MrWalker Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 The closest I've come is flats on a fretless acoustic Johnson bass. That bass got the slight growl from the fingerboard as well as a bit of the thump when picking the strings. Ordinary electric fretless basses, even with piezo pickups, struggle achieving the thump. Playing with a string mute or by muting with your palm might improve the thump. I have a Conklin meu electric upright 34" that does it great. So it's not only about the scale length. I'm sure it's a number of elements contributing: wood bridge, pickup type (not magnetic), flats, and how you actually pluck the instrument when it's vertical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza14 Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I used to get a nice sound from my fretless, I used flat wound strings and used to play with my right hand on the 20th fret, this gives a nice growl but also doesn't twang brightly. Played without an amp it sounded superb, played through the amp took some fiddling with the controls, but it worked well enough for the untrained ear to not notice. *unashamed plug* that bass is for sale on this site if interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1427220674' post='2727507'] The Godin / Rob Allen / Renaissance route can deliver but IMHO only with very careful string choice (right now my Rob Allen wouldn't fool anyone). [/quote]What are you stringing your RA with to take it so far from from the original tone? Sounds interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Pepper Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I play both upright and electric in most of my gigs. If I can't take the upright for any reason, then I use my Godin A4 fretless strung with D'addario Black flatwounds on it. It's not the same but it does a very good deep acoustic bass that fits in well with the songs where I normally play the upright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Pepper Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I should add that I went through the following list to find a 'replacement' sound. Ibanez Portamento, Kala U Bass, Fender Kingman Acoustic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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