Jerry_B

Here's my recently completed bitsa (Allparts, Fender, Schaller, KiOgon, Wilkinson) fretless, with various bits acquired from Basschatters. I could never afford a real fretless Fender P, but this one sounds and plays great for alot less money

The only basses for me now are my T-40 and a bitsa fretless Precision I recently put together (I also have a nice fretted Tokai maple neck for it). They both play and sound just how I like things, to the point that I no longer have any desire to buy anything else. Not that it's not nice to look at other basses, of course, but I have no inclination now to buy them The other basses I have will either get sold, or will I will hang onto some of them them to see if they ever go up in price over the years (a Yamaha BB414 and an unlined fretless MIJ Fender Jazz).

I like the Fender 'Original' pickups. If you're worried about breaking the internals up, take out the whole lot (for now) and get a wiring harness from KiOgon. This give you the option of keeping the original electrics and connections intact and untouched, whilst also giving you an easy way to swap in new pups.

Maybe a Wilkinson bridge? They're cheap and you always have the option of brass saddles. I still don't get hi-mass bridges - they make the action too high, they have no effect on tone/sustain, and cost far to much

I bought a very nice maple Hardpuncher neck from Eamon. It was extremely well wrapped and was sent along to me nice and quickly. Great stuff!

I've found a plectrum in my loft. It looks quite old. I seem to remember being told that it was once used by that bloke from John Entwhistle. I'm going to sell it on Ebay.

Quick update - the new scratchplate and bridge have arrived and been added. I will upload some pics once there's a sunny day. In the meantime, I've also acquired a Tokai Hardpuncher neck from a fellow basschatter, and it fits the body pretty well. It's slightly smaller in the pocket, but not anything remarkable from more than anything but very close distance. I got the Tokai neck just as a backup should I want to dabble in fretted things again - and I like all-black with maple

D'Addario Chromes or LaBella 'Deep Talkin' - preferably light guage (.95 etc).

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1330423914' post='1557055'] STUDS!? I don't think I've ever owned an item with studs on Minus the studs, that's what I usually wear, I must be stuck in the 80's I did wear a white shirt once though...oh and a I did do a gig wearing my second best suit. It was a private function and very enjoyable it was as well. [/quote] Nowadays Metal is a pretty wide church so you can probably get away with what you already wear - unless the band are going down the Judas Priest or KISS route

Weird - I didn't know that Sunn were Indian! That means that my very first bass (back in 1988) was possibly a Sunn, as all I can remember about it was that it was a sunburst Pbass with ashtrays and that somewhere on it it had 'Made in India'... But maybe it wasn't, maybe it was. Anyway, it got overhauled and repianted and then sold, all in the space of 2 weeks!

I've owned a Spectrum DX since 1988. They're very solidly built and I very much like the pickup it has - it sounds marvellous! That said, they do tend to suffer from neck dive, so you'd have to take a chance with that.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1330363106' post='1556264'] You should only replace the bridge for cosmetic reasons. Any other differences will be imaginary. IMHO. [/quote] True. Mind you, brass can look nice.

Nice find!

If all goes to plan...

'Skinny Sweaty Man' - RHCP Or this: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ZVbw74OhU[/media] Although you may be a bit knackered after that one...

And it's being sold from 'Disneyland, USA'...

Instead of cola I use baking soda with white vinegar added to it. Leave it to soak for 2 days or so. Works like a charm, especially so if you scrub the bridge etc that's been in the solution with an old toothbrush. I've found that cola doesn't always nab bits where there may be dead skin, small amounts of rust, etc (i.e. crud) build-up, whereas the baking soda-white vinegar treatment does, especially if things are scrubbed afterwards.

Yeah, if you get one of KiOgon's, it's extremely easy to fit! I have 3 in different basses and they're great bits of kit and John's very nice to deal with. I'd echo what people say about bridges - keep the one you've got. The hi-mass ones don't make any difference. I'm having to use one at the moment as a stand-in and it makes absolutely no difference to tone, sustain, etc.. Save your money!

[quote name='Jigster' timestamp='1329813434' post='1547622'] hi guys has been an interesting read - i see the issue totally with the UNlined camp, but still unsure as to my natural abilities to intonate without lines - with an unlimited budget i'd go the unlined route and give it a shot. we'll see [/quote] Cool. From the get-go, don't get too obsessive about absolutely spot-on intonation. It tends to cramp the learning processes, IMHO. Just relax into it and slowly let your brain go into a slightly different bass playing gear After a while, it will satrt to feel like a natural way of thinking about playing, and then after that you don't really think about it at all and it boils down to feel, hearing, and muscle memory.

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1329773240' post='1547216'] To me, this is exactly why lines make it easier. Playing a fretted bass, you can get away without perfect fingering without affecting the pitch. The lines on a lined fretless tell you exactly where to put your finger for correct intonation; you just have to get used to pitting your finger ON the line instead of behind it. I found, when I first picked up a fretless, that a root/octave stretch felt a bit further because you have to be right on the note. I really don't think that having a lined fretless has any detrimental effect on your technique. As I said before, you don't HAVE to look at the fretboard, and once you get used to a fretless you almost certainly won't very often, but it just might help you out to start with and help develop a more accurate muscle memory. [/quote] All true, of course. The point is really that the OP seemed somewhat daunted by the concept of an unlined fretless. Myself and others have tried in our own way to point out that going down the unlined route isn't at all tricky. Technique and trying to get absolute perfect pitch is a slightly different matter, as there may be a whole raft of seperate opinion about that WRT playing a fretless

It's just people expressing their personal preference and advice, remember - no need to take it the wrong way

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1329743517' post='1546558'] There's a lot of snobbery over the whole lined fretless thing - some people seem to think it's not a "real" fretless if it's got lines or you're cheating, or other such tedious bollocks. Go with whatever you're comfortable with. [/quote] Yep, definitely (to both points). But I think there's also a valid point to saying 'Don't worry about playing a lined one', which was a concern of the OP.

[quote name='redstriper' timestamp='1329741356' post='1546513'] Fret lines make a big difference to me as someone who looks at what their playing - check out Jaco on youtube and you will see he spends most of his time peering at his lined fingerboard. If you don't look, or if you are blind it makes no difference, but if you use your eyes, why not have the lines? I disagree with the stabiliser analogy and I don't see how fret lines can be misleading or distracting, particularly if you are used to a fretted bass. I've never heard of anyone selling a lined fretless bass in favour of an unlined one because they found it distracting. [/quote] It depends on whether your natural playing style is to play in the middle of a fret when playing a fretted bass. If you do that with a lined fretless, you may have problems. It's actually easier to have no lines and use the dot markers on the top of the neck telling you where the important 'frets' lie. That way you don't have to look over your bass neck slightly when playing. You just look at the dots, if you need to. I'm saying this simply because people can tend to have a certain amount of trepidation at the thought of no lines, which is undeserved. It can also tend to make you a bit anxious about playing to start with, which doesn't help. And from personal I tend to think it's a better exercise to chuck yourself in at the deep end and go for it. I started playing an unlined fretless about a year after I started playing bass, just to see if it was doable. It was. If I try to play lined fretlesses nowadays, it seems like too much hard work