Callumjord Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Hi there folk's, recently I have had a growing gas for a fretless bass. I've never played fretless bass before and I am looking to just dip my toes into the fretless world. What would you guys recommend as a good bass to get into the world of bass? I have been looking at a Sire m7 and also a squire P bass fretless. Do any users here have experience with these basses? What other fretless bass would be good for starting out on? Thanks :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BreadBin Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Something with a lined fingerboard, it's easier to see where to put your fingers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassassin Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 If you're OK with Jazz neck dimensions you won't go far wrong with a Squier VMJ, nice used ones turn up for around £150 - £200. Still kicking myself for selling mine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 PMd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 My first was an uber-cheap uber-heavy thing, branded Jackson or Johnson or something. As first baby steps in the world of fretless, it was fine. There really don't seem to be any genuinely bad basses these days. Even the ones you think are dodgy usually just need a set-up. CNC and QC will have that effect. Be warned though. I finally discovered what fretless could really be like when I bought a £2000 Wal. You may be starting a long and expensive journey .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cato Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 (edited) 6 hours ago, Callumjord said: Hi there folk's, recently I have had a growing gas for a fretless bass. I've never played fretless bass before and I am looking to just dip my toes into the fretless world. What would you guys recommend as a good bass to get into the world of bass? I have been looking at a Sire m7 and also a squire P bass fretless. Do any users here have experience with these basses? What other fretless bass would be good for starting out on? Thanks I took the plunge at the start of the year with a Sire V7 fretless. The bass is great. It sounds lovely on the rare occasions I manage to to get the fingers on my left hand in exactly the right positions on the fretboard. My only tip, as a novice myself, is to record yourself playing along to songs you can play easily on a fretted bass and then listen back. Only then will you hear just how good or (in my case) bad your intonation is. Edited June 17, 2018 by Cato 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dom in Dorset Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Avoid the use of a chorus pedal unless you with to be permanently exiled to the 1980's. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 In preparation you can try playing your fretted bass with your eyes closed and aim to get your fingers just behind the fret wire. That's the main difference (apart from slides) - you don't have that margin of error of the full fret width. Where are you based? There may be a fellow member willing to loan you one to try out. I'm in Leicester and you're quite welcome to borrow my Mexican Jazz for a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lownote Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 (edited) Scott has just posted a review of fretless. Don't take the title too literally, it's more about fretless pros and cons... Everyone has to try one, but the general consensus is Mwah and vibrato are fun for five minutes, the real pros play it like a fretted bass, so why not buy a fretted bass and make life easy. Edited June 18, 2018 by lownote12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 52 minutes ago, lownote12 said: Scott has just posted a review of fretless. Don't take the title too literally, it's more about fretless pros and cons... Everyone has to try one, but the general consensus is Mwah and vibrato are fun for five minutes, the real pros play it like a fretted bass, so why not buy a fretted bass and make life easy. Tell that to Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam). They wouldn't sound the same without it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 1 hour ago, lownote12 said: Everyone has to try one, but the general consensus is Mwah and vibrato are fun for five minutes, the real pros play it like a fretted bass, so why not buy a fretted bass and make life easy. The consensus is crap. Have a listen to John Giblin, Mick Karn, Percy Jones, Alain Caron, Pino's work with Paul Young, and tell me they're playing it like a fretted bass. Nah. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc S Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 15 hours ago, Bassassin said: If you're OK with Jazz neck dimensions you won't go far wrong with a Squier VMJ, nice used ones turn up for around £150 - £200. Still kicking myself for selling mine. Yes, I'd go for a Squier Vintage Modified Jazz. Having owned both a Fretless Jazz, and Fretless P - I like the flexibility you get with 2 J pickups The Squier VM Fretless Jazz is excellent value for money, well built and just generally a really nice bass. I sold mine, and got myself a MIJ Fretless Jazz The MIJ is lovely, but actually not that much of an improvement on the Squier! Must admit, I'm sorry I sold my VMJ too - it was lovely The VM Precision is a nice bass too. I also once picked up a "Vintage" brand Fretless Jazz, and that was surprisingly good for the money Getting any of these second-hand, you won't be losing much (if any) cash, should you decide to upgrade or sell on, if you decide fretless is not for you Good luck with your search Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealting Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 I have two brilliant fretlesses in the Classifieds at the moment, a Revelation and an MTD. Both excellent value for money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cato Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, lownote12 said: Scott has just posted a review of fretless. Don't take the title too literally, it's more about fretless pros and cons... Everyone has to try one, but the general consensus is Mwah and vibrato are fun for five minutes, the real pros play it like a fretted bass, so why not buy a fretted bass and make life easy. There's a shedload of mwah in that video. Interesting clip though. Edited June 18, 2018 by Cato Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BreadBin Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 2 hours ago, Rich said: The consensus is crap. Agreed, the very point of a fretless is that it sounds different to one with frets. It's the slips and slides that give it the magic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 43 minutes ago, BreadBin said: Agreed, the very point of a fretless is that it sounds different to one with frets. It's the slips and slides that give it the magic. I think it looks cool. I sometime take a fretless to my rock band gigs. It just looks great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk_lefty Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 45 minutes ago, BreadBin said: Agreed, the very point of a fretless is that it sounds different to one with frets. It's the slips and slides that give it the magic. Exactly! But you don't always have to slip, slide or mwah around the board so you can use a fretless as your sole instrument for most gigs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wambamalubop Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 On 17/06/2018 at 18:03, Callumjord said: Hi there folk's, recently I have had a growing gas for a fretless bass. I've never played fretless bass before and I am looking to just dip my toes into the fretless world. What would you guys recommend as a good bass to get into the world of bass? I have been looking at a Sire m7 and also a squire P bass fretless. Do any users here have experience with these basses? What other fretless bass would be good for starting out on? Thanks Did you get one? I’m late to the thread but in case anyone finds it later I want to give the Marcus Miller Jazz a bit of love. My first fretless was an Epiphone copy in the late 1970’s that I pulled the frets from. So recently I wanted to buy a Fretless and money was not an object, but I was curious about the very inexpensive basses available, I bought and returned the following basses in my search for my ideal Fretless 1. Thomann Harley Benton Jazz copy, Just about £130 or so. Looked beautiful and sounded good, but there was a pretty dead G string so it went back. It was tough to send back it looked so damn pretty. 2. Squier VM Fretless, again in sunburst. I think in the £300 range. Again, beautiful to look at, but I just hated the ‘plastic’ fingerboard, couldn’t stand the sound of the strings slapping against it. Sent it back. 3. Fender American Professional in Black, Fretless. I think about £1500. I decided that money should not be an object. As an owner of a Fender American fretted Jazz this seemed the safe option. But despite its beauty this bass failed to impress. It had a lined neck and I could clearly ‘hear the lines’ when I used glissando, overall I felt a lack of character and the desired mwah, but that was something to do with my playing. Sent it back as it was a lot of money if I was not in love with it. 4. Finally bought the Sire with a Rosewood neck in sunburst. A nice looking bass but didn’t visually float my boat like the cheapest HB in terms of appearance. But... hit the spot in terms of a) build quality as good as the American Pro, b) with the active off a good sounding passive bass but with the active there’s access to a variety of tones, a good active circuit c) most importantly the fretboard is coated in epoxy and is glass smooth, so there is no residual sound from the fretlines, this is of course how Jaco finished his own bass of doom, glass smooth. I can get a variety of sounds out of this and more recently finally nailed that ‘mwah’ technique with LaBella black tapewound strings giving me completely noise free glissando. So now I can play those Percy Jones licks and special effects, completely clean harmonic glissandos. I have to try hard not to buy more of them as I really don’t need them, but I’d love one in natural with a rosewood neck, easily achieveable by buying two and swapping them. My only problem is I can’t get the intonation of the G string adjusted quite right, its sharp above the 12th fret no matter how I fiddle with the saddle, needs a professional setup I think. But the beauty is that I can adjust my playing to sharpen the notes when I play up there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2112 Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 For me, there could only be the Pedulla 'Buzz (in my case, a Pentabuzz). It is the absolute epitome of the fretless bass. Not cheap, but I made the mistake of playing one when I was 18 and I knew then I'd have to get some some day! At the cheaper end of the scale, I used to own a Squier VM fretless jazz that was really good for the price. The Bass Collection also do a sunburst fretless jazz that looks pretty cool, I think Bass Direct sell them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahambythesea Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 I can recommend the Spector Spectorcore fretless. My 4th fretless and by far the best. My previous were Ibanez Roadster, Fender Precision (US) and Washburn AB35, the last one definitely to be avoided unless you like playing tree trunks. The Spectorcore has the advantage of both magnetis and piezo pickups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk_lefty Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 On 05/07/2018 at 08:53, wambamalubop said: I’m late to the thread but in case anyone finds it later I want to give the Marcus Miller Jazz a bit of love Excellent review. I had seen the shiny fretboard but didn't know they had been epoxy coated. And they do it in lefty... So tempting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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