and distraction on the neck with the frets, blocks and lines. I only have fretless basses now

As with all things musical, it really depends on the individual and how they want to express themselves. A fretless can be played as straight and un-fretless like as a fretted bass or it can be as exaggerated as much as your heart desires. Listen to a lot of early The Police, Sting really doesn't sound like he's playing a fretless in a lot of cases when actually he is. The other things to consider is strings and the bass you play. They will all sound different as we have seen, Jaco does not sound anything like Tony Franklin who in turn sounds nothing like Pino. Plus a fretless Jazz strung with rounds will sound very different to a fretless Precision strung with flats. So a few questions you should ask yourself is what you are trying to achieve by playing fretless and how you want to sound. The key to be successful on a fretless bass is simply down to two main things, technique and ear. You need to have extremely strong technique so that when you fret, you fret pretty much in the same place every time, you need to hit that spot perfectly. Your fretting hand is the most import thing to get right and it is important to cover one fret per finger. Two great exercises to see how good your technique is are, playing walking bass lines and playing bass lines you normally play or know but doing them in the dark. The walking bass lines will really help with technique and getting your fretting fingers in the correct places as you move around the fretboard. Playing bass lines you know or already play but in the dark will also be a good indicator of how good your technique is and how well you know your fretboard, lots of bum notes and then you need to work on your technique. The other essential is having a good ear so you can hear when you are slightly off and can correct yourself on the fly. I do think that a lot of this comes naturally but again playing walking bass lines and bass lines you know how to play already will help in being able to recognise if you are in tune or not. A very good exercise to help with training your ear is to sing along to songs and create your own harmonies and hopefully see if you are in tune. Also singing along to bass lines helps and if you know the bass line, you'll know if you are pitching in tune. If not, then get practicing. Also, if you have a piano, playing a small simple melody and then singing it back is a great exercise for tuning your ear. You then repeat the melody but play it higher and higher up the scale until your voice can't reach that pitch you are playing it in. You can do it on a bass or a guitar but piano works best. Start simple so play A, B C and D on the A string as a 4 note run and then sing it back in pitch. Then play B, C, D and E and sing it back. Just keep working up and try and keep in tune. Then change the melody, for example, A, E, D, B, C. Its one of the best techninque to work on your ear and is something professional singers do all the time to train. Both of these essential skills go hand in hand as you won't always be able to hear yourself perfectly in a live situation so having good technique will help with playing as close in tune as possible. As for the question regarding lined or unlined, personally I play unlined but I see shapes and positions when I look at an unlined fretless board so lines would just confuse me. However if you use lines and you prefer that then crack on. The bottom line is if you are a half decent bass player, with good technique, then you should be able to switch over to fretless fairly easily.

I'm quite tempted to go back to MarkBass and quite fancy giving either a Little Mark Vintage D2 or the Little Mark Tube a go. I did try the Marcus once and I was really impressed with it.

Yes, this is exactly the same for me, I also chose the lighter gauge of Roto 77 Flats and found the tension to be a smidge higher but pretty much close to a set of rounds. I'd tried flats a few times before and could not get of with them due to the higher tension but found the lighter gauge Roto 77's were pretty much identical to a set of rounds.

Yep, definitely Roto's, 100% sure. They were recommended to me by OBBM and I then purchased them through Amazon and fitted them myself.

I have a gorgeous Fender Precision which has a maple high gloss fretless neck. So to not chew up the neck, my string choices are pretty limited. I'm currently using Rotosound 77 Jazz Flatwounds which I do like as they are low tension like rounds, feel nice to play and sound very good, I wound say warm and round. However I would like to try something different. Are there any string that are low tension like rounds or my Rotosound flats, brighter and closer tonally to rounds but still smooth like flats as to not chew up my maple gloss fretless neck?