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Fretless bass - what would you recommend?


Al Krow
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I have the Portamento 5 string, strung with Labella black nylon tapewound, and it's an absolute winner. The Bartolinis really pick up the growl of the steel core, and the piezo brings out the best of the tape aspect. 

I think they are a fantastic bass

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@Sambrook thanks, that's great. Yup I'm definitely torn between getting a 5 string and a 4 string ('cos that feels closer to the upright, but I'm kidding myself right?!)

What current genre music / typical tracks are you playing?

I was thinking of using flatwounds but tapewounds sound like a very good alternative - what made you decide on tapewound?

Have you had other fretless basses - if so, I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts / previous experience with other models?

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Hi Al, I've had plenty of fretless basses, and I try to play ONLY fretless now, so I use them for everything. I like Steve Bailey's approach:'you don't HAVE to play it like a fretless'. 

The Portamento is so versatile - front pup sounds just like a Precision, back pup just like a Jazz, both together are tone heaven, and the piezo - played with the thumb over the second octave and tone halfway off sounds just like a dB (to my ears anyway). 

I just experimented with strings to get to tapes. Tried Rotosound Trubass and hated them. The labellas have the ideal compromise for me - smooth like flats, but with the steel core growl. 

I only got a five string cos I knew the four would be too narrow for me. I string it E-C, and the top C sounds like a classical guitar on the piezo (a bit). 

Hope that's covered your questions. The Portamento definitely works, but for me, part of the learning curve was buying, trying, and selling many fretless basses to find what I did and didn't want. Enjoy your search! 

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Cheers @Sambrook That's really interesting and very useful thanks. Must admit I would have probably stuck to the standard low B, but I like your suggestion of a top C string a lot!

Ok I'm going to see if I can persuade you to share a bit about some of your more recent other fretless which you've previously owned and what made you decide to move them on versus the Portamento? I suspect being able to benefit from your past experience may save me (and a fair few others) the ache of having to 'go through' a whole selection to arrive at the right one!

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I don't think I have any real wisdom to impart, I just learnt over time what I did and didn't want in a bass. This is what I came up with : mahogany body, plain fingerboard (ebony or rosewood) with sidelines and dots, reasonably chunky neck, passive, preferably semi hollow or chambered, and with a piezo bridge. 

The Portamento ticked nearly all those boxes (I keep forgetting it's active as I only ever use the treble knob like a passive tone cut). Altogether it is just so versatile and playable. I got it from a shop where the owner was a former Ibanez endorsee, and he was very taken with it, indeed. 

If they ever combined it with the new Aerium semi hollow, I think it would be unbeatable. 

But everybody is different, and as all the posts seem to suggest, you have to find what works for you... 

 

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But to answer your question more specifically, I have had 3 Prosebasses, a Wishbass, a defretted Conklin 7 string, an LTD defretted 6 string, a Squier Jaco copy, a Shuker Jazz, a Precision, a Westone Thunder, a G&L L2000, an Eastwood eub, a Cort B4, and a few others I can't remember. 

Of those, I would recommend the Westone, the G&L, and any Prosebass you can lay your hands on. 

My three keepers are the Portamento, a Marusczcyk Elwood, and a sublime Firecreek ( piezo only, no controls). 

Happy hunting! 

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Mighty Mite makes a fretless neck that has an ebonol fingergoard - mwah for days, and it's pretty darn cheap. If you have something with a Fender neck pocket, you can try it as a fretless before you go too deep financially. Whatever you try it on, you want something with a bridge pickup that you can solo - a P isn't really the best bass for mwah, which for many of us, is pretty much the point of fretless.

 

In terms of pickups, not having frets means that what you might consider an agressive pickup won't really sound that way - it'll be "lively". A more polite pickup on a fretless is likely to be just plain dull sounding.

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Cheers guys!  I'll have to 'fess I'm kinda drawn to the following to two basses - the first (a Portamento) I'll be checking out on Thursday (and I'm probably need to make a decision there and then!); the second is a Schecter Stiletto which I'm unlikely to ever come across second hand and only going to be able to try out by asking a store to order in for me especially.

Be really interested if you've got any views either way on why not the Schecter - it doesn't seem to have same reputation in the fretless arena and I'm wondering if that is simply 'cos of the Ibby being a better known brand or if there are other reasons e.g. the EMGs on the Schecter vs the Barts on the Ibby (they're both noise cancelling, which ticks an important box for me - due to the 'extra' coil hum we seem to get down here in central London)?

Edited by Al Krow
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2 hours ago, White Cloud said:

I have a Warwick Corvette unlined fretless and it is a phenomenal instrument. I've owned many, many fretless basses over the years...some very good ones - but the Warwick bass is the best I have owned.

Can't disagree that the Warwick Corvette is a lovely bass given that I have a $$ 5 string myself! Only concern I have with the Warwick's is that some of the older single coil pups can suffer from coil hum, which I know would annoy me, so either a $$ humbucker or a single split coil is the route to go.  

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20 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Can't disagree that the Warwick Corvette is a lovely bass given that I have a $$ 5 string myself! Only concern I have with the Warwick's is that some of the older single coil pups can suffer from coil hum, which I know would annoy me, so either a $$ humbucker or a single split coil is the route to go.  

In my experience many Warwick fretless basses tend to have a very "woody" organic tone - granted that is a bit of a generalisation, but I love the sound of double basses  so it does go some way towards ticking my fretless boxes!

It is of course all about personal preference. I've also heard great things about the Ibaznez Portamento in that respect.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 05/11/2017 at 09:06, Highfox said:


I did have a lined fretless jazz at one point, but didn't get on with that, prefer just the dot markers for some reason.
 

On the couple of occasions I have tried to play a lined fretless, my fretted habits kicked in, and I kept trying to play behind the line, so always played flat. Could that be it?

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14 hours ago, Twanger said:

On the couple of occasions I have tried to play a lined fretless, my fretted habits kicked in, and I kept trying to play behind the line, so always played flat. Could that be it?

Could be that, all I know is I find unlined versions easier, it could be that I'm just more relaxed without the lines :) 

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