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Do you have to use chorus on fretless basses?


jazzyvee
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[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1456319809' post='2987767']
Well if anyone has any links to someone playing clean fretless bass playing with no effects at all I'd be interested in hearing what it sounds like.
[/quote]

Here we go: no chorus, no other effects, and minimal sliding around the place
http://cherrywhite.bandcamp.com/track/angel

[/shameless self-plug]

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[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1456319809' post='2987767']
Well if anyone has any links to someone playing clean fretless bass playing with no effects at all I'd be interested in hearing what it sounds like.
[/quote]

Listen to the Rolling Stones. Bill Wyman played a fretless in the studio.

No chorus because it hadn't been invented yet.

Prime example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4irXQhgMqg

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I'm sure I read, back in the day, that Jaco's 'chorus' effect was in fact achieved by running two stacks(!) with an extremely short delay between them. Applying finger vibrato then gives you an immense sound, kinda manual chorus. Tried it once with two amps, brill sound but I really wasn't up for doubling the amount of gear I already carried!
Meself, I hardly use effects, preferring rather to use my fingers, but if I do then chorus/uni-vibe can be fun especially on more fixed notes such as natural harmonics.
Each to their own.

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I like a little light delay and using a certain style of vibrato which rolls around the finger which never actually moves on the string.

The nett result is a natural chorus effect.

And yes, I do play harmonics quite a bit on fretless. With the same delay and the neck wobble effect. (Hold the upper horn with the plucking hand and wobble the bass back and forward gently) that also gives a natural chorus effect.


That's how I do it.

And I like it.

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I've got a chorus on my board, but I have an aversion to using it when I play fretless - I don't think twice about it when I'm playing a fretted bass, but there's something that makes me want to avoid using it on the fretless.

I think it's called 'taste'. ;)

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[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1456349194' post='2988232']
Listen to Rod Clements on the early Lindisfarne material - it's a fretless Precision and sometimes a fretless Rickenbacker.
[/quote]

He had a great sound on the first three albums. Bloody good player too.

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[quote name='sunburstjazz1967' timestamp='1456347193' post='2988193']
John Deacon played a lot of straight up no mwah fretless, maybe to the point not many people realised?
[/quote]
Please can someone tell me how you kill the mwahh on a fretless. I've tried relaxing the truss rod on mine, in the hope that it will help, but I still find I get fed up with it sounding like a sittar.

I'm playing a fretless Streamer with Chromes.

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[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1456351099' post='2988269']

Please can someone tell me how you kill the mwahh on a fretless. I've tried relaxing the truss rod on mine, in the hope that it will help, but I still find I get fed up with it sounding like a sittar.

I'm playing a fretless Streamer with Chromes.
[/quote]

Fingers

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[quote name='keefbaker' timestamp='1456322997' post='2987822']
Or one of my favourite players:
[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPSriFxA6r0"]https://www.youtube....h?v=XPSriFxA6r0[/url]
[/quote]
That is beautiful, love it. Thanks for putting up the link

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[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1456351099' post='2988269']

Please can someone tell me how you kill the mwahh on a fretless. I've tried relaxing the truss rod on mine, in the hope that it will help, but I still find I get fed up with it sounding like a sittar.

I'm playing a fretless Streamer with Chromes.
[/quote]

Resist the urge to slide into the next note, the problem with that is you need to be able to 'stop' a note bang in tune time and time again, you can still slide into position but you do it without the note ringing out, as soon as you pluck and move or hang around on a note adjusting it's pitch....mwah! Of course the mwah can be good so I'm not knocking those that do but the players like Deacon I enjoy where they play it straight and it sounds fretted most of the time but with the odd mwah here and there.

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