Fretless toe dipper

[Zummerbass]

Never had a fretless,but after recent addition of Black Velvet to setlist now may be the time.

So,a decent quality starter fretless,early contenders are :-

Squier VM Jazz (tried unplugged)
Bass Collection Portrait
Vintage icon something or other

Any experience and advice on these or other options?

[RhysP]

Use a keyboard like they did on "Black Velvet".

[Grangur]

There's a nice 4 string fretless Fender in the marketplace here for £310.

It's not my bass. I've no tried it. I don't know the seller. But it looks a good deal to me.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Grangur

[Bassassin]

I had a Squier VMJ, was gorgeous. Wish I hadn't sold it.

[Mastodon2]

My brother used to own a fretless Squier VMJ when they first came out, that was a great bass for the price, I'd have one myself but really need a fretless 5 or a 6.

[miles'tone]

https://m.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_jb_40fl_sb.htm?o=2&search=1494115780

[dannybuoy]

My first bass (I still own it) was a Yamaha RBX270F:



Light weight, sounds great. Much better than the Squier VMJ I owned briefly too. I've seen them sell for peanuts on the used market too!

Edited May 7, 2017 by dannybuoy

[NickD]

I needed mine to be a fiver, which restricted my choice a fair bit. I went with the Harley Benton Progessive thing. Stuck a set of Fender flats on it (why they ship with rounds I'll never understand?), and it's fine. Well put together, plays nicely enough, stays in tune, sounds alright. OK it's not in the same league as my fretted basses, but at under £135 delivered I have no complaints.

[ead]

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1494136182' post='3293465']
My first bass (I still own it) was a Yamaha RBX270F:



Light weight, sounds great. Much better than the Squier VMJ I owned briefly too. I've seen them sell for peanuts on the used market too!
[/quote]

My first fretless bass was this, great value and pretty decent as I recall. I had it for around 3 years.

[therealting]

I have a Revelation P which scratches my fretless itch just fine for now. My last two fretlesses were an MTD fiver and a Curbow-style Tanglewood. It might seem a little out of place in my collection next to the Dingwalls and Sadowsky etc, but actually for my needs it's more than enough bass for me. Lightweight too.

[molan]

Bass Collection Portrait is a decent bass. I hardly ever play fretless but I also wanted something just to noodle around on and chose one of these.

[Byo]

Squier VM P-Bass fretless (I think it's called like that).

Great tone and a cool alternative to a J bass sound.
Mine is super light too which is a bonus.

[songofthewind]

I've got one of the Harley Benton's recommended above. Pretty good bass for the money.
The nut slots needed filing down and the G string was very quiet. New string solved that problem.

[Mister RLP]

[quote][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Squier VM P-Bass fretless (I think it's called like that).[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Great tone and a cool alternative to a J bass sound.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Mine is super light too which is a bonus.[/font][/color][/quote]

+1
+1 to super light, too.

In fact, both my Matt Freema and VM Fretless are faultless in their build and sound and play fantastically.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Mister RLP

[ead]

#firstworldproblems

[Kev]

[color=#ff0000]To state the obvious, please do not advertise any bass you may have for sale in this thread. Please contact via pm or link to a instrument you have listed in the Basschat marketplace [/color][color=#ff0000] [/color]

Seems to be a few fret less basses for sale here, have you had a check through them??

Edited May 15, 2017 by Kev

[prowla]

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1494832147' post='3298731']
To state the obvious, please do not advertise any bass you may have for sale in this thread. Please contact via pm or link to a instrument you have listed in the Basschat marketplace

Seems to be a few fret less basses for sale here, have you had a check through them??
[/quote]
Apologies for that; your site, my bad! :-)

[Chris Sharman]

Definitely recommend the Yamaha mentioned above as I had one of these which I have since moved on to a member here. It was a very light, easy to play, and fairly versatile itnro to fretless and funnily enough I used it with a band I was in briefly to play black velvet.

I am now on my third fretless, beware the path you are about to walk. it leads to a whole new realm of GAS...