MattM

Did a great deal with him on (surprise, surprise) a Stingray. Nice bloke, real enthusiast, thoughts are with his friends and family. RIP Nick 😔

String type has a big influence for me, a P with flats sounds better finger style, rounds with a pick. Jazz neck pickup pretty identical IMHO. Having said that my current P fretless is equipped with an EMG Geezer and flats and I love a pick with palm-muting.

Martyn Casey’s from the Bad Seeds 60s Precision is a thing of beauty IMHO. Non original white pickup, and beautifully beaten up.

Think the Tony Franklin has a DiMarzio J pickup as this was his original preference? I’ve got a reverse of this as my go-to fretless, a Tony Franklin neck on a 78 P body with EMG PJ set. The neck is hands-down the best P neck I’ve played (think it’s B width or 40mm-ish at nut) and the ebony fingerboard with flats plays amazingly.

I’m a 2-band Stingray guy and this Classic is the best I’ve owned in my 37 year playing career…

I have an EMG Geezer in my ‘78 P Franklinstein fretless, and I concur, great P sound, particularly with Chromes flats. Instant David J from Bauhaus if that’s yer bag…

This. Here’s another photo of Martyn’s aforesaid early 60s Precision

I’ve recently acquired my first PJ, a 78 P fretless fitted with EMGs and tbh love the P sound so much I rarely ever blend or use the J. Was never a fan of Jacos tone (heresy!), too nasal but ideal for what he did. A good P with flats is one of my two favourite bass tones alongside a 2EQ ‘Ray so would be happy enough with just a P pickup.

I’ve been fortunate to have had a couple of fretless ‘Rays in my time, both Pau Ferro, one lined, the other unlined and I’m fortunate to be enjoying a fabulous Tony Franklin Precision neck on ‘78 P body bass (bitsa kinda insults it as it’s so goddam good) courtesy of a great WTB response by @eadof this parish. A ‘Ray would’ve been my first choice but, like yourself, decent fretless variants are thin on the ground. My second favourite bass sound after a 2EQ ‘Ray is a decent Precision with flats, and this delivers that in spades. The combination of Chromes and ebony fretboard is incredible, easily the most playable fretless Ive ever owned. The fretless P/Chromes combo was, of course, beloved by David J and I’m literally going to get killed by all my family if I play ‘Bela’ one more time…

I’m one of the resident ‘Ray geeks, and would concur with the USA and 2 band EQ route. I worked my way up from a USA Sub, got *very* lucky with a poorly photographed ‘88 2EQ on eBay and eventually traded up to a USA Stingray Classic (now discontinued) which I got on here. Still kicking myself 6 years later for selling a 2EQ ‘Pino homage’ fretless. Fabulous basses all.

As I said in my post, it’s the surface that’s smooth. This is down to the glossy lacquer (which rosewood doesn’t have). Rosewood does feel slightly rougher under the fingers than maple, I notice this frequently when bending. I’ll qualify this with I tend to play more vintage guitars with small frets and more rounded fingerboard radii, so high frets are kinda outwith my purview. By all means, go down the jumbo fret and even scalloped route, your mileage may Yngwie…

Less so if you’re a bassist. I play guitar also and the differences are more notable, particularly with string bending. Maple a *lot* smoother for bending owing to smoothness of surface (hence why e.g. Gilmour and Clapton are maple dudes), the thing about maple being brighter than rosewood is moot, you can always adjust any brightness using your tone controls anyway. I have however, courtesy of @eadof this parish, just taken custody of my first ebony fretless and it’s fabulous. Had rosewood and pau ferro fretlesses previously and, similar to maple for guitars, ebony is brilliant for surface smoothness and slides.

Lozz, been on here for years mate and whenever I see you post I think “black and maple P”. Rosewood just ain’t you dude…

Fantastic deal with Alain following his response to my WTB for a fretless. Great communication, happy to meet up midway to avoid courier hassles, nice chat at Carlisle during handover and most importantly bass is fabulous - he probably underdescribed how good it was and priced it very fairly. Deal with confidence and thanks Alain for a great bass and smooth deal!

Love this, you and the Precision were clearly meant to be, don’t ever let it go again dude. My son (and no-one else) is getting my ‘Ray when I’m gone…

I’d advocate a white Precision with rounds and a pick a la Dee Dee and Simonon all day long, however don’t discount how good a maple necked ‘Ray can sound in this context, I give you the legendary live version of Waiting Room…

I’ve got a set of what I presume were factory original rounds on my ‘Ray Classic and TBH never felt the need to switch them for flats, as I can get pretty much almost there tone wise with judicious muting, hand position and use of tone controls. Conversely, I love Labella flats on Precision’s, think I had them on an old Limelight and USA P and they were brilliant - could get them reasonably zingy with a pick and again judicious tone control usage, particularly on the Limelight.

A ‘Ray, P or Rick with rounds and played with a pick will do the job in most punk styles. As someone else said, the ‘Ray was used by guys like Steve Severin from the Banshees, also Simon Gallup from the Cure who arrived at the tail end of punk, and played with effects-heavy guitarists like John McGeogh and Robert Smith in the band. A ‘Ray works well with middly, effects-laden guitar as it does the bottom-top end scoop thing and leaves the mid clear for the guitar. This is why latterly, the ‘Ray was popular in the Shoegaze genre with bands like the House of Love, Ride and Slowdive.

Been on here for years and it won’t be the same without him. Rest easy MB1.

I’ve owned both a Limelight and a USA Standard P. The Limelight feel (fingerboard rolling and relicing) were excellent, Mark winds his own pickups and uses CTS pots etc, and I found the sound had a much greater variation using the tone pot than the Fender did. With a Limelight you can also spec your own neck width, mine had a 40mm nut similar to the old B width 70s Fenders which was great for me. The USA P did have a better ‘fundmental’ tone if you like, but with not as much variation possible as the Limelight. The neck was also slightly wider and flatter on the USA P, I got used to it eventually, YMMV. Finally, Limelight don’t tend to do sunbursts, which is my personal favourite beaten-up/reliced finish, this may or may not be a showstopper for you.