valere24

Everybody has got a different view on this, but here are a couple of thoughts: - The jazz bass is the "classic" fretless bass, because of jaco etc... I'll probably go CIJ if I had to buy a new one. - Some people like having a fretless version of their main fretted bass - to help with the transition / muscle memory. - I've found that a good set-up is vital for a fretless, even more than a fretted. If you want the mwwwaaaa, you need seriously low action and little neck relief. So worth spending some money with a good luthier to get the neck perfectly straight etc. V.

Rhythm changes is one of these chord sequences where having a couple of well rehearsed licks to outline the chords really works. Probably a good return on investment as you'll probably always play rythm changes in Bb anyway. My approach would be to think in Bb major, think of the important notes to target outside of Bb major (like B natural on the second chord) and mix long / melodic phrases with these "text book" licks. +1 for transcribing existing solos. Ray Brown is probably a good start - his solo playing is very logical and lick based.

You could argue they are different types of double bass sounds as well - gut/high action is thuddy and with no sustain where as steel strings/low action/pick up can sound almost like a fretless with plenty of mwah (listen to Brian Bromberg for example). For a traditional sound, things to try (in order of importance) would be: - Think and play like a double bass player. If you walk use the kind of rythm variations an upright player would use (some good articles by John Goldby on this) - Palm mute - the double bass has a stronger attack than electric bass, palm mute helps you to emphasise it. - Flatwound strings - possibly with a mute alla Carol Kaye - I would use the neck pickup / ideally a Precision type pickup rather than a jazz - I would experiment with picking the note closer to the neck (the opposite of a Jaco type approach where you pick near the bridge) - Roll off some highs on your bass with the tone knob - EQ on amp - probably need to get rid of some highs - Piezzo pickup to get some of the acoustic sound? - never tried it though - Use a fretless Please note I personally rank "fretless" as the least important factor - IMO

Great playing Steve! I see what you mean about the strings - the sound of the bass is bit bright, I'm sure it will mellow after a few weeks of playing the strings. The rest is spot on though :-) [quote name='Steve Amadeo' post='778591' date='Mar 18 2010, 01:53 PM']Hi, I just thought I'd record a few bars of nonsense into Garageband using the internal microphone on my Mac, having just put some Innovation Honeys on my Michael Poller Romanian bass... it's not a great instrument, I only paid about £900 for it so it's definitely budget compared to some... but, it's reasonably comfortable to play and is a decent workhorse 'til I can afford something better. I like the strings, I think they'll sound great when played in a bit, but this recording is a fairly good impression of what I'm hearing in the room. Please excuse all faults, clanks, heavy breathing etc....! (The text message received in the middle of the recording was John Patitucci. The message read 'HA HA HA HA HA HA....' Cheeky git!) Hope this might be helpful to someone... Steve[/quote]

On my page at [url="http://www.valeresperanza.com"]http://www.valeresperanza.com[/url], there's a version of "How Insensitive" that starts with bass only. It's a carved, 12 years old, Korean bass with Helicore Hybrid strings, medium action. Recorded with a realist + SM57 at bridge level. [quote name='Steve Amadeo' post='778591' date='Mar 18 2010, 01:53 PM']Hi, I just thought I'd record a few bars of nonsense into Garageband using the internal microphone on my Mac, having just put some Innovation Honeys on my Michael Poller Romanian bass... it's not a great instrument, I only paid about £900 for it so it's definitely budget compared to some... but, it's reasonably comfortable to play and is a decent workhorse 'til I can afford something better. I like the strings, I think they'll sound great when played in a bit, but this recording is a fairly good impression of what I'm hearing in the room. Please excuse all faults, clanks, heavy breathing etc....! (The text message received in the middle of the recording was John Patitucci. The message read 'HA HA HA HA HA HA....' Cheeky git!) Hope this might be helpful to someone... Steve[/quote]

This tuning is used as far as I know by Dominique di Piazza, Matthew Garisson, Tony Grey and Janek Gwizdala. Strangely enough, these four players all use a four fingers right hand technique and play fodera basses. [quote name='TGEvans' post='782365' date='Mar 22 2010, 08:36 AM']Hi all. Does anybody here tune their 5 string E A D G ( is it high C)?I want the traditional EADG tunings but on this bass if that makes sense! Any info would be cool. Also if you can think of any pro players that do this kind of thing so I could check it out somewhere! Thanks, T[/quote]

I've got two Yamaha BB1600. One black, fretted, Made in Japan - all original apart from knobs and machine heads (replaced with Schallers) One red cherry, fretless, Lane poors pickups, Gotoh 201 Bridge, Schaller machine heads. Converted to fretless with an ebony fingerboard. Fantastic basses. [quote name='Moos3h' post='686643' date='Dec 16 2009, 06:34 PM']Just received yesterday my second Squier Classic Vibe Jazz! I've recently realised that the CV Jazz is without doubt my favourite bass to play and I love the sound! So when searching for a good bass to use as a backup, it was the logical choice! The rest of my band think I'm weird (I'm not going to disagree), but if something works, why not! Anyone else in the same boat? Cheers, James[/quote]

I guess if I had to design a bass with ultra versatility in mind, I would probably go for a 5 strings, P/J pickup configuration, active with passive mod switch. That said, is there any style of music that hasn't been played with a precision or a jazz? I think we - bass players - are the only ones who can hear a major difference in sound between basses, even a precision and a jazz. I think the difference is more obvious for guitars between, say, a telecaster and a 335 than between basses. My point is, you could use pretty much any bass for any style of music, and get away with it if you *play* the right way. [quote name='Golchen' post='763736' date='Mar 4 2010, 10:19 AM']I was going to ask for a pic of the G&L out of interest, but I just found the for sale thread. Very nice looking bass (although I'd brefer a less bright colour personally) On versatility, my current bass is very good. It's a Reggie Hamilton custom V, both passive or active and both jazz and precision pup. The one thing it lacks for me maybe is that I loved the active tone of my old Status S2 and I can't get the same amount of 'zap'. Also very versatile: Martin Sims basses (Enfield basses). I was down at SIMS a year ago to get some LEDs put on a Chapman stick, and he went through the features of the bass with me - lots of different pup switching combinations.[/quote]

Sunburst, fiesta red, aged white + tortoise shell pickgard White pickgards look wrong on a jazz bass IMHO [quote name='EBS_freak' post='760608' date='Mar 1 2010, 12:09 PM']What's your favourite Jazz bass colour scheme? I'm a sucker for white jazz basses, white scratchplate, maple neck, white headstock... ....also loved the surf green/maple necked, white scratchplate Nordstrand (Kevin Lindseys I believe) that was for sale on the forum not so long ago.[/quote]

Rosewood for tone - definitely warmer, less bright. The look of maple is nice though, and I can understand why some bassist would prefer a maple neck for a brighter tone. It's just not for me.

Agree. I find flatwound strings and a palm mute technique are better "tools" to get an upright sound. [quote name='Doddy' post='762946' date='Mar 3 2010, 01:54 PM']I'm going to disagree with this. No fretless I've ever played or heard sounds like an upright. They are two very different instruments,tonally.[/quote]

I use a thumbpick on guitar occasionally for Merle Travis/Chet Atkins stuff. Not on guitar though, although I use my thumb a lot. Dominique di Piazza uses a thumb pick these days, but to be honest I much prefered his tone when he wasn't using one back in the John McLaughlin days. [quote name='Baxter' post='743535' date='Feb 12 2010, 09:50 PM']I use a thumbpick, I don't know any other Bass Players who do! Any here?[/quote]

Good point... I like to think of the fretless as a "horn" - the sound is expressive, and you've got a similar control on the pitch/vibrato. A guy like Gary Willis is probably a good illustrator of the approach... His soloing is very melodic, "horn" like, and it doesn't overdo the slide/vibrato thing (if any at all). At the opposite part of the spectrum take Percy Jones... I respect what he does, but I struggle to find the musicality in it sometimes. [quote name='Conan' post='762759' date='Mar 3 2010, 11:30 AM']Jaco is usually held up as the paragon of virtue on a fretless (whatever that means!), but often you can't tell that he is actually playing a fretless! He tended not to overdo the vibrato/glissando stuff and ended up with a very "punchy" tone. Compare that to, say, Pino Paladino's work in the early and mid eighties where the slides and stuff were rather overdone... a different kettle of fish altogether. Jeff Berlin is another unusual example as he can make a fretted bass sound like a fretless! Check out his playing on Bill Bruford's "Feels good to me". They are as different or as similar as you want them to be. One of the reasons I have given up fretless playing (for the moment anyway) is that I was annoying myself by slipping into all those eighties stereotypes and cliches. Boring. Horses for courses though![/quote]

Have you ever [b]heard[/b] a fretless bass? That will answer your questions. It's a different sound, different technique, different feel. It's like asking, what's the advantage of an electric bass compared to a tuba or a minimoog :-) Suggested listening: - "A remark you made" on Weather report's "heavy weather" album - Jaco pastorius - "Hey You" on Pink Floyd's the wall album - I think it was David Gilmour playing bass for this - "Whereever I lay my hat" - Paul Young - Pino Palladino [quote name='JordanRLS' post='762121' date='Mar 2 2010, 07:24 PM']I've been racking my brains for a while, and i can't think of any advantages other than personal preference on the aesthetics, or the feel of the neck. are there any actual physical advantages? or is it just because of these preferences? opinions?[/quote]

Learn to do your own set-ups guys! It's really not rocket science... You'll need: - Screwdrivers/Allen keys for truss rod/bridge adjustment - A ruler to measure the action - A set of feeler gauges to measure neck relief. Cost: less than a tenner. There are plenty of information/tutorials on the net.

+1 - tried one in a shop on saturday. Quality finish, plays well. Decent B string. I would happily gig with it. It just sounded a bit cold to me if you compare it to more expensive and/or vintage instruments, but apart from that it's a good instrument. [quote name='fatback' post='760717' date='Mar 1 2010, 01:36 PM']Yamaha bb415 on gak for £299. ok, a bit dearer, but quality.[/quote]

I would go with the passive version as well. I've played a BB415 in a shop on saturday and it was quite nice. I've got a BB1600 - the 80s model the BB414 was based on, and to be honest there is no comparison. If you manage to get a BB1600 under £300 - go for it.

Compression and octaver mainly. Very occasionaly I might use chorus or phaser if I play with a pick. I've probably used delay once or twice in a gig situation. That's about it.

Funny you mention that, I was checking out Tokai basses and JV squier not so long ago. I've played a JV squier in the past and it was great. My current main bass is an early 80s yamaha BB1600, and it's got this old instrument feel/sound. Even acousticaly there's a sweetness in the sound that I've just heard on the very best "new" instruments. I guess that's what I would be after for a Jazz bass. And BTW, the best strat I've ever played was an 80s tokai... [quote name='henry norton' post='758346' date='Feb 26 2010, 04:12 PM']Have you thought of Fender Japan or early (JV) Squier stuff? You'll have a few hundred in change to buy an ACG filter or Sadowsky pre. then you'll get a really well made J bass with all the tonal variation you'd ever need. I've owned both (and early Tokai, which is just as good), and you really are hard pushed to find a better quality basic Jazz. Having said that, the US standard Jazzes play very well and there's nothing like having the 'real thing', but sound wise there's nothing much in it.[/quote]