Show your fretless!

[jazztele]

my xmas gift. douglas fretless from rondomusic...really nice for such an inexpensive bass--and i am having a ton of fun--really good training for my ear as well!




so who else is a fretless fan around here?

[graphs]

Nice gift!

I'm trying to think if I've ever played a fretless electric bass and I don't think I have. Seems like it would be tough to intonate. Maybe a short scale like that Hofner style would be a bit easier than a long scale?

[jazztele]

it's not easy...beleive me.

it does have side position markers which are pretty accurate, so i'm getting better. right now, i'm just walking lots of blues' in Bb.

[Tim Armstrong]

I played a fretless Precision in my first real band, back when I was in college in the 80s. It wasn't that hard to play in-tune, except when I sang!



I sold it and got a fretted bass!!!



Tim

[Phat-o-Caster]

My blacked out fretless J,Badass II bridge, Master tone/volume & blender, W/ black flatwounds + custom pickguard : like runnin' your hand up a fine ladies silk stocking covered thigh

[axmaker]

this one is really a p-bass in an upright configuration.

[jazztele]

Originally Posted by Phat-o-Caster

My blacked out fretless J,Badass II bridge, Master tone/volume & blender, W/ black flatwounds + custom pickguard : like runnin' your hand up a fine ladies silk stocking covered thigh

are those tapewound strings or just black steel?

very nice.

axmaker, i assume you built that? if so, nice work!

[Phat-o-Caster]

La Bella black nylon tape wound strings- I love 'em

[Mike Bruce]

Godin Freeway 5 string fretless (I pulled the frets) strung with D'Addario Chromes flatwound strings. I filled the fret slots with a dark veneer, re-radiused the fingerboard, dropped the nut slots, reset the neck. Turned out very well and became my regular gigging bass until that bass gig died. Still have it and use it though.

Mike Bruce

[HappyTelecaster]

Years ago I took the hardware, pickup and electronics from a rotten old Fender P-bass, the body of a pre-lawsuit Tokai Hard Puncher plus the neck of a japanese Sunrise Electric Bass and build my own fretless: for the finish I sanded the orange laquer off and painted it with blue and yellow Aquarell coulours. After two weeks the body wood was dry enough to seal the body with clear acrylic laquer spray. I let the laquer dry and sanded the main part of it off, repeating the procedure four times to reach a smooth but thin surface with an even silk effect. I didn`t use any filler on this project:

And though it consists of ten(!) pieces of wood it sounds and plays a dream!
Proof enough for me that with good quality hardware and pickups and some fine tuning you can improve any cheap instrument and make it a player.

[claudel]

Semi-home made Tele style



Guitar Mill custom chambered Ash/Maple body with Tortoise binding
Warmoth Maple/Slab Ebony neck that spent 15 or so years on my '64 Fender.
Hipshot Ultralite tuners with Drop-D on the "E"
Fossil Mastodon Ivory Nut
Q-Tuner pickups from Erno Zwaan
Telecaster style controls with 4-way switching, Genuine Vintique Knobs, and Electrosocket
Wilkenson intonatable bridge.
Stainless machine screws & inserts on all fasteners except the tuning gears



Rattlecan finish, assembly & setup by me...

[giginthesky]

claudel, are they maxima (optima) gold strings???
happytelecaster, PLEASE ADD MORE PICS!!! that is one fine looking bass!!!

[claudel]

Originally Posted by giginthesky

claudel, are they maxima (optima) gold strings???

Yep.

Maximas.

They're my absolute fave for tone and longevity even though they're expensive.

The gold really repels the finger crud and keeps them fresh sounding for a long time.

I stocked up when I heard they were going out of biz a few years ago.

I'm glad to see that they're available again under the Optima brand. I've heard that the strings are the same.

Someday I'm gonna have the metal parts plated to match the strings.

[giginthesky]

mij fender jazz
hohner pj
1974 pbass

[psycho gun]

hi,

I'm a bass player since 1990.

I owned from march 2008 to january 2009 a Classic '60s Telecaster guitar and came to the Telecaster forum, but I recently sold the Tele for a bass amp.

now I have a new heavy rock band and need at least 100 or 150 watts amp.

I had a LANEY Linebacker 120B years ago, really like this sound (sold it for some effects... electronic music...).

I found a LANEY RB4, 160 w.

I hate the RB series knobs, silver metal-like in cheap plastic, horrible, just take a look : http://www.rainbowmusicshop.com/inst...es/rb4pic2.jpg

so I swaped with those black and grey ones :



my bass :

- WASHBURN "AXXESS BASS" XS-2
- 1990
- fretless (I took off the frets)
- 1971 Eko bass bridge cover
- D'Addario Chromes 45-100 flatwound strings.
- I put Aria black knobs instead of the Washburn knobs : my first bass, from 1990 to 2005, was an Aria Pro II CTB, broken in 2005... I found the XS-2 a few days after in the music shop I wanted to go for a repair ; buying the used XS-2 in the music shop was the same as repairing the Aria, and the XS-2 sounds good to me, the neck is exactly the same in both bass... so I was at home.

enter the rocker :

[Zmatko]

I guess that's art noir you're playing, nice bass.

[psycho gun]

my Washburn XS-2 NEW PHOTO : I removed the logos (head and pickup)... masked with black chatterton.

[Chris S.]

G&L L-2000 with unlined ebony board and Godin Fretless Acoustibass, also with an unlined ebony board. Unfortunately I had to let the G&L go awhile ago, but I still use the Godin on jazz gigs. It really sounds remarkably like an upright: very woody and acoustic-y, not at all electric sounding. Of course, if I played an actual upright, I would get more gigs. But then I'd have to lug the sucker around. CS

[Manolian]

1992 Fender MIJ Fretless Jazz Bass

[martini]

I've just sold a G&L L2000. Exactly the same spec as Chris S'. (Amazingly, I had the same Godin Acousticaster Bass too!)
It went to fund the purchase of an NS Design CR4SM electric upright, so I suppose a fretless went for a bigger fretless
I've a feeling I'm going to regret getting shut though......
I dont think the fretless is that hard to get on with, I always prefer unlined to line fingerboards, its gets a bit tricky when you go up the dusty end but its just down to practice.

[fenderslaper]

Here's my frankenfretless. It's a '71 P-bass neck on a Warmouth body and DeMarzio pick-up from some time in the seventies. Plays great and I think the burst looks really nice over the swamp ash body.

[marshman]

Mine's a 90 MIJ, possibly the only new guitar I've ever bought...modded by moving neck p'up to '24th fret position', which fattened it's tone up a bit, and a Lace Sensor at the bridge pos, which is actually pretty bright, but since I rarely use it (both the bass and that p'up), I'm in no hurry to switch it back. Also made a b/w/b pickguard for it that looks great from 4 feet away, though a little wobbly-edged up close.

Sorry 'bout picture quality, only one I had on hand.

[Mike Bruce]

Originally Posted by Chris S.

G&L L-2000 with unlined ebony board and Godin Fretless Acoustibass, also with an unlined ebony board. Unfortunately I had to let the G&L go awhile ago, but I still use the Godin on jazz gigs. It really sounds remarkably like an upright: very woody and acoustic-y, not at all electric sounding. Of course, if I played an actual upright, I would get more gigs. But then I'd have to lug the sucker around. CS

I had one of those Godin Acoustibasses too, but after too many stage accidents I let it go very cheap. The top had been split and repaired, machine heads broken and replaced, neck jarred loose twice, and each time it was easy to fix and sounded great, but it had little real resale value.

These days my only fretless is another Godin, a Freeway 5, a sorta P/J style with a flame maple top. I pulled the frets, filled the slots, reset the neck angle, added ebony knobs and lighter machine heads. Plays beautifully, sounds great, looks terrific.

Mike Bruce

[stevetat]

[psycho gun]

cool one, stevetat.

[superchicken_VI]

This was my first bass, a Hondo I got in the mid 80s that had been around the block when I grabbed it off of the pawnshop wall. She's had a few necks on her, but currently has an SX lined fretless P-bass neck. Sounds great, plays great. I do need to swap pickups sometime, but I'll get to that eventually. Also has a new GFS pickguard that doesn't quite fit, but is close enough.

[TELE_BLUES]

73 p bass

[psycho gun]

maple fretboard ?

[psycho gun]

News about my bass : I removed the "tone" control knob, I always play with a low tone, so I did'nt need it. Besides, my XS-2 has a push-pull "volume" knob for series/parallel pickup, that's enough for me.

[TELE_BLUES]

The fingerboard on that bass is stablized tamo, japaneese ash like veneer w/ white binding.Igot it as a basket case that someone tried to remove the frets and took part of the rosewood fingerboard with it.I l also have a cool stiped rosewood USACG fretless neck w/ tele headstock awaiting a body

[psycho gun]

hello, it's me again !!

already posted photos but I just wanted to share a BETTER photo and the sound of my bass :

XS-2 sound example

[bluesfordan]

played a Squire J Bass fretless last week at my local GC. Had the fake frets, which did not even register on me that it was fretless until I had been playing a couple of minutes.

Are fretless inherently brighter? Could have just been this one guitar.

[giginthesky]

Originally Posted by TELE_BLUES

73 p bass

amazing.

[atoms]

Originally Posted by Manolian

1992 Fender MIJ Fretless Jazz Bass

Thanks for posting that! I have one of those from that era - but I have no idea if it is MIJ or what. Its been at a friend's house for a while - thanks for inspiring me to fetch it.

[Teleblooz]

My modified Kramer aluminum-neck:

[otterhound]

TELE BLUES , Sweet . I've never seen one with the pups not mounted in the pickguard like yours . Have you modified her ?

[TELE_BLUES]

Well what happened was i planned on making the pickguard with a pickup in the standard p-bass position and one near the bridge.When i discovered i had only one p.u. and had already routed the body,i just dropped the p.u. in the bridge position and made the pickguard with no p.u. hole planning on adding it later.I liked the way it looked and sounded with one p.u. so i just left it that way.I also have a USACG fretless tele bass neck with a cool striped macasser ebony fretboard awaiting a body,ah another project just what i need.

[psycho gun]

Originally Posted by Teleblooz

My modified Kramer aluminum-neck:

beautifull !

[TELE_BLUES]

Cool kramer does it have the split headstock?

[psycho gun]

NEW LOOK !!!!

now I've got a 90's bass with flatwound strings like in the 60's, a 70's bridge cover and a 80's look !