Since I haven't registered over at TalkBass..

[palinurus]

.. I'll post here about my new fretless bass.

I bought it on a whim on ebay without trying it. I know this is wrong.

It's a Vintage (make, not age) Jazz-type bass. It's nicer to play and sounds better than my main bass- a '78 Fender Precision (it doesn't look as nice though- my precision is covered with a fine assortment of dings and scrapes and the sunburst on it is lovely).

And fretless isn't as tricky as I thought it would be. I mean it's tricky, but I thought it would be nigh-on impossible. Damn! it's great. Just throwing in completely uneccesary slides and slurs all over the place at the moment, and only going out of tune enough for me to notice every third note or so.

I'm going to be annoying the hell out of my bandmates in the coming weeks, only a matter of time before they invite me to the pub for a little chat...

 

[goo_mason]

Sweet!

I bought myself a new guitar amp in Dec after promising myself one for the last 20 years when my little 10 watt job (bought when I was 12) was on its last legs. When I got married 20yrs ago, the then-wife forbade me from playing the guitar in the flat as she was always 'studying' and I was distracting her, even with headphones in. (It was a studio flat). After a couple of years of gigging in a pub band with an old school-mate, that finished and the guitar got sadly neglected.

Finally this year I decided that almost 9 years after separation and then divorce, I wanted to play the guitar again (and almost re-learn it!). Bought a 30watt Peavey Vypyr and the associated Sanperra-I footpedal so I could access the onboard looper. What an improvment in amp technology since I last played - onboard amp modelling, 11 built-in rack effects, 11 built-in stomp-boxes, tap tempo, looper, digital reverb etc. My old amp had a spring reverb and that was it! I spent a fortune (for a young lad) on an analog delay, a phaser, a flanger, distortion and a home-made fuzzbox that was more of a massive gain booster than anything else. Now they're all (plus more) built in; no more dodgy short cables linking them all together or batteries going flat at the wrong moments.

The march of technology....

 

[Ferdie]

arrgh fretless!!!

I tried a fretless guitar and I sounded terrible on it.

I tried a fretless bass once and it was a bit easier; I just played it like someone showed me how to play a double bass.

I can make a wowowowowowwowwowow soudn all day

 

[palinurus]

Sweet!

My old amp had a spring reverb and that was it!

I liked those. I'd kick the amp just to hear the sound it made.

Thwadoingungungungungung!

You can't really write it down. Like this.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Got a Squire P Bass, trying to get to grips with it, but picked an arm injury up at Jujitsu, so not practised in 2 weeks.

 

[Night Train]

I still have a good fretless bass neck on a prototype quadraphonic pick up test rig I built when I was 18. I have been toying with recovering the neck and making a semi acoustic body for it.

 

[goo_mason]

I liked those. I'd kick the amp just to hear the sound it made.

Thwadoingungungungungung!

You can't really write it down. Like this.

I used to to that - just bang the amp about bit for the Dr Who sound-effects

 

[downfader]

I have a chinese Squire P Bass. The pup was pretty naff and wooley sounding so I emailed the Bare Knuckle Pickups guy when he was just starting out. I was one of the first people to have the Vintage Hot P Bass pup he used to make. Makes the bass that cost me about a ton sound like one ten times more.

I tend to DI it into a Bass Vamp and use headphones. Or it used to go into the recording gear... like one of the many preamps I own (Joe Meek, TLA valve 50xx series pre's, or just whack it in the Sherman Filterbank 2 and notch the **** out of it!)

With the fretless you can have a luthier cut and fill with thin strips of a lighter or darker wood where the frets would have normally been. Or put in some mother of pearl dots on the edge. This lets you find the fingering a little better. Or just cheat and use a thin marker pen and draw it on (not cool).

Best thing for playing bass is to buy a drum machine. Forget your backing tracks, put the drum machine (like an Alesis SR16 or SR18) into the hifi and chose a rhythm and tempo and just jam along. Bliss.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

I read that as bass fish rather than the musical instrument type. More fool me.

Fretless. Much respect to you :-)

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I liked those. I'd kick the amp just to hear the sound it made.

Thwadoingungungungungung!

You can't really write it down. Like this.

Not a bass, but here too. 2:15.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

[QUOTE 1286732"]
I'm going backwards technology-wise. I had a mandolin for Christmas.
[/quote]

I've got a 'lectric mandolin. Oddly enough it sounds just like a guitar through a distorted valve amp and a wah wah.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

[QUOTE 1286732"]
I'm going backwards technology-wise. I had a mandolin for Christmas.
[/quote]

I went backwoods a few years ago and bought a banjo, y'all.

 

[palinurus]

With the fretless you can have a luthier cut and fill with thin strips of a lighter or darker wood where the frets would have normally been. Or put in some mother of pearl dots on the edge. This lets you find the fingering a little better. Or just cheat and use a thin marker pen and draw it on (not cool).

Mine's got fret markers. My next one will have a nice smooth none-more-black neck. Obviously.

Played my old Fender at rehearsal today. I was thinking of selling it but I decided I liked it after all. Heavy, solid, with a nice plummy tone. If it had a thinner neck it'd be perfect.

 

[downfader]

Mine's got fret markers. My next one will have a nice smooth none-more-black neck. Obviously.

Played my old Fender at rehearsal today. I was thinking of selling it but I decided I liked it after all. Heavy, solid, with a nice plummy tone. If it had a thinner neck it'd be perfect.

Always tended to like the thicker C profile necks anyway. I have an old superstrat from years back (Palmbay Typhoon 3 before Palmbay got sold off) and that has a really shallow neck. I can honestly play better on a thicker neck when I do play. The notes carry more body too.

 

[palinurus]

The neck on my Fender is only fat if I've spent a while playing the new one.

I realized on attaching a strap to my new bass that I was missing essential strap-retaining devices so I set off for Sainsbury's in search of Grolsch so I could harvest those little red rubber washers from those fancy flip-up bottle tops for this purpose. Only the Grolsch they had just had the regular bottle caps which was no good. I bought it anyway, because I was thirsty.

Can you still get Grolsch in those bottles?