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Fretless bass, yay or nay?
I have been thinking about buying a fretless bass for a while now to go along with my regular one, and I've just found a pretty nice one that's in my budget. Do you think I should go for it? Sharing your experiences and any tips/advice would be very helpful!
It's been a hot minute since I played regularly but for a long time, while I was learning, it was incredibly useful to have a fretless bass around so I could "feel" the notes rather than just follow the frets. The sound of it can also be pretty unique so having the slick slides and hammers was pretty motivating.
I'd definitely get the action checked out as soon as possible to make sure it's comfortable and the truss rod isn't damaged (overadjusted/warped) as these can both drastically affect your enjoyment.
Overall, it's a slightly different skill but it's definitely a fun one that will improve the rest of your playing. I say go for it!
Thanks! I would really like to learn to play by ear more rather than just relying on frets.
For sure. Don't be discouraged if you immediately find that you can't hear things as well as you thought you could. It took some embarrassing amount of time before I could figure out whether I was playing off key or not for stuff I thought I knew well.
Try one out (even if its not the model you like) at your local music shop if possible.
If you find it tricky but fun go for it, its not for everyone but Ive made plenty of use of mine (homemade fretless 🙈)
a lot of people do not like them, even with a bad one you can usually get a sense of the power and/or disadvantages.
Can you tell me more about the homemade process? I was thinking about that, but it seems pretty risky.
It is risky, don’t do it if you value your bass.
Ive done it numerous times (3 guitars, 1 bass), the most effective method i found was soldering iron to heat up each fret & lift from the end gently with a thin chisel or thin sturdy metal device. Lots of time and patience.
Ive never done it without chipping the fretboard substantially, sonically i didnt notice a difference but it aint pretty & might be tough getting frets back in.
Again, do at your own risk. I did it on a squire short scale jaguar, I love it & still play it, but it ain’t perfect. - here’s it in action https://youtu.be/jDsFig-jUE0
I certainly don't value my bass since it cost me £100 and is pretty much falling apart, so I may as well go for it! Did you use any filler in the space the frets left?
No filler! I thought i needed it, but honestly i didnt notice any problems sonically so it just looks a little raw
Very fun to play. Hard to play in tune when playing with others though. Even legends like Jaco could be slightly off at times. It's just not possible to be that precise with the guitar format (compared to something like a cello), which is probably why the P-bass was such a big deal. It might be part of the charm though. I had a fretless Carvin that I sold ages ago. Kind of wish I had it back now just for fun.
Fretless anything will go far in ear training and significantly improve your musicianship, tbh. I played mandolin then violin for a month (didn't like bowing) and it was a huge step. The thing I got from violin was learning how it feels when you hit the right notes if that makes sense. I'm not sure how to explain it, but it became more like singing (which it also helped) than just fingering frets.
I bought a cheap fretless u-bass since I don't have room for two full-size basses, and it's been a blast. I find people in demos for fretless bass and/or guitar tend to focus on the weird slides you can do with it, but it's sort of fun to just play and not have the frets there.
As @cdb mentioned you won't always be in tune, even the pros aren't, necessarily. What matters is that you're in tune most of the time and not significantly off when you make a mistake.
Based on what others have mentioned, I'd verify that you are good at telling when you're in tune. My SO is horrible at being on key, and tuning a guitar is painful to hear. I played piano for 8 years, and I don't know if that's why, but I can generally pick when something is off key.
That being said, if you think you have a good ear at it, and you have a decent enough feel at guitars (and/or bass already), I'd go for it.