Fretless bass anyone?

[Mike W]

I had to put the fretted bass in the shop for new parts so I picked up a cheap Yamaha fretless (with lines where the frets should be). It is amazingly easy to play in tune (plus or minus 3c and often dead on unless I just flat miss a fingering--which I sometimes do) and easy to replicate some of the quarter tone riffs I sometimes do on sax. I wonder if years of ear/embochure work to keep a sax in tune (ha-more or less) help with fretless bass? Anyone else noticed this? Slides on this bass are cool too.

[tjontheroad]

I play a 3/4 Palatino fretless electric upright. I also play a five string fretted bass. The intonation ear traning from the sax has helped keep the fretless on target. Playing higher up the neck is more a challege. There's no fret markers. I played into a tuner and placed pencil marks on the side of the neck as a guide. I don't play it enough to get good at it. I play my five string more.

Enjoy yours. Those Yamahas are real nice for the money.

[UncleClark]

Since I started on guitar I use a Fender Precision 4 string for bass. Never had the urge to go fretless (yet)....

[Mike W]

That upright sounds like fun. I have never tried one. For fretted, I have a Peavy and (today) an Ibanez (one with flatwounds and one with roundrounds)--still more saxes than basses though.

[tjontheroad]

It is fun. Only about $590 street price.
http://www.palatinousa.com/Electric_Upright_Bas.392.0.html

[saxofunk]

I started playing bass about 5 years ago on a Tobias Toby 4, the made in Korea instruments MusicYo used to distribute. It told me (very quietly) that it wanted to be fretless. Mu pragmatic selfI knew that might not be such a good idea until I had a back up. Recently I picked up a very nice G&L Tribute SB-2, so, good fretted bass in hand, it was time to defret the Toby. It plays well, like Mike's experience the lines are great, up to the 12th fret or so, where the spacing gets tight and 1/16th inch of finger fat makes a 10 cent difference.

If you're into that sort of project, check out my web page - I had a lot of fun over the course of a few days.

[Mike W]

That electric upright looks very, very nice.

Hi Saxofunk. Playing five years, you must be way better than me! Funny, I haven't had any problems with tuning above the 12th fret (yet?). I do play a little more on the lines to pull it into tune there, I noticed. I have some smallish, fairly hard calluses on my fretting fingers. I wonder if that helps in positioning? In any event, bass is a blast, and for jazz, the fretless is my favorite.

[saxofunk]

Well, gee Mike, thanks. I haven't done as much in five years as some of the people I've heard tha actually practice daily... but I enjoy playing.

Some of the electric uprights are very tempting - I wasn't familiar with Palatino, but I have handled a Dean Pace a couple times and been rather impressed.

[Sasquatch]

I thought fretless bass was a nice way of describing an instrument you couldn't keep the payments on the frets up on.

[Mike W]

Payments on frets--I like that!:)

Have you guys looked at the barker basses? Kind of a cross between a bass guitar and an upright. http://www.barkerbass.com/gallery.html

[CraigS63]

I just bought one of the Ashbory basses (with the silicone strings), it sounds fairly close to an upright, but a lot more portable. http://largesound.com for more info/forums/etc.

[Mike W]

Wow, I checked out the web site. That little bass sounds cool. Great jazz sound. The price is not bad either. With that 18 inch fretless scale, how hard is it to play it in tune? How do you like it so far? I am sorely tempted...

Thanks for the info Craig!

Mike

[CraigS63]

I played my Ashbory for about half the songs on our last gig.
Disclaimer: I'm not doing rocket scientist bass parts (mainly just root-fifth and walks up or down from 1st to 4th), it was close enough to "in tune" for me! I think the key is to take the fret lines as suggestions and play by ear. I usually end up with my finger fretting the note between the lines on the fretboard.

I recommend giving http://warpdrivemusic.com a call, their "phone" price seems to be about 50 bucks lower than their "ebay buy it now" price, go figure.

[tjontheroad]

I played my Ashbory for about half the songs on our last gig.
Disclaimer: I'm not doing rocket scientist bass parts (mainly just root-fifth and walks up or down from 1st to 4th), it was close enough to "in tune" for me! I think the key is to take the fret lines as suggestions and play by ear. I usually end up with my finger fretting the note between the lines on the fretboard.

I recommend giving http://warpdrivemusic.com a call, their "phone" price seems to be about 50 bucks lower than their "ebay buy it now" price, go figure.

I use to have one of those. It's a cool little thing. Sounds good too.

[Gene]

My bass player plays a fretless 7 string and can play faster than any guitar or bluegrass player I've heard he 's a killer and the sound is awsome.

[64sax]

My fretless is my favourite of all my instruments, because it feels the most like a natural extension of me. It's a 1999 Peavey ‘Custom Shop’ Cirrus 4 Walnut Fretless (active, neck-through, 4-string, 35"-scale, walnut body, lined pau ferro fingerboard): http://peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/item/85870/number/00367190/cat/22/begin/11/Cirrus%3F+4+Walnut+Fretless.cfm