fretless bob

i have found fretless perfection in five forms so far. a lovely 79 stingray with a rosewood board that thankfully is mine the second is a friends 6 string fretless wal mkIII 6 with a walnut top that sounds amazing an 81 ibanez roadster with a coated maple fingerboard which again sounds amazing with a lovely glassy top end an acoustic bass made by martin with flat wounds, with your eyes closed you would swear it was an upright and the 4th is a pedulla 4 string buzz bass which had such a cool tone. still for me the best fretless sound for me is the stingray, i love it to pieces.

Hi Steve, so i sold my lined fretless sei and managed to get my hands on a wonderful 79 fretless stingray that sounds and feels amazing but i am struggling a bit getting my left hand positioning together (as the bass is unlined and using my eye is only so helpful i figured the best thing to do would be to get my hands knowing almost exactly where they have to go before i do any thing) and thought maybe a few lessons with someone who plays a lot of fretless would be helpful. are you teaching in london at the moment, im in harrow and am cool to travel. cheers Dave

i just bought this, a 79 fretless stingray, i cant believe i found one. i thought i would be looking for years trying to find one

ive had mine (a 5 string emporer deluxe, 35" scale, mahogany body, beautiful buckeye top kingwood board and aero pickups) since may 06, it was built in 2001. i bought it used through the groove shoppe in the states, the guy who owned it before me never gigged it once, it looked like he had spent more time polishing it than playing when i got it, but it as been gigged a lot since then and that is definetely what they are made to do. ive been on gigs when someone in the audience has literally gone nuts when they realise what im playing which is quite funny. i have never played a bass thats easier to get around, it is very effortless and balances great. as for tone they dont do what a really old jazz or p bass will do which is a tone that i find myself wanting alot lately but that is a silly camparison to make as that is not what they are designed to do, in my eyes nothing works better than a fodera in a jazz setting, for me they just work perfectly on that kind of gig, the ease of play and general timbre of the instrument just fit, they are great for the funk gigs and they slap well (not that im really a slapper though) as for price they are expensive but rightly so the materials used are very expensive and in many cases the woods used are very old, ( i spoke to Dave Beasley about it who picked the woods for my bass from the shop when he worked there and it turns out the necks woods they use now are at least 15 years old, when someone like wooten's bass was made the woods were up to 30 years old) which is the most important thing in getting a good sound out of a bass anyway and everything is done by hand and to a very high standard, also considering the endorsees they have they could charge whatever they want. if you want to get one make sure you know what your buying as options and sounds can vary

pino definatley uses rotosound rounds on his fretless, he uses the medium swingbass set which are quite a light gauge of 40-60-75-95