Jaco has ruined fretless

[NickA]

2 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

I've owned a few unlined in the past, Wal, MusicMan, whatever. It's when you want to play things up the board that things get tricky. Take John Giblin's parts in Kate Bush's 'Babooska'. I think trying to recreate that about 25 years ago on an unlined, convinced me that lines were the way to go.

 

Giblins Zon Legacy had lines but there are photos of him playing unlined too.  What did he use on babooska? Unlined Wal I think.  I don't think Nigel Kennedy has lines on his violin either, and his intonation is not so bad ;-).

 

Personally I'm not bothered either way.  Being a cellist before a bassist, had music to read and no way to see my fingers.  Then in the 80s, when I first got a bass guitar, fretless basses were rare; had to buy fretted and rip the frets (a la Jaco!) and fill the holes ( with plastic wood!), but they always buzzed and wore un-evenly.  I gave up and had a new ebony board fitted to my jazz; fret lines cost extra so I did without - after all, the cello had none.  When an unlined Wal came up in my local guitar shop the lack of lines was no obstacle.  Percy Jones, Pino, Michael Manring, Mick Kahn... some of my favourite bassists playing unlined (yes Mick's tuning was dodgy to say the least .. but that was part of his sound). 

 

Each to his own. 🙂 

 

You likely have a better memory than me and don't need to look at a chord chart or sheet music.  Rarely get a chance to look at my left hand.  And the unlined Wal does look nice hanging on the wall.

[Count Bassy]

Mick Karn ruined fretless for me. However good I am (and I'm not) I can never sound like Mick Karn.

[dclaassen]

12 hours ago, Linus27 said:

Yes that's correct, Fender produced the fretless Precision first, I think it was 1970 or around them. It was unlined and available with either a rosewood or maple board. Fretless Jazz basses didn't come till much later, the 80's I think, maybe even later.

This is accurate. I had an unlined, maple P Bass made in 68 or 69. I wish I still had it, but the fretboard was getting rough even then. 

[Paul S]

11 hours ago, Boodang said:

 

My Westone Thunder... first bass I owned.

 

That is lovely.  Shame they are so bloomin heavy.  Something about the tone those earlier Thunder 1a had was rather special.  A real 'Precision but not Precision' woody character which seemed especially to suit the fretless.  At the time the 'budget' fretless was the Squier VM Jazz, which was fine, but the Westone knocked spots off it.  It seemed like it wasn't trying to be anything other than itself.  The later ones were lighter but I wasn't so keen on the pickup.

[Boodang]

8 minutes ago, Paul S said:

 

That is lovely.  Shame they are so bloomin heavy.  Something about the tone those earlier Thunder 1a had was rather special.  A real 'Precision but not Precision' woody character which seemed especially to suit the fretless.  At the time the 'budget' fretless was the Squier VM Jazz, which was fine, but the Westone knocked spots off it.  It seemed like it wasn't trying to be anything other than itself.  The later ones were lighter but I wasn't so keen on the pickup.

It is v heavy! I play sitting down these days but I wouldn't want to stand all night with this around my shoulders. But the sound is great and I love the profile of the neck. I've got a custom creamery pickup in this one, i pluck the strings over the end of the neck and the sound is huge, a lovely woody tone i can't get with any other bass, even my most expensive custom. 

[Linus27]

10 hours ago, NickA said:

 

Giblins Zon Legacy had lines but there are photos of him playing unlined too.  What did he use on babooska? Unlined Wal I think.  I don't think Nigel Kennedy has lines on his violin either, and his intonation is not so bad ;-).

 

Personally I'm not bothered either way.  Being a cellist before a bassist, had music to read and no way to see my fingers.  Then in the 80s, when I first got a bass guitar, fretless basses were rare; had to buy fretted and rip the frets (a la Jaco!) and fill the holes ( with plastic wood!), but they always buzzed and wore un-evenly.  I gave up and had a new ebony board fitted to my jazz; fret lines cost extra so I did without - after all, the cello had none.  When an unlined Wal came up in my local guitar shop the lack of lines was no obstacle.  Percy Jones, Pino, Michael Manring, Mick Kahn... some of my favourite bassists playing unlined (yes Mick's tuning was dodgy to say the least .. but that was part of his sound). 

 

Each to his own. 🙂 

 

You likely have a better memory than me and don't need to look at a chord chart or sheet music.  Rarely get a chance to look at my left hand.  And the unlined Wal does look nice hanging on the wall.

Giblin also played an unlined fretless Japanese Fender Power Jazz and an unlined Stingray with Simple Minds. Derek Forbes played an unlined fretless Fender Precision with a maple board and Malcolm Foster played an unlined acoustic fretless bass in his stint with Simple Minds.

[Grimalkin]

Wants and needs. Do you want to look cool? Or do you want the ability to intonate well over the full range of the board? I'd love to see and hear this played on an unlined board, with the same intonation.... 

 

From 0.30:

 

 

[Grimalkin]

I haven't bought myself a different fretless for a few years, I bought this yesterday, Sire V2 M7. Give it a whirl. 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Grimalkin

[Boodang]

The fretless I want to get is the Vigier Passion delta metal... but the through neck model not the latest bolt on (I much prefer thru neck). I played one many many moons ago at the bass centre, very nearly bought it but went and got a custom made instead. You very rarely see them up for sale s/h. 

For some reason they changed the name from 'delta metal' to 'iMetal'! As the current trend seems to be to put 'i' in front of everything. 

[Linus27]

30 minutes ago, Boodang said:

The fretless I want to get is the Vigier Passion delta metal... but the through neck model not the latest bolt on (I much prefer thru neck). I played one many many moons ago at the bass centre, very nearly bought it but went and got a custom made instead. You very rarely see them up for sale s/h. 

For some reason they changed the name from 'delta metal' to 'iMetal'! As the current trend seems to be to put 'i' in front of everything. 

That's reminded me, I think Derek Forbes also switched to fretless Vigier, possibly when he was playing in Propaganda. I should of remembered, I only interviewed him once and we talked about it and why he chose Vigier and not another manufacturer like Warwick, Ernie Ball etc. hahaha

 

I do remember those basses as well, I think @ped or @Dood on here played one???

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Linus27

[Boodang]

5 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

That's reminded me, I think Derek Forbes also switched to fretless Vigier, possibly when he was playing in Propaganda. I should of remembered, I only interviewed him once and we talked about it and why he chose Vigier and not another manufacturer like Warwick, Ernie Ball etc. hahaha

 

I do remember those basses as well, I think @ped or @Dood on here played one???

What were the reasons he chose Vigier?

[Grimalkin]

 

[Linus27]

8 minutes ago, Boodang said:

What were the reasons he chose Vigier?

 

Here you go

 

 

 

He just seemed to love playing them and Vigier even made him a few custom models  

[Musicman666]

18 hours ago, Count Bassy said:

Mick Karn ruined fretless for me. However good I am (and I'm not) I can never sound like Mick Karn.

double track everything and you will surprise yourself…

[2pods]

8 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

I haven't bought myself a different fretless for a few years, I bought this yesterday, Sire V2 M7. Give it a whirl. 

 

I checked out the specs at Andertons but couldn't find any info on the toggle switches except "pickup select"

Are these just selectors ? Surely not, especially with a Blend control ?

[Downunderwonder]

On 31/01/2022 at 08:40, Linus27 said:

fretless Precision

They really should have called it anything other than that oxymoron. The Precision was so named because it was a bass with frets for precise intonation. 

[Grimalkin]

49 minutes ago, 2pods said:

 

I checked out the specs at Andertons but couldn't find any info on the toggle switches except "pickup select"

Are these just selectors ? Surely not, especially with a Blend control ?

 

The rear switch is active/ passive. The other two forward of it are 3 position switches, series, parallel and single coils, apparently.

[2pods]

Thanks.

I thought they may have been.

Not like Andertons to get the details wrong

[Grimalkin]

4 minutes ago, 2pods said:

Thanks.

I thought they may have been.

Not like Andertons to get the details wrong

 

I know the preamp from the Sire V7 5 string I have but I only found out about the switching from a little video on the bass.

It should arrive tomorrow, but the strings I use will be a couple of days.

[Dood]

9 hours ago, Linus27 said:

That's reminded me, I think Derek Forbes also switched to fretless Vigier, possibly when he was playing in Propaganda. I should of remembered, I only interviewed him once and we talked about it and why he chose Vigier and not another manufacturer like Warwick, Ernie Ball etc. hahaha

 

I do remember those basses as well, I think @ped or @Dood on here played one???

 

 

Not fretless YET, but I can hear from playing a few fretted models that a fretless would sing! Lovely basses.

 

I'd also love to own a Pedulla PentaBuzz. I've played a couple in the past, one at an original Bassworld Bass Bash and it was insanely nice - it wasn't yours was it @Kiwi?

[StickyDBRmf]

22 minutes ago, Dood said:

 

Not fretless YET, but I can hear from playing a few fretted models that a fretless would sing! Lovely basses.

 

I'd also love to own a Pedulla PentaBuzz. I've played a couple in the past, one at an original Bassworld Bass Bash and it was insanely nice - it wasn't yours was it @Kiwi?

I had a PentaBuzz ordered w/out lines or finish on the ebony. Absolutely singing bass - but I hated the Bartolini P/J active pu's. HATED. 

It's one of the "Wish I Never Sold It!" basses. 

I needed an amp for The Stick at the time and traded it @ Guitar Center I don't think it ever made it on the wall every manager in the place had played before I left...

[Kiwi]

2 hours ago, Dood said:

 

Not fretless YET, but I can hear from playing a few fretted models that a fretless would sing! Lovely basses.

 

I'd also love to own a Pedulla PentaBuzz. I've played a couple in the past, one at an original Bassworld Bass Bash and it was insanely nice - it wasn't yours was it @Kiwi?

Yes was it that one in a pub just outside Northampton... 2006-ish?  I still have it BTW but it doesn't get as much play time as it deserves!