Fallen Out Of Love With Fretless

[Geek99]

On 06/05/2022 at 14:44, nilorius said:

I have a different story. 22 years i started to play bass with my first Musima white 4 string fretted precision.

I had one of those as my first bass also! Lovely instrument that I should have kept

[ezbass]

🧟‍♂️

Resurrection time. 3 years have passed, but now I’m well and truly back in the fretless fold. I recently took my custom Maruszczyk fretless to a rehearsal (Stingray-alike), just to show it some love and it sounded great. I avoided slides and vibrato where possible as the genre doesn’t call for that style/tone and it just roared, there was a definite Ric vibe to the tone, especially with a bit of grit from my VTDI. I was so impressed (as were my band mates) that I used it for a gig the following Saturday, both sets. The fretted spare (my usual go to bass) stayed in its gigbag all night. Since then it is the bass that I pick up first and I’m loving it all over again. Good to be back.

 

[Russ]

50 minutes ago, ezbass said:

🧟‍♂️

Resurrection time. 3 years have passed, but now I’m well and truly back in the fretless fold. I recently took my custom Maruszczyk fretless to a rehearsal (Stingray-alike), just to show it some love and it sounded great. I avoided slides and vibrato where possible as the genre doesn’t call for that style/tone and it just roared, there was a definite Ric vibe to the tone, especially with a bit of grit from my VTDI. I was so impressed (as were my band mates) that I used it for a gig the following Saturday, both sets. The fretted spare (my usual go to bass) stayed in its gigbag all night. Since then it is the bass that I pick up first and I’m loving it all over again. Good to be back.

 

Is it one of their new Jazzus "The Man" basses? Would love to give one of those a try. 

 

I've gone through these phases - had a stint where I went back to J-style basses for a while, then played only 4-string with a pick for a while because I was rediscovering 1980s goth, but I'm firmly back in my 6-string fretted/fretless comfort zone now. 

[Beedster]

On 05/05/2022 at 21:07, Beedster said:

Happened to me with fretted bass about three years ago, and with fretless about one year ago, and now I have zero bass guitars and two double basses. The cycle of life. I can't see me going back

f*** me, what a load of bollocks that turned out to be 😂

[ezbass]

29 minutes ago, Russ said:

Is it one of their new Jazzus "The Man" basses? Would love to give one of those a try. 

No, it’s an Elwood L that I’ve had for over 9 years. 

[Russ]

29 minutes ago, ezbass said:

No, it’s an Elwood L that I’ve had for over 9 years. 

That's a bit nice, that.  Guessing the scratchplate was a custom addition? 

[ezbass]

16 minutes ago, Russ said:

Guessing the scratchplate was a custom addition? 

Yes, it is. It’s actually a clear one, with a celluloid, tort sheet under it (it’s the same thing stuff they stick on acoustic guitars). The whole thing is a custom build, ordered way before they introduced their configurator. 33” scale, chambered, drop D tuner, 41mm nut width, passive (control 3 is a series/single/parallel rotary). In addition to the scratchplate, I’ve upgraded the pickup to a Delano and added the Sadowsky type knobs. Weighs in at 3.2kg (in true UK style, I’ve mixed my weights and measures between metric and imperial, what other country does that? Fuel bought in litres, but economy measured in mpg is another example). 
 

16 minutes ago, Russ said:

That's a bit nice, that.  

Ta, it really is. Ordered back when Maruszczyk were just starting to get some traction here.

[Stub Mandrel]

For me fretless has always been a bit like an effects pedal... something you only pull out when it fits the song.

 

That said, last year I got carried away and played a whole blues set on mine. The audience reacted as if they'd never seen a fretless before, which was good for the ego 😁 but I've resisted repeating the exercise except the odd rehearsal. 

[Boodang]

At the start of this post I said I'd just had a custom fretless made but as we'd just gone on a three year posting it didn't make the journey and spent it's time in the UK only getting played on the odd trip I made back. Well, now we've moved back to Europe and the bass is with me and in fact is the first time I've heard it plugged in. I've waited 3 years to hear those custom weather report pups! Of course it sounds as good as it plays. Just need to find a band to play it in now. 

[42Hz]

9 hours ago, ezbass said:

I’ve mixed my weights and measures between metric and imperial,

☝️😁

[ezbass]

14 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

For me fretless has always been a bit like an effects pedal... something you only pull out when it fits the song.

 

That said, last year I got carried away and played a whole blues set on mine. The audience reacted as if they'd never seen a fretless before, which was good for the ego 😁 but I've resisted repeating the exercise except the odd rehearsal. 

If played avoiding overuse of vibrato and not sliding into every note, most people won’t notice. Listen to Boz Burrell on the first 2 Bad Co albums, there are clues to the use of fretless, but they are very, very subtle and if you don’t know what to listen for, they’re easy missed.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, ezbass said:

If played avoiding overuse of vibrato and not sliding into every note, most people won’t notice. Listen to Boz Burrell on the first 2 Bad Co albums, there are clues to the use of fretless, but they are very, very subtle and if you don’t know what to listen for, they’re easy missed.

 

Very true. But is it worth playing fretless if it sounds like a fretted bass?

[ghostwheel]

3 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Very true. But is it worth playing fretless if it sounds like a fretted bass?

Isn’t that good for the ego?  

[ezbass]

19 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Very true. But is it worth playing fretless if it sounds like a fretted bass?

I prefer the feel of my fretless and it has a different pickup config to my fretted, so I can play it to sound as close as poss to a fretted version of that bass, but still add the occasional fretless flourish if the mood takes me/is appropriate. 

[Spoombung]

I took up fretted bass seriously for my band, Prescott after playing fretless bass for decades.

 

Obviously it depends on the music you're making - in my case quite tricky tunes - but frets made it easier and frankly more enjoyable and the difference in sound was quite refreshing.

I gradually brought the fretless in again for the second album but I recommend giving fretless a break.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, Spoombung said:

I recommend giving fretless a break.

Three and a half years break from playing it for me (other than the odd noodle at home). It really has made me appreciate it more. 
 

Spurred on by my use of the fretless at the last rehearsal and gig, I carried out a comparison experiment that you can’t achieve under normal gig/rehearsal conditions, just to check if it wasn’t just the different feel and tone of the instrument that was making me feel so good about it (emperor’s new clothes and all that). I copied an old live recording I had from about 10 years ago into GarageBand, sucked out all the bass frequencies and recorded 4 new bass lines, using different basses, both clean and driven. I was surprised by the results. Not only did the fretless sound better in the mix than the fretted bass, both clean and driven, but the driven, fretless tone was the out and out winner.

Edited 4 hours ago by ezbass

[dclaassen]

Played my fretless last night at an acoustic jam in our village. I had to feel my way through a few unfamiliar tunes, but it felt great and blended very well. I enjoy having three options..passive p/j with rounds, active soap bar with flats, and the fretless. I believe these cover all situations  I’m likely to experience.

[Russ]

1 hour ago, ezbass said:

Three and a half years break from playing it for me (other than the odd noodle at home). It really has made me appreciate it more. 
 

Spurred on by my use of the fretless at the last rehearsal and gig, I carried out a comparison experiment that you can’t achieve under normal gig/rehearsal conditions, just to check if it wasn’t just the different feel and tone of the instrument that was making me feel so good about it (emperor’s new clothes and all that). I copied an old live recording I had from about 10 years ago into GarageBand, sucked out all the bass frequencies and recorded 4 new bass lines, using different basses, both clean and driven. I was surprised by the results. Not only did the fretless sound better in the mix than the fretted bass, both clean and driven, but the driven, fretless tone was the out and out winner.

There's some really interesting tonal interactions you can get with a combination of a fretless, a compressor and some overdrive - with the right balance, you get a tone that is creamy and warm, but cuts through everything and sits perfectly in a mix without overwhelming everything else.

 

You're playing the effects as much as you're playing the bass at that point, but it's worth it. 

[Bagman]

My purchase for next year will be a fretless 5 

 

I practice quite a bit on fretless , lots of slow - mid tempo walking 

[Bagman]

1 minute ago, Russ said:

There's some really interesting tonal interactions you can get with a combination of a fretless, a compressor and some overdrive - with the right balance, you get a tone that is creamy and warm, but cuts through everything and sits perfectly in a mix without overwhelming everything else.

 

You're playing the effects as much as you're playing the bass at that point, but it's worth it. 

fretless Stingray 2EQ

FTT Silky Comp VCA type

Wounded Paw very light overdrive 

 

joy to the world 

[ezbass]

29 minutes ago, Russ said:

There's some really interesting tonal interactions you can get with a combination of a fretless, a compressor and some overdrive - with the right balance, you get a tone that is creamy and warm, but cuts through everything and sits perfectly in a mix without overwhelming everything else.

Sadowsky SBP2 into an MXR M87 comp, into a VTDI, works a treat with rockier tunes.

[Russ]

29 minutes ago, Bagman said:

fretless Stingray 2EQ

FTT Silky Comp VCA type

Wounded Paw very light overdrive 

 

joy to the world 

It's like when you watch those "isolated bass" videos on Youtube - the tone is often pretty unpleasant when solo'd, but perfect when heard in its proper context. 

 

I got to hear that first hand the last time the band and I did some recording earlier this year - I laid down some fretless, and once it was in the mix with heavy guitars and a drummer who's not shy with his double-kick pedal, it became a bit hard to hear. Just sorta rumbled under everything. So the engineer and I sat down, we tweaked the compression (I use a fair bit of compression anyway), added some overdrive and did a little EQ'ing and frequency slotting, and, all of a sudden, there it was, a big, warm, supportive-yet-audible fretless tone. Soloed it doesn't sound great, but it works when combined with everything else.