jaydentaku Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 There seems to be a lot of advice out there on the interwebs on what are 'must have' pickups/setups for fretless bass. Yet, to me, it seems mostly conjecture passed of as experience and of course, it is all about creating your own sound. So, I thought I would give up researching and fire up a discussion here. I play in a metal band and we play in drop C. Our sound groovy, blues and deep. Doomy, stonery, sludgy. Most of my time is spend on the lower strings, making crushing, face melting noises. But with a fretless 4 coming soon, my options are increasing. I would like to be able to melt fasses, but i would also like to be able to harness a fretless tone. I enjoy noodling on my own, most of which is jazzy, blues and folky. So, I can see myself playing this equality in the band and at home. I am going to go for a minimalist approach, and hopefully only have one passive pickup, no tone or volume control. at the most, a killswitch. I don't want to cut anything from the pickup. From what I have read, a bridge pickup is 99% of the time, a given for that fretless sound. I keep reading that Barts are a good choice, as are EMG's. I love the sound of MM soapbars, but i don't know enough, to make an informed decision. What are you thoughts on this? cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBus Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 I would generally work with a bridge placed mag pup. However, as I have discovered recently the positioning of that pickup is critical. My Status fretless basses have the mag about one centimetre from the bridge. On the other hand my Tokai jazz has the pickup place in the '60s position about five or six centimetres from the bridge. That extra distance keeps the tightness from the back position but gives a lot more body to the sound. As always it comes down to personal taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 [url=http://www.acguitars.co.uk/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=27]ACG EQ01 Pre-amp[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaydentaku Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 Thanks, but you must have missed the bit where I said minimalist and no volume or tone knobs! Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voxpop Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 (edited) I found pickups in the bridge position to be thin and week without boosting the eq so I settled on a split P over-wound by 20% ( as in my pic ) to give a thick sound with a very high output. I use it with no eq on bass or amp to give MY fretless sound. Its about finding what works for you and going for it. Edited June 20, 2012 by voxpop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Vader Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 My favourite fretless sound comes from a knackered old Kay pickup up by the neck, wide open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBod Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 I've found a MM placement is better than J bridge or P bass, if you're only having one pickup. Too close to the bridge and its very thin sounding, typical P bass position loses some of the mid growl I want from a fretless. Even if you don't want any knobs, its worth considering a series/par switch or just a passive treble roll off. I've found EMGs really need a bit of treble taken off as they are voiced to be very bright. I've got a fretless with no knobs (Aaron Armstrong passive humbucker) but it has got a single coil/series/par switch on the jack plate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 I used a kent armstrong alnico 'P' on my fretless precision. It's pretty much an ideal fretless tone for me, but some of that can probably be attributed to the thick ebony fingerboard & Thomastik TI344s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 (edited) [quote name='jaydentaku' timestamp='1340198987' post='1700876'] Thanks, but you must have missed the bit where I said minimalist and no volume or tone knobs! Lol [/quote] Fair enough. I have a lot of fretless basses - in my last band it was pretty much all I played and the ACG pre-amp was far more useful in getting me my sound than any pickup combination on its own. Other than that my favourite pickup for a fretless bass is the Lightwave optical system, but that's probably far too technical for you! Edited June 20, 2012 by BigRedX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Bass Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1340220228' post='1701386'] Fair enough. I have a lot of fretless basses - in my last band it was pretty much all I played and the ACG pre-amp was far more useful in getting me my sound than any pickup combination on its own. Other than that my favourite pickup for a fretless bass is the Lightwave optical system, but that's probably far too technical for you! [/quote] Having played a few of BRX's basses and having a bass with an ACG preamp; i can confirm this man knows what he is talking about 100%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaydentaku Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 I am an advocate of gadgetry and love the idea of the Lightwave. But I really want to keep it simple with this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawrenceH Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Heard a fretless jazz (passive) with Bartolinis recently. I'm not a fan of them usually but the bridge pickup sound was as good as any I've heard: warm, thick and articulate. Was being used in the context of a heavy balkan/ska band and it worked really well, but would have been equally good for jazz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ead Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1340220228' post='1701386'] Fair enough. I have a lot of fretless basses - in my last band it was pretty much all I played and the ACG pre-amp was far more useful in getting me my sound than any pickup combination on its own. Other than that my favourite pickup for a fretless bass is the Lightwave optical system, but that's probably far too technical for you! [/quote] My first two fretless basses were a Yamaha P/J and a now a Fender Jazz bass (unitl my new build is ready). Once I took the plunge and added an ACG pre to the Jazz, the world changed somewhat! You can get the deep gloomy sound as well as bright and sparkly and all points inbetween. All with flats too. Alan is currently building me a Fretless with his latest ACG 03 pre that I am really looking forward to getting my hands on. Point being, I know that there are quite strident differences of opinion between the active and passive bass community, but the ACG filter bassed pre amps really are something else. If you have a chance you should at least try one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaydentaku Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 Seems to be quite a popular choice. A far step from what I am after though. I may have to sacrifice something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 [quote name='ead' timestamp='1340955381' post='1711866'] My first two fretless basses were a Yamaha P/J and a now a Fender Jazz bass (unitl my new build is ready). Once I took the plunge and added an ACG pre to the Jazz, the world changed somewhat! You can get the deep gloomy sound as well as bright and sparkly and all points inbetween. All with flats too. Alan is currently building me a Fretless with his latest ACG 03 pre that I am really looking forward to getting my hands on. Point being, I know that there are quite strident differences of opinion between the active and passive bass community, but the ACG filter bassed pre amps really are something else. If you have a chance you should at least try one. [/quote] On the whole I'm not really a fan of active basses, not because I'm strictly old school or have a fear of batteries, but because my gig rack is already full of superior tone-shaping tools so having more on my bass with all the compromises that come with them seems to me completely redundant. However I like the ACG EQ001 because it does something that the tone controls on my rig don't and probably more importantly because it allows you shape the tonal output of each pickup individually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ead Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1340957457' post='1711905'] .............. However I like the ACG EQ001 because it does something that the tone controls on my rig don't and probably more importantly because it allows you shape the tonal output of each pickup individually. [/quote] That's a much better way of putting it! I run my amp pretty flat as it's not that sophisticated and adjust on the bass as required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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