Fretless gigging

[fretmeister]

I love fretless - I did my first gig with it about 6 months ago. Was nervous as hell - now I hardly ever pick up a fretted.


I'm using La Bella Deep Talking Flats - very nice they are too.

[littleal]

Fretless bass playing: 1 Vibrato helps with intonation problems & adds to the fretless vibe nicely (you'll need to practice this to good effect)
2 The left hand thumb position helps so you arn't constantly looking at the neck all night (asuming you are right handed of course)

The strings i use on my fretless thumb (ebony board) are labella slappers nickel light guage roundwound as i like the sound & feel, many fretless players use flatwound to save wear & tear on the board but i could never get on with the sound or feel of them.

[wombatboter]

A couple of weeks ago I had a gig...some singer had his cd presentation and a whole band of free-lance musicians were hired to do the rehearsal in the afternoon (seven songs) and the gig in the evening (with a tv-station filming).
I did the rehearsal with a fretted Peavey Cirrus USA 5 string..I gave my music stand to the backing vocalists since they nothing to put their lyrics-sheets on and I put my chord charts on the floor (badly lit behind a monitor). Rehearsal went smoothly and we played every song twice and we were prepared for the gig.
Just before the gig started, I suddenly decided to make it a bit harder on myself (why I don't know, I'm a bit impulsive) and I didn't take the Peavey but a fretless unlined Lefay 5 and went on stage.
While I plugged my bass in I noticed a bassplayer in front of me who does 70 % of all the studio-sessions in Belgium. I asked the drummer what that bassplayer was doing here and he said that he had played bass on the album ànd had produced the cd....Hmmmm.
The drummer counted off and we started playing the songs, me trying to intonate correctly while reading chord charts on a dark floor...Not the easiest thing there was (but I only made one mistake)
I saw the gig on tv and it sounded ok..Although I cursed myself for my decision the moment itself, I felt ok that I did it and it got the adrenaline going.
Live fretless bass keeps you on your toes during otherwise sometimes boring gigs..

[Jase]

I can't see the issue with looking at the board on a fretless while playing, even if it is all night, who cares?

Just wondering about flats......is intonation more controlable than say using Steel or Nickel?

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='Jase' post='475735' date='Apr 30 2009, 09:16 AM']I can't see the issue with looking at the board on a fretless while playing, even if it is all night, who cares?[/quote]

Depends on your gig... sometimes even the bass player needs to connect with the audience on a level other than musical.

[Jase]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='475737' date='Apr 30 2009, 09:18 AM']Depends on your gig... sometimes even the bass player needs to connect with the audience on a level other than musical.[/quote]

Yes, good point...how you do that unlined, is beyond me I need stabilizers!!!

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='Jase' post='475747' date='Apr 30 2009, 09:24 AM']Yes, good point...how you do that unlined, is beyond me I need stabilizers!!![/quote]

It's like anything else, if you practice it enough it becomes second nature.

I haven't done much fretless playing in the last 10 years or so, but in the early to mid-'90s I used unlined fretless basses for everything, and sang harmony, and was often quite drunk/otherwise incapacitated. So long as I could hear myself I was always fine.

And before the lectures start I stopped playing shows under the influence after I over-did it one night, which wasn't my fault - it was my birthday and the bar staff and our tenor player conspired to spike my drinks and by the second set I couldn't even read my set list.

[Jase]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='475801' date='Apr 30 2009, 10:50 AM']It's like anything else, if you practice it enough it becomes second nature.

I haven't done much fretless playing in the last 10 years or so, but in the early to mid-'90s I used unlined fretless basses for everything, and sang harmony, and was often quite drunk/otherwise incapacitated. So long as I could hear myself I was always fine.

And before the lectures start I stopped playing shows under the influence after I over-did it one night, which wasn't my fault - it was my birthday and the bar staff and our tenor player conspired to spike my drinks and by the second set I couldn't even read my set list.[/quote]

I suppose lines don't matter if you're that wasted