fretless bass?

can someone explaine to me what the big deal? im not having a go i just dont know much about them? do they sound better or something?

thanks

On a fretless, there are no frets as you may have gathered. There are no sudden pitch changes as you move up the fingerboard it is a solid rising note. It also provides more of a mwah. Most commonly used in jazz.

Mwah! I like that, it's good description of the sound lol.

They sound different, a bit like a double bass in that you can here the slow rise in volume of a long note to it's zenith with a corresponding slow change in tone as it fades away.

It's easier to get vibrato too, if you change finger position from the tips of your fretting hand to the pads then wobble them like buggery on the held note you get a wonderful yoingy vibrato.

Have a search on you tube for examples

Sound wise they covered it, but as far as playing feel goes, the difference is huge.
Fretted basses have clearly defined notes. Fretless basses don't, so they rely a lot more on hearing and musicality. You can play all the notes and all the stuff in between. It's less schematic and more feel.

oooo mwah i seee, im starting to get it, i love the sound of a double bass so they must sound good,(ill watch some youtube when i have time lol) thanks heaps everyone

Have a listen to some steve bailey, he's why I like fretless

i just watched steve bailey playing a six string, amazing! i get it now you can really get a different sound out of those things. do they have steel strings?

and the other thing that it reminded me of was les claypool =)

Dylan hergs wrote:i just watched steve bailey playing a six string, amazing! i get it now you can really get a different sound out of those things. do they have steel strings?

Yes, flatwound, normally

o ok cool thanks

fretless bass playing at its best. I had to show it with this clip lol because otherwise it the actual song takes like 2mins to get to that point. PINO!

danthewelshy wrote:

fretless bass playing at its best. I had to show it with this clip lol because otherwise it the actual song takes like 2mins to get to that point. PINO!

Dan! Dan! Dan! Dan! Dan!


I bet that never gets old ¬_¬

Lol I'd forgotten about that clip!

And searching for the tab to the full song and then trying to play it made me burn my roasted garlic you naughty person!!!!

KrysH wrote:Lol I'd forgotten about that clip!

And searching for the tab to the full song and then trying to play it made me burn my roasted garlic you naughty person!!!!

Classic Partridge it must be said

Another benefit to a fretless thats not been mentioned, is that if you've noticed that one of your strings has lost its standard tuning and is now a semi note higher/lower than usual, it's well easy to just hit the string in a different place.

But you'll never be able to play aeroplane by RHCP on a fretless.