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Passive fretless tone


CliveT
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I like bridge pup for fingerstyle, fretted or not, but it does need a healthy bass boost on most jazzes IME - then you can end up with some lovely tones....

Not dissing neck pup at all (like that alot of slapin'), all depends on the context for me, tend to use any and all pup blends...

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[quote name='wateroftyne' post='550205' date='Jul 24 2009, 02:00 PM']Lots of bridge pup in there, I think..[/quote]

Do you think he has both pups on full? Not easy to tell as he's playing with a pick. Here's another video of a different song ferom the same tour, not such good quality I'm afraid.
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jUqBX1wYfw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jUqBX1wYfw[/url]

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[quote name='wateroftyne' post='552399' date='Jul 27 2009, 10:22 AM']Hard to tell from that clip, but based on the previous one I'd say he's got both full-on.[/quote]

He must be bumping up the mids to get over the natural mid scoop caused by running both pups on full ?

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  • 1 month later...

[quote name='foal30' post='471328' date='Apr 24 2009, 10:21 AM']yup, Neck Pick up only on the Fretless jazz when through my Valve amp
different in band setting obviously
but for home practice it is lovely getting that warmth.[/quote]

What do you do differently in a band setting? Do you find the neck pickup doesn't cut through there ?

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[quote name='CliveT' post='469690' date='Apr 22 2009, 03:52 PM']I'm looking for a good, full sounding fretless tone on my fretless jazz, something like this by Guy Pratt:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2gSwNyyevk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2gSwNyyevk[/url]

It's not a DVD quality clip so hopefully you can hear properly what's going on rather than post production. Skip to 2:57 to hear the short bass solo. It's a passive Lakland fretless, is he using both pickups together, or just the neck pickup?[/quote]

Back to the fretless tone Guy Pratt gets, I found this interview where he talks about his fretless jazz. He says he defers to the neck pickup to emulate the fretless P tone used in Floyd recordings.

[url="http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/interviews/guy_pratt_i_have_to_be_pushed_to_show_off_these_days.html"]http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/...these_days.html[/url]

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  • 3 weeks later...

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='470457' date='Apr 23 2009, 10:36 AM']Here's a little vid I made a couple of weeks ago, where I switch between the three pup combinations on a Tony Franklin fretless. It should give you an idea of the tonal differences...

[/quote]

Hi wateroftyne. I’ve been trying to work out why your fretless with old flats sounds so much brighter and more zingy than my MIM fretless Jazz, and apart from the obvious higher quality of you TF it may be down to my amp. I have a 1 x 15 combo which just doesn’t do the fretless justice. I notice on your clip you're using 10's or are they 8's? I’ve discovered that through headphones with no eq it sounds so much better, and closer to what you’re getting on your clip.

Now I know my bass can do what I want I’ll need to experiment a bit more with the eq, maybe drop the bass a bit and boost mids.

Edited by CliveT
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[quote name='CliveT' post='611703' date='Sep 29 2009, 10:29 AM']Hi wateroftyne. I’ve been trying to work out why your fretless with old flats sounds so much brighter and more zingy than my MIM fretless Jazz, and apart from the obvious higher quality of you TF it may be down to my amp. I have a 1 x 15 combo which just doesn’t do the fretless justice. I notice on your clip you're using 10's or are they 8's? I’ve discovered that through headphones with no eq it sounds so much better, and closer to what you’re getting on your clip.

Now I know my bass can do what I want I’ll need to experiment a bit more with the eq, maybe drop the bass a bit and boost mids.[/quote]
Hi Clive

Hmmm... it may be the amp, the pickups, the setup, the strings or the brand of speaker, rather than size of the drivers.

To give you an example - towards the end of this clip, you can hear my fretless P (albeit with a new-ish set of flats) through a Barefaced Vintage, which is a 2x15" with no tweeters.

IMO It's pretty defined, and that's without the added clarity of the J pickup.



And, don't forget, playing at room volume is going to give more clarity than at full pelt during a gig.

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[quote name='wateroftyne' post='611725' date='Sep 29 2009, 10:40 AM']Hi Clive

Hmmm... it may be the amp, the pickups, the setup, the strings or the brand of speaker, rather than size of the drivers.

To give you an example - towards the end of this clip, you can hear my fretless P (albeit with a new-ish set of flats) through a Barefaced Vintage, which is a 2x15" with no tweeters.

IMO It's pretty defined, and that's without the added clarity of the J pickup.



And, don't forget, playing at room volume is going to give more clarity than at full pelt during a gig.[/quote]

Yes it is well defined. how is your eq set there ?

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[quote name='CliveT' post='611751' date='Sep 29 2009, 11:03 AM']Yes it is well defined. how is your eq set there ?[/quote]
From memory, a little bit of bass rolled off, the treble boosted (something I only did for this cab) and the mids pretty much flat.

When I use the Bergs, I have the tweeters rolled right off and the EQ fairly flat. From there, I just tweak to the room.

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[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='611762' date='Sep 29 2009, 11:15 AM']Do we know what the MIM jazz has in the way of fingerboard? Just thinking that WoT's ebony may account for some of the difference in brightness.[/quote]

It has a rosewood board.

wateroftyne, thanks for your eq suggestions, I'll give them a try and see how I get on.

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I'm really enjoying the tone here:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYOb7HqGiaQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYOb7HqGiaQ[/url]

Based on what's been said above I'm guessing he's using flats with both pickups and tone on full, and maybe mids boosted a bit too ?

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