Beedster

You lot got nothing better to do than pick on this guy? There's more than one of you posted on BC re mental health problems in the past, need I go further? Go play your basses or find someone else to gang up on, this is just boring and sad, and really does not reflect well on BC as a community.

I've played mostly fretless for about 10 years. However, although competent, I've always considered myself a better player when using a fretted. I was pretty shocked on Friday to find that I was really struggling to play parts on a fretted that I can play without any issue at all on fretless. In fact, on a couple of tracks I was kicking myself that I hadn't taken a fretless to the session. And before you ask it wasn't the action, or the width/depth of neck (I'm lucky enough to have a matched pair of Warmoth fretted/fretless Precision necks), it was the frets. Anyone else had this?

Put a Barefaced Super Twin underneath an SVT-II the other night and it was glorious; tone, definition, headroom and heft on demand, totally filled the room without ever being boomy or overload. An absolutely amazing cab.

Guitar and bass sound great, as do BVs, and overall it's really tight. On the first track (HLTW) I can't help thinking shifting the key up a bit would help the vocalist cut through, she gets though much better in the second track on that basis. Great stuff though, well done. C

That's exactly it, you start to read it and understand it, and you realise that, unless you've got a very big space a long way from people who are going to get whizzed off, it's going to cost you a lot of time and money to do it well. I don't think it's coincidence that most of the great loud albums of the 70s and 80s were recorded at remote locations

Great book, and fair point re it destroying dreams. I looked into soundproofing my garden room, and to do it properly - nothing going out, nothing coming in - was quite simply not possible if I wanted to keep floor space of 6x4m inside and a relatively pleasing log cabin on the outside. Headphone studio with electronic kit is a very good solution for loud sounding rehearsal/recording, and good internal acoustic treatment a very good solution for quiet rehearsal/recording. By hunting around on BC and eBay I did the latter for under £200.

That's my question also, two completely different needs. One simple and doable on a low budget, the other very much not so

Which is some achievement

Yellow Submarine anyone?

He's not mugging anyone, I remember the previous thread people saying "he's ripping off the kids". Seriously? I'm not suggesting he's a world leading luthier by any means, but we've been here so many times, I'm just suggesting that folks move on and find something more interesting to discuss, Coleen Rooney and Rebecca Varney for instance

I totally agree, but we've been here before, and I was flamed for saying the same as you about a year or so ago. Comments about tech - coild taps etc - are perhaps fair, comments about him/music not so. But hey, on the internet everyone's Jaco aren't they As far as I'm aware he's a BC member as well.

All fretboards start their life fretless, so yes, an straight forward job for a decent luthier, but don't do it yourself! I imagine the value of the bass will be maintained if not improved if the work is done by the original builder also

String tension, action and tone are a trade-off; higher action and tension are generally more tiring to play but can produce a more pleasing tone. I gave up trying to play complex parts well years ago, these days I'm happy to play simple parts that sound good, and accept that high action is par for the course. YMMV

That made me smile, glad you got it back and that it's doing what it does best!

Had a lovely, albeit all too brief, reunion with Julian at Aber Station yesterday, during which he handed over a rather lovely SVT-ii. A true gent, in every way, I'm looking forward to having enough time for a beer and proper catch up next time

But we love you for it mate

Ha ha, fair point, although if I hadn't, I would still be playing a crap MIJ Jazz through a Peavey TNT combo, which would have been a far greater mistake.

I know you're not exactly a novice at this stuff Gareth (didn't realise it was you when I posted above), but it still suggests that there's part of the board around the 9th fret that's uneven. I don't see either of the above - low nut and flat board - as de facto problems on a fretless bass, whilst both almost always are on a fretted. I have the nut on my FLs cut to the level of the board, they're only there to keep the strings aligned with each other and the PUPs, not to add any height. I also have zero relief on my FLs. Having said this, playing style, tonal preference, and music genre will be factors in what works.

Uneven board most likely, although taking action up significantly should sort it. Sometimes happens with defretted boards wher the filler has not been fully levelled and sits above the board. Only takes a very tiny deviation from flat for this to happen on a fretless.