NBD: Fretless Telething

[Beedster]

Warmoth custom neck baseball bat rpofile, ebony board and bound, Allparts bound body curiously relic'd by previous owner.... Dimarzio PAFs, Gotoh Lollipops, Kiogon circuit, LaBella DTs. It sings, first rehearsal in anger tomorrow evening 👍

 

 

 

[Linus27]

It's a fretless so gets a big fat juicy thumbs up from me 😃

[ghostwheel]

The strings look like D'Addario Chromes, so two times thumbs up  Great strings for fretless.

[Hellzero]

Very nice looking fretless bass, Chris.

[W1_Pro]

Lovely that. Looks somewhat redolent of a fretless version of what the chap in ZZ Top used to play. 

[Beedster]

11 hours ago, ghostwheel said:

The strings look like D'Addario Chromes, so two times thumbs up  Great strings for fretless.

They really sing on this bass 👍

[Grahambythesea]

I think that’s not so much relicing but wrecking. Otherwise a nice bass.

[Rayman]

Nice…. Interested to see how that went. I’m big time into fretless at the moment, just not sure I could pull off a whole set on one.

[Bassassin]

4 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

I think that’s not so much relicing but wrecking. Otherwise a nice bass.

 

Exactly. Picture it with an immaculate gloss black top with that cream binding, matching the bound ebony board. That would look incredible.

 

Would be a bugger for fingerprints, mind.

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, Rayman said:

Nice…. Interested to see how that went. I’m big time into fretless at the moment, just not sure I could pull off a whole set on one.

 

It was rather nice, although using the rehearsal room rig I missed the top end my Mesa rig gives me, and given this was a new FL I struggled at a couple of points to get the pitch spot on (I need to do a little more work on the bridge setup, it was running slightly sharp by comparison with my other FLs). Either way, the bass ticks most of my boxes, retro/slightly unusual style, single PUP, fat neck, and really solid, so I think it's going to stay as it is at least through this gig. The neck - which is new, is sublime.

 

Re playing fretless for a whole set, I found the easiest way is to simply play exactly what I'd have played on a fretted bass as opposed to trying to make the bass parts 'fretless' if that makes sense. It's not always possible, but I was surprised how easy it was. Having said that, you do need to be able to hear yourself very well at least for the first few rehearsals, and the other instruments (including voice) need to be in pretty much in tune or it can be a rather emotional experience, and not in a good way..... 🤔

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, Bassassin said:

 

Exactly. Picture it with an immaculate gloss black top with that cream binding, matching the bound ebony board. That would look incredible.

 

Would be a bugger for fingerprints, mind.

 

Funny you should say that mate, come back in about 6 months.......... 

 

It's actually a really nice Allparts body, lovely grain on the back suggesting the same would be true of the top. It was originally routed for a '51/SC PUP so the odd gold finish covers some wood work that looks like it's OK but of course may not be. Time will tell 👍

[Bassassin]

1 minute ago, Beedster said:

 

Funny you should say that mate, come back in about 6 months.......... 

 

It's actually a really nice Allparts body, lovely grain on the back suggesting the same would be true of the top. It was originally routed for a '51/SC PUP so the odd gold finish covers some wood work that looks like it's OK but of course may not be. Time will tell 👍

 

That might explain why it looks sort of lumpy...

 

A proper gold top would look ace too.

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

I found the easiest way is to simply play exactly what I'd have played on a fretted bass as opposed to trying to make the bass parts 'fretless' if that makes sense.

This is what I do, including using a pick where the song calls for it.

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, ezbass said:

This is what I do, including using a pick where the song calls for it.

 

Pick, fretless (flats), sublime 👍

[ezbass]

24 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Pick, fretless (flats), sublime 👍

EB Cobalts on mine.