you decide - frets or no?

[jay4321]

With all due respect to Jaco, I think a fretless would be a bad idea for a casual guitar player who just wants to have a bass. It's a specialized instrument. The first time I picked up a fretted bass I'd been playing guitar a few years, and it's not that big an adjustment to get rolling at all because it's such a similar instrument. When I tried a fretless it was a completely different animal - I might as well have been trying to play a cello or something.

There's no reason you can't or shouldn't own one, just so long as you appreciate that your guitar skills won't be worth all that much when you try to play a fretless. With a standard fretted bass you can basically pick it up and go to work to some degree.

J

 

[line6man]

With all due respect to Jaco, I think a fretless would be a bad idea for a casual guitar player who just wants to have a bass. It's a specialized instrument.

As much as i love my fretless basses, i completely agree.
You need to be quite "fluent" with a fretted bass to get started on a fretless.
It's sort of like getting into violin or cello.
You need to be serious about it, and not just pickup the instrument once in a while. If you don't spend alot of time practicing on a regular basis, you can't play squat...

 

[SkuttleFunk]

agreed ...

and if you set your instrument down for say 2-1/2 years, don't anticipate your fretless skills to be gig ready with only a week or two of regular practice  :sad:

I still have a L-O-N-G way to go to get my once fluent fretless skills back to a level worthy of a garage band practice, and I had a period of a couple years where all I played was a fretless 5-string and an Azola EUB.

unfortunately/fortunately I know what level of skill I need to possess under my fingers to play out live with a fretless

all the best,

R

 

[tfarny]

This thread reminds me of my attempts to learn slide - fine for a few notes once in a while, but dang it is hard to do 'right'!

 

[hannaugh]

I feel your pain tfarny.  Slide is fricken hard.

 

[stubhead]

I wouldn't have a fretted bass in the house - I, too, like challenges - but I'm real glad I played slide for 35 years and pedal steel for 8 before I got into my recent fretless fanaticism... intonation and all that jazz. :toothy12:
The man's right, as long as you're willing to practice a couple hours a day (at least) for six months (at very least) it's no problem! it's doggy-work, scales and positions. I don't like internally-boring music.... playing standard (fretted) rock bass parts doesn't do much for me, but playing fretless keeps me toed-up and anxious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw2b73Yk7Hk&feature=related

(hint: this is not me, just a friend of mine)

 

[line6man]

and if you set your instrument down for say 2-1/2 years, don't anticipate your fretless skills to be gig ready with only a week or two of regular practice  :sad:

I know that Jaco obviously started playing on a fretted bass, but i am still amazed that he took up playing the bass in like a week. A week! and he was playing the bass!

 

[tictackman]

I am not going to argue, but at the end of the day a bass was made with frets and some bored dude just one day decided to take his frets off, there is no point, leave the bass be how it was designed, with frets.
Next, well will have fretless guitars and skinless drummers....haha.

 

[AToE]

I am not going to argue, but at the end of the day a bass was made with frets and some bored dude just one day decided to take his frets off, there is no point, leave the bass be how it was designed, with frets.
Next, well will have fretless guitars and skinless drummers....haha.

Ummm... someone else want to explain this one? :laughing7:

First off - fretless came first, (both on bass and all other string instruments) frets were added later to make it easier to play and louder/increase sustain etc. That's why the fender p-bass was named the precision bass, because the frets added precision for the untrained bass player!

Second off - no point? Complete control over the intonation of every note, violin style vibrato and smooth stepless slides from note to note = no point? Lost me on that one bud!

(sorry, I'm not actually worked up about this, your post was just a bit on the funny side)

 

[bpmorton777]

the double bass has been fretless since the 1500's i think.

Brian

 

[line6man]

I am not going to argue, but at the end of the day a bass was made with frets and some bored dude just one day decided to take his frets off, there is no point, leave the bass be how it was designed, with frets.
Next, well will have fretless guitars and skinless drummers....haha.

I agree with AtoE's comments.

First off, "some bored dude"? You obviously don't know shit about Jaco if you think he was bored. Jaco had bouts of energy that lasted for days at a time without sleeping...
Jaco's father said that when he was growing up, there was no "bad record" in the house. Jaco loved music thoroughly, and i really doubt that it ever bored him.

Second, Leo designed his electric bass with frets to make it more appealing to guitar players. Traditional bass designs (uprights) have been fretless for hundreds of years.

Third, no point? Take your finger and slide it from one note to another on your fretted bass, then on a fretless. I don't need to say anything else.

And fourth,  according to your logic, you should not play fretless because it's not the way the bass was designed. People do alot of things that weren't what Leo Fender had in mind. It makes the world alot more creative. Are you going to bash Hendrix next because he flipped a guitar upside down? That sure as hell wasn't how the instrument was designed either...

And FWIW, I am seriously considering a fretless guitar next...  Frets are very much a limitation to me.

 

[stubhead]

Finally got those crap violins fixed up, I see.

 

[dbw]

Isn't someone on here building a lime-green baritone fretless Bigsby'd Thunderbird or something like that?

 

[tfarny]

No, it's an Iceman! But that's not what Leo did, so it shouldn't be tried..... :sad:

 

[AToE]

I'd love a fretless baritone, but listening to myself butcher my fretless bass playing makes me too scared!

 

[AprioriMark]

I always laugh when my guitar player friends pick up my fretless when I put it down.  I show them my fretted basses, and they just assume it's no big deal.  After about 2 minutes of fail, they always say, "I have NO idea how you can do this."

So yeah, unless you have perfect pitch or are willing to put the time into it, do yourself a favor and accept that some things aren't possible casually, and fretless bass is one of those things.

Also, I hope the person talking about the fretted bass coming first was joking.  I mean, lol.

-Mark

 

[hannaugh]

Finally got those crap violins fixed up, I see.

Dude, those Wood Violins are awesome.  I want one, but I would never pay $3K for it.  I want to build one that is similar though.

 

[Mor Paul]

Finally got those crap violins fixed up, I see.

Dude, those Wood Violins are awesome.  I want one, but I would never pay $3K for it.  I want to build one that is similar though.

Most violins are wood  :laughing7:


(yes, I know)

 

[line6man]

http://band-orchestra.musiciansfriend.com/product/Wood-Violins-6string-Fretted-Viper?sku=475029