Linus27

It's not something I've been overly conscious of, just bought what I liked using or could afford. My cab is a Barefaced so UK and my amp's are probably Chinese as they are an Ampeg PF500, Ashdown Mi550 and Warwick Gnome. My basses are a mix as well, American Musicman Stingray, Japanese Fender Jazz, Mexican Fender Precision with a British Shuker neck and American Fender Pickups and a Limelight which I guess is possibly a mix of American and British. Strings and leads are UK as they are OBBM and Rotosound. I would love it if Barefaced made an Amp head, this would be something I would seriously consider but until then, I am considering an Aguilar head at some point. I wouldn't mind a Status at some point as its not something I have ever tried but not sure that day will come.

Yes, this is what I thought, that the fretless Jazz didn't come until the 80's but I didn't say as I really wasn't sure. I wonder if the Jaco thing wasn't as big or recognized as a thing back then as it these days and why Fender didn't jump on the band wagon at the time.

I'm not sure that's totally correct. Fender first started making fretless basses with the Precision bass in 1970. I could be wrong but I don't think the fretless Jazz appeared until later. I can't actually find any evidence of when Fender released the first fretless Jazz only forum speak but my Fender Bass boom does talk about the fretless Precision coming out in 1970.

To be fair, he did say the AG is even cleaner, then mentioned the Megellan as another option but said the TH is a cleaner than a lot of other amp heads.

This is going to be the plan, try a different amp head first and see how I get on.

So its not totally representative as it was just in the bass room in the shop but I actually boosted the bass on the Tone Hammer to about 2, cut the low mid to 11 and turned the drive to about 10 and it sounded really nice. Running everything flat I found it a little bright so that may be because of the Aguilar cab. It would be nice to try a Magellan as well as a comparison.

So just a little update. Popped into Andertons and was chatting bass to the guy there and we got on the the subject of clean bass amps etc. He immediately recommended I try an Aguilar Tone Hammer as he said it was super clean. It was set up through an Aguilar 212 and oh my, what a sound. At first I tried it with a Warwick Adam Clayton Streamer which I must say, sounded and played amazing. Not being sure if it was the bass or the rig, I then tried it with a Fender 75th Anniversary Jazz and this also sounded amazing. Not as good as the Warwick but they were both bright and punchy and I could dial a really nice tone into the amp. He also recommended the Genzler Magellan which he said is a very clean sounding amp so it seems like you lot are totally on the money. The Aguilar however was amazing and even the cab being a 212, it wasn't huge. So I think a Aguilar Tone Hammer may be on the card and possibly swapping the Barefaced for an Aguilar SL212 if I need to.

Hi Chris, I remember trying your one when I bought your Two10 and being very impressed with it. It's on the list for sure.

I'm actually going to buy the 290 watt Warwick Gnome as a backup amp. It's going to replace my Ashdown Mi550 head as it's a lot smaller so a great option to slim down further. Not sure it will be powerful enough to be the main amp but I'll give it a go for sure.

How you've described the Ampeg is exactly how mine performs. It does sound great but the boost in the lows is spot on. I think one way to simplify it is I no longer need a head for playing rock but a head for playing Jazz. Will certainly check out the Genzler and the Gallien Krueger MB500 head as recommended. Thank you.

My current rig is a Barefaced Two10 and an Ampeg PF500 and I play a fretless Jazz using rounds. I actually like it tonally, especially when playing in a 50's Rock n Roll group, it gave a nice warm, full rounded tone. However, I now play in a wonderful acoustic group which is a singer/acoustic guitar, drums with brushes, beaters, shakers etc. and myself on fretless bass. Very chilled laid back affair with lots of space. I'm a very melodic player and gentle player and do quite a lot of runs and lead melodies, quite cello like in places. The band say I'm the more lead instrument in the group than anything else. I'm finding I'm not cutting through enough or clean enough and at times tend to get a little lost. I'm wondering if I need a more cleaner, hifi sounding amp over the warm Ampeg amp. Plus, I fancy slimming my gear down a bit if possible and losing the Ampeg in the flight case would be a benefit. I'm not too sure what to consider, I hear Aguilar is a fairly clean amp and something like a MarkBass Vintage looks interesting. Both seem quite compact. Anything from TC Electronic's worth considering? Any other suggestions or recommendations? I'm sure with some tweaking I could get the Ampeg to work but as I say, I fancy slimming my gear down and I quite fancy a change as well.

Thank you, I will certainly look at the at the TC and Boss pedal you recommend.

Thank you. I was kind of thinking leave on and forget rather than change during the set. I will look at the TC one as it does sound good and make sense.

I pretty much only play fretless these days and I've started to experiment with pedals. Got a chorus, reverb and octave pedal so far and apart from the octave, the chorus and reverb I'm enjoying using. I'd like to try a compressor pedal and wondering if the Behringer CS400 is worth a shot for a cheap effort or I should avoid and go for something like a Boss CS-3, Keeley or other? My Ampeg PF500 does have a compressor built in but it doesn't seem to do much but that might just be me 😁 I play in a 3 piece acoustic band with singer/acoustic, drums with brushes and me on fretless. Its chilled laid back songs so the bass is very melodic and doing some lead parts. Any advice on compressor thoughts appreciated.

Blimey, that was superb and I had no idea African music is played and communicated musically that way. It's like a totally different universe or way of understanding and playing music. Thank you for sharing.

That does sound lovely. I wouldn't say he sounds like Jaco but it sounds gorgeous.

Well, it depends on the bass. My two Jazz basses have Rotosound 66 Swing Bass rounds on them. Lots of clarity and definition and nice mwah. My Precision that has a maple fretless neck has Rotosound 77 Jazz Flats on it. Really warm, smooth, rounded sound and actually has a lot of mwah on the higher notes. I really like both strings but they give very different results and I wouldn't swap them around. Possibly leaning towards the flats but I tend to play the Jazz more. My Stingray I've just put a set of Ernie Ball Slinky Flats on but not had a proper try as the bass then went to the luther for some setup work. However, the quick go I did have sounded very promising.

Sunburst and Natural for me 👍

This thread is great as I now only play fretless and the gig I did a couple of weeks back was on a dark stage. So the thought of finding a way to see the side dots crossed my mind. Do any of the fluorescent dots actually work, even temporarily or are they a waste of time?

Welcome back to the madhouse 😁

I think they got lumped into the Grunge title along with a whole host of American bands that were breaking through at that time. Pearl Jam more so than others as they were a Seatle based group. Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against The Machine, Mud Honey, L7, Hole, The Offspring, The Breeders etc. All very different musically but part of that scene.

Nirvana was good but had no chance of getting any serious attention from me as Pearl Jam's Ten was released a month earlier.