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Post by zontar on Nov 25, 2020 8:29:40 GMT
Well if this forum is coming back to life, we need some threads here as well. I am primarily a guitar player, but I like playing bass as well. A number of years a go I started to get serious about bass, and then decided to try fretless. After trying some different ones, and saving up I wound up getting an Ibanez SR500F. Beautiful bass, very comfortable to play, and it sounds great. So if you play fretless, have questions about it or just want to share picture or two, feel free to join in. ![]() |
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Post by Sgt Rock on Nov 26, 2020 3:11:04 GMT
I've always been intrigued with fretless instruments. I inherited a violin from my dad, but I've never tried to play it. one of the tuning pegs was loose and I just got it fixed last year about this time. I now probably need to get a bridge for it. anyway, getting back to the original post. with fretless necks, you must have to know the sound of the notes and their positions. right ?
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Post by zontar on Nov 26, 2020 8:14:02 GMT
I've always been intrigued with fretless instruments. I inherited a violin from my dad, but I've never tried to play it. one of the tuning pegs was loose and I just got it fixed last year about this time. I now probably need to get a bridge for it. anyway, getting back to the original post. with fretless necks, you must have to know the sound of the notes and their positions. right ? Well many fretless basses have lined necks or at least position markers to show where the frets would be. |
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Post by johnreardon on Nov 26, 2020 9:47:14 GMT
Back in the 60s I bought a cheap electric made by a company called Dallas. Looked a bit like the guitar in the link, but without the Tremolo arm. Anyway I 'experimented' with it for a while and as it was awful to play, I decided to remove the frets and sand over the notches to make it a fretless guitar and use a violin bow on it. This must have been about 64/65 so Jimmy Page wasn't the first to do this from 67 onwards. I had seen someone in another local band, so thought I would give it a bash. To be honest, it was blooming awful, but in the early days of what would become psychedelic music, the crowds loved it. I kept it for a while, but was going through a few violin bows so threw the runined guitar away  Dallas |
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Post by Die Bullen on Dec 2, 2020 18:22:44 GMT
Back in college I bought a Koa wood Fender fretless Jazz Bass. I never really got the hang of it and stupidly I sold the thing to a friend of mine.
He still has it, so at least it kept "in the family" but I'm positive he isn't going to sell it back anytime soon... He's already had it 30 years!
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Post by zontar on Dec 5, 2020 10:16:07 GMT
Back in college I bought a Koa wood Fender fretless Jazz Bass. I never really got the hang of it and stupidly I sold the thing to a friend of mine. He still has it, so at least it kept "in the family" but I'm positive he isn't going to sell it back anytime soon... He's already had it 30 years! You can always get another one--although a koa one could be tricky to find. Any pictures of it? |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2020 0:50:09 GMT
I've been intrigued over the years with the idea of fretless basses. Being an assembler of weird and wonderful instruments, I've contemplated putting one together with the frets removed and fret slots epoxied over. Two things that have troubled me....One, that until I reached a point where I really felt like I'd mastered standard fretted basses, there was no point in throwing something else into the mix, and Two, that if I converted a standard bass, all of the position markers would be in the wrong positions, so it would be tough to get used to. I have a friend, a flooring installer I used to work with, who developed an interest in learning to play bass, and the first one he bought is an Ibanez fretless. It's gorgeous, but I've told him in all honesty...I don't think I could competently play one myself, so it's crazy to think I could teach someone else to play it.
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Post by zontar on Dec 6, 2020 2:54:30 GMT
I've been intrigued over the years with the idea of fretless basses. Being an assembler of weird and wonderful instruments, I've contemplated putting one together with the frets removed and fret slots epoxied over. Two things that have troubled me....One, that until I reached a point where I really felt like I'd mastered standard fretted basses, there was no point in throwing something else into the mix, and Two, that if I converted a standard bass, all of the position markers would be in the wrong positions, so it would be tough to get used to. I have a friend, a flooring installer I used to work with, who developed an interest in learning to play bass, and the first one he bought is an Ibanez fretless. It's gorgeous, but I've told him in all honesty...I don't think I could competently play one myself, so it's crazy to think I could teach someone else to play it. I certainly haven't mastered a lot of bass tuff, but I decided to head in a different direction--partly because I tend to slide between notes even with a fretted bass--so a fretless made sense I've learned to back off on that when needed though--so it was more a different direction thing, than a I have this mastered thing. So I like it==but not everybody has to, and not everybody does. And I'm good with that. |
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Post by Die Bullen on Dec 6, 2020 16:37:35 GMT
Back in college I bought a Koa wood Fender fretless Jazz Bass. I never really got the hang of it and stupidly I sold the thing to a friend of mine. He still has it, so at least it kept "in the family" but I'm positive he isn't going to sell it back anytime soon... He's already had it 30 years! You can always get another one--although a koa one could be tricky to find. Any pictures of it? I should ask him to send me a picture of it now. Unfortunately I don't have any pics myself |
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Post by zontar on Dec 7, 2020 5:57:33 GMT
You can always get another one--although a koa one could be tricky to find. Any pictures of it? I should ask him to send me a picture of it now. Unfortunately I don't have any pics myself I love the look of koa so it should be cool to see it. |
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Post by zontar on Dec 7, 2020 6:40:42 GMT
Here's a video for fretless bass-three big fretless bass mistakes.
Good video
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Post by zontar on Dec 9, 2020 9:44:25 GMT
And sadly you can no longer win that bass--it has long since been given away.
but I prefer 4 string basses to 5 or 6.
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Post by johnreardon on Dec 9, 2020 10:21:13 GMT
And sadly you can no longer win that bass--it has long since been given away. but I prefer 4 string basses to 5 or 6. It's not 'natural' for a bass to have more than 4 strings   |
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Post by zontar on Dec 9, 2020 10:28:01 GMT
And sadly you can no longer win that bass--it has long since been given away. but I prefer 4 string basses to 5 or 6. It's not 'natural' for a bass to have more than 4 strings The 5th string on a 5 string is a thumb rest for finger players (Like myself) |
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Post by Die Bullen on Dec 9, 2020 17:56:31 GMT
And sadly you can no longer win that bass--it has long since been given away. but I prefer 4 string basses to 5 or 6. It's not 'natural' for a bass to have more than 4 strings Totally agree with that. Although I do know some bass players who actually use the 5th string so obviously it has value for them |
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Post by zontar on Dec 10, 2020 8:03:46 GMT
It's not 'natural' for a bass to have more than 4 strings Totally agree with that. Although I do know some bass players who actually use the 5th string so obviously it has value for them Basically, if you play in standard tuning you get 5 additional notes & an additional place to play 5 more notes. For some that makes a difference. |
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Post by johnreardon on Dec 10, 2020 10:13:40 GMT
Totally agree with that. Although I do know some bass players who actually use the 5th string so obviously it has value for them Basically, if you play in standard tuning you get 5 additional notes & an additional place to play 5 more notes. For some that makes a difference. It would confuse me. I think of the bottom string on guitars as being an 'E' |
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Post by zontar on Dec 11, 2020 8:25:45 GMT
So is it right to refer to a fretboard on a fretless guitar?
And is it odd I refer to my fretless as having 24 frets?
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Post by Die Bullen on Dec 11, 2020 19:01:11 GMT
So is it right to refer to a fretboard on a fretless guitar? And is it odd I refer to my fretless as having 24 frets? Maybe in that case we have to call it a fingerboard |
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Post by zontar on Dec 13, 2020 10:15:31 GMT
So is it right to refer to a fretboard on a fretless guitar? And is it odd I refer to my fretless as having 24 frets? Maybe in that case we have to call it a fingerboard I sometimes do--but fretboard just rolls of my tongue more often. |
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Post by Die Bullen on Dec 16, 2020 1:28:59 GMT
Hey at least you have a fitting alternative term
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Post by zontar on Dec 16, 2020 2:57:51 GMT
Well my frtelss bass is my only 24 fret instrument--most of my others have 22 frets. (And actually have frets)
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Post by johnreardon on Dec 16, 2020 8:27:10 GMT
So is it right to refer to a fretboard on a fretless guitar? And is it odd I refer to my fretless as having 24 frets? Maybe in that case we have to call it a fingerboard I never use the term 'fretboard'. I just say neck |
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Post by Die Bullen on Dec 16, 2020 17:04:24 GMT
I guess I say both, depending on where in the neck I am talking about
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Post by zontar on Dec 17, 2020 7:04:41 GMT
Maybe in that case we have to call it a fingerboard I never use the term 'fretboard'. I just say neck Interesting--I guess I have at times as well--such as describing playing higher or lower on the neck, or moving a pattern or chord form up & down the neck. I normally use it for the neck as a whole-(Which fits the use above)-or the back of the neck. Fortunately context helps sort that out. So whichever you use we should all be able to understand it. |
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Post by zontar on Dec 20, 2020 8:13:03 GMT
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