Frank Blank

This is, I’ve found, very common with bands I’ve played for or worked with, small and big, not bearing about the bass player nor their gear, but some exceptions have been quite the opposite and those bands always sound the better for it. Any group of selfish individuals who are only concerned with their own sound and not the blend of those sounds is not only going to be a drag to play with but a drag to listen to as well. The simple fact of the matter is that the bass is as vital as every other instrument and as ‘of course’ as that sounds it is a) rarely acknowledged, let alone applied in practice and b) rarely defended or even mentioned by us bass players while singers, guitarists and drummers ruin everything because of ego and intransigence. I no longer have any truck with people who do not understand the democracy of sonics and I am incredibly lucky to play with people who don’t bring ego to the stage nor the rehearsal room. It’s a difficult balance to strike, especially when egos are involved but stand your ground Sir, you and your bass are as important as every other element of the band, don’t get pushed around because you are new or consider yourself lucky

Forgive my ignorance but could you explain the last bit in a bit more detail? I mean I understand the essence of what you are saying but do you mean playing long notes in the same key as the fixed pitch? Or some variant? I think when I was younger I would have simply tried to emulate Mick Karn but now I’m simply trying to find my own voice using fretless. I will forever, no doubt, be influenced by his playing but I play in a wholly different genre and, more to the point, I am not him.

Ha ha. I might do just that with the old bass when I get a new fretless.

This seems to be the constant throughout everyone’s advice, luckily I was doing just that, so hearing it from everyone gives me confidence. Because I learned to play by ear I am already naturally adjusting when my intonation is off. I am playing through our songs using the fretless but just as if it were fretted and even when I’m experimenting new stuff on the fretless I am concentrating on my style rather than sliding everything. I’m finding the ‘less is more’ approach definitely works in as much as if you don’t force the bass to do the fretless thing you end up with a lovely sound.

I’ll check this out when I get home, thanks!

Just google on stage telepromter bands and see how many rock bands use them. As someone who spent many years working backstage I can safely say it’s many more bands than most people would imagine who use them. I think the operative here is prompt, many bands have them there as much for security as anything else, in case they need a prompt rther than actually relying on it. It seems like a bad thing until you realise you’ve seen some brilliant bands performing brilliantly whilst using them, it’s just they can afford the type of teleprompter audiences can’t see. I suppose it’s easy to judge until you need one yourself.

I will check these players out and thanks for the advice. I think I’m in trouble with Pino and Jaco because both leave me cold, which is odd. I have been doing exactly as you suggested and playing tunes I usually play on a fretted bass on the fretless and trying to steer away from the slides, glad to know I was doing something right!

Instead of just watching my fretless Fender sitting in the rack gathering dust and periodically failing to sell it on here, I thought I might actually pick the damn thing up and play it. One of my very favourite bass players is Mick Karn, listening to his playing always made me very happy on one hand because he was such a unique and brilliant player but on the other hand it always left me thinking I would never be able to play a fretless like that... so why bother? Which was, of course, a ridiculous thing to think because I should play like me and not just try and imitate such an original musician, however it has taken me decades to settle into playing bass and given the years I’ve wasted dabbling rather than really committing to it, it is no surprise that I’m not much of a player on a fretted bass and I assumed I’d be hopeless on fretless, every time I considered having a go I remembered Mick Karn and laughed at myself. I digress... ...so I did pick it up and came up with a bass line that I liked, albeit a bit pedestrian, and with my duo comrade we turned it into a song but I was still stuck in this stupid ‘Yes but it doesn’t sound like Mick Karn’ mode. I had to put the bass back in the rack and have a word in my shell-like. Of course it doesn’t sound like MK and nor should it, it should sound like me playing whatever instrument I choose to play. A couple of days later I picked it up again and I wrote a bass line like I write bass lines and I have to say I’m rather pleased with it. On Monday just gone we duly began building a new song around it. Cutting to the chase after three paragraphs of waffle, I find myself rather enjoying the strange elastic-y freedom of the fretless, having actually tried quite hard rather than giving up the first time I missed a note, I find myself drawn to playing fretless in a way fretted bass never drew me. Anyone else on here moved to fretless and have any tips for a beginner fretless player? Any old hands with wisdom to impart? I’m playing a lined fretless and I’m trying not to look at my hand placements but I was one for looking on fretted too... I could have just written Any advice for fretted player moving to fretless? Couldn’t I.

I wasn’t performing, I was driving and tech for Collapsed Lung.

I still wouldn’t like to paint it and I’m still sorry.

Hottest - Phoenix Festival 1996, Guardian Tent, phew.

Sold an Ibanez SRC6 to Ian, pleasure doing business, deal with confidence.

Sold Mick an Aerodyne bass. A pleasure doing business with him, trade with confidence.

Due to a timetabling miscalculation (my error) I am actually at work... Bah.

Will do.

Anytime. I have relatives in Northampton and I get my guitars set up by a chap in Warwick, about 50 mins from you.

Excellent band, I once backed up Dub War and Benji wore one of our beanies, made me stupidly happy.

Isn't this some kind of ancient coracle we should be rowing across a ditch?

I have a 23.5" scale Taylor Mini-e bass that changed the way I think about basses forever. I went from struggling to play (small hands, smaller talent) 34" scale basses straight down to the little Taylor and found myself able to do so much more on it than I thought myself capable of, the realisation set in that I'd not been playing longer basses for thirty years but I'd been fighting them. Now I don't play anything over 30" scale.

That's a great name.

I believe there was a funk/punk band in Essex called Funky Monks once upon a time...