Will fretless ever make a comeback?

[AustinArto]

I only played fretless for 6-7 years but I haven't owned one for over ten years. I feel like I'm letting the side down now. :/

Never played a Paul Young cover.

Oh actually I had a fretless Stingray a few years back but shifted it quite quickly - never got on with Stingrays. Didn't sound that great either.

[dannybuoy]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1491869342' post='3276067']


Makes sense to me.

Now that I think about it I think Paul Young's recording of Daryl Hall's "Everytime You Go Away" employs a fretless bass guitar and it sounds awesome.

Blue
[/quote]

Indeed it does, I've been after a fretless Stingray for a while now since seeing this!

http://youtu.be/HnnewhuLuj8

Also check out some Pearl Jam:

http://youtu.be/V3w7ixSNG_c

[GarethFlatlands]

Wish I still had a fretless, there's been a few recording situations where I think one would have really worked. I had a nice Letts 6 string but it was far too fancy for me and I felt like a fraud playing such a nice bass so I sold it on.

[Woodinblack]

I took a fretless to band practice last week, changed to it for one of the covers that I thought it would work for, and then just stuck with it. Apart from the Ska songs, it seems to be fine with everything and noone noticed a difference.

[ead]

I use mine quite a lot in both bands no real issue as you can play a fretless in many ways and not all of them require a chorus pedal and/or loads of slides.

[martin8708]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1491817076' post='3275506']
They'll be thinking more about their own sound in the mix.
[/quote]

This 100%
I've been rehearsing weekly with a band for 4 months now , one week I take a fretted P bass , the next I take a fret less P-bass .

No one has commented , to be honest no-one seems to have even noticed the difference in the tone or the nuances of the fret less .

I do have to say that the fretted bass is the better weapon in the battle of the "volume wars " with the guitarist's .

[Maude]

http://youtu.be/JTPMPjtdFPQ

[julesb]

Brilliant!

[Tonteee]

Classic Partridge.

Takes off the air bass to talk to the Inland Revenue.

[Yank]

After playing fretless exclusively for ten years, the question for me would be "why would I ever want a fretted"?

[matski]

[quote name='Tonteee' timestamp='1491820414' post='3275551']
And... the Yamaha DX7?
[/quote]

And Simmons drumkits...

[Tonteee]

On a slightly more recent vibe, maybe it's high time for a resurgence of the once mighty Korg M1...?

Italian Dance Piano Sound, anyone...?

Aaaaanyway, back on topic. Sir Blue, those cool sounding bass line on Paul Young records was a guy called Pino Palladino. I don't know if you already knew (t)hat, but I guess we can all (perhaps incorrectly) assume a level of prior knowledge.

Edited April 12, 2017 by Tonteee

[Woodinblack]

I have been playing live with the M1 for a few weeks. Actually it is the iM1 on the iPad, and it works as a good general chords for backing from footpedals.

[Tonteee]

Smart!

Does it sound sufficiently like an M1 to you, or is it lacking the 'heft'?

[SpondonBassed]

I didn't realise Jack Bruce was using one until I saw the clips on t'telly. It's already been said, the eighties coloured the public perception of what fretless was supposed to sound like. The great "mwah" is what does it, in my humble bumble.

Like the DX7's bell tones, the uniquely characterisitic sound was overused to the point where it became annoying. Neither instrument has to make that sound all of the time however.

Anyway... what about the DX7? Fretless has never gone away for it to need a comeback but we still are unsure if we'll ever see that keyboard on a stage, brazenly declaring its manufacturer and model name, ever again. I blame the theme tune of Eastenders for killing its popularity through over exposure.

[project_c]

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1492029183' post='3277378']
I didn't realise Jack Bruce was using one until I saw the clips on t'telly. It's already been said, the eighties coloured the public perception of what fretless was supposed to sound like. The great "mwah" is what does it, in my humble bumble.

Like the DX7's bell tones, the uniquely characterisitic sound was overused to the point where it became annoying. Neither instrument has to make that sound all of the time however.

Anyway... what about the DX7? Fretless has never gone away for it to need a comeback but we still are unsure if we'll ever see that keyboard on a stage, brazenly declaring its manufacturer and model name, ever again. I blame the theme tune of Eastenders for killing its popularity through over exposure.
[/quote]

The DX7 had a huge revival around 10 years ago, Native Instruments released a virtual version (called FM7 I think) which also became very popular in electronic music circles. 80s synths in general are still popular. The 808 is still the most popular kick drum sound of all time.

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='project_c' timestamp='1492032621' post='3277424']
The DX7 had a huge revival around 10 years ago, Native Instruments released a virtual version (called FM7 I think) which also became very popular in electronic music circles. 80s synths in general are still popular. The 808 is still the most popular kick drum sound of all time.
[/quote]

Oh thank gawd. I shall sleep soundly tonight. Thank you from the heart of my bo.... er, bottom of my heart. Mind you, you've reminded me of the dinky cowbell sound that the 808 makes so I might have nightmares that whiney Whitney wants to sleep with me because she thinks I'm somebody. NURSE!

Heeheehee.

[MisterT]

(ref the Partridge bit - that's Music for Chameleons by Gary Numan) The Numan fans all remember Pino very well indeed, he recorded in 1982 with Gary before he did the Paul Young stuff so we were all indoctrinated with that special style of his. It's been great seeing him go as far as he has.

Nevermind all that... MICK!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W14YmRABFFg

[Rich]

Ah, 80s synths... love em. Back in '87 my band had two keys players, between them they had a DX7, JX3P, Juno 106 and a PX7 piano. And yes, I played fretless through a chorus on some songs Though I say so myself, we were AWESOME *wistful sigh*

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1492037468' post='3277479']
Ah, 80s synths... love em. Back in '87 my band had two keys players, between them they had a DX7, JX3P, Juno 106 and a PX7 piano. And yes, I played fretless through a chorus on some songs Though I say so myself, we were AWESOME *wistful sigh*
[/quote]

Aw bless. We thought the same about ourselves.

Unfortunately, I have some four track cassettes that prove how naff we really were. The true talent in our band was the drummer because he played all of the instruments that his older brothers had learned on too. He chose drums because the others hadn't and to top it off, he sang at the same time. I thank him for bringing me back into the music thing having been put off it by school and those horrible Bert Weedon books.

The eighties were awesome in themselves. Electronic instruments went mainstream in a big way and shook the whole industry out of its rut. I was lucky to be in my twenties at the time even taking into consideration the threat of global nuclear war that was always in the news back then.

That the fretless bass came to the fore was remarkable in the circumstances. Maybe it softened the edges a bit against the sometimes harsh sounds of MIDI driven modules. On the other hand MIDI allowed Stock Aitken Waterman to establish a minor monopoly in the charts for a while. Heeheehee.

Edited April 13, 2017 by SpondonBassed

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='MisterT' timestamp='1492034797' post='3277457']
(ref the Partridge bit - that's Music for Chameleons by Gary Numan) The Numan fans all remember Pino very well indeed, he recorded in 1982 with Gary before he did the Paul Young stuff so we were all indoctrinated with that special style of his. It's been great seeing him go as far as he has.

Nevermind all that... MICK!

[/quote]

Good call. Japan was an evocative band.

[Bilbo]

I remember being told by a guitar player that 'fretless was dead' in about 1988. I have played one since 1986 (the same one, as it happens). Rock, Blues, Funk, Latin and Jazz, duos, trios, quartets, big bands etc - and all with barely a mwah!. It is an instrument that you make music on just like any other. The music changes, the sounds of the effects added to the instrument changes but the core instrument is no different to the other fretless instruments: double bass, cello, viola and violin.

[Sonic_Groove]

[quote name='MisterT' timestamp='1492034797' post='3277457']


Nevermind all that... MICK!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W14YmRABFFg[/media]
[/quote]

Wow thanks for that. Never seen it before, He puts some of the Dali's Car riffs in there!

B

[hubrad]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1492065945' post='3277534']
I remember being told by a guitar player that 'fretless was dead' in about 1988. I have played one since 1986 (the same one, as it happens). Rock, Blues, Funk, Latin and Jazz, duos, trios, quartets, big bands etc - and all with barely a mwah!. It is an instrument that you make music on just like any other. The music changes, the sounds of the effects added to the instrument changes but the core instrument is no different to the other fretless instruments: double bass, cello, viola and violin.
[/quote]
I remember being told, by a non-band person, that fretless couldn't work in a rock band. Fast forward about 20 years and one band I was playing with told me not to bring a particular fretless (I have a couple!) 'cos it was 'too agressive'!
Result!

[Bilbo]

There is a bluesy rock LP coming out soon on my which I play Fretless throughout. Watch this space.