Single pup / opinions / fretless

[Chris2112]

13 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

I would always place the pickup much nearer the neck than the bridge. The Jaco tone does nothing for me I'm afraid, fretless or not. On all my basses the bridge pickup is always muted.

 

In terms of flexibility I think a pickup just slightly forward of the bridge position (by maybe 1mm or so) would be best. If you want that 'amp in another room down the hallway' vibe you can either pluck nearer the neck or put a pillow in front of your amp. You can always soften/deaden the sound of a bass with just a bridge pickup but you can never get that great tone on a bass with just a neck pickup. 

[TheLowDown]

2 minutes ago, Chris2112 said:

 

In terms of flexibility I think a pickup just slightly forward of the bridge position (by maybe 1mm or so) would be best. If you want that 'amp in another room down the hallway' vibe you can either pluck nearer the neck or put a pillow in front of your amp. You can always soften/deaden the sound of a bass with just a bridge pickup but you can never get that great tone on a bass with just a neck pickup. 

I suppose it depends on what you're wanting to achieve.

[miles'tone]

If it was me building this, I would put the bass together first, set it up and then get a feel for where your sweetspot is acoustically when you're playing it.

Stick the pickup there 👍

 

[fleabag]

1 hour ago, Chris2112 said:

 

You can always soften/deaden the sound of a bass with just a bridge pickup but you can never get that great tone on a bass with just a neck pickup. 

 

In my head, i've always thought, rightly or wrongly, that it's hard to EQ out the growl from a pickup so close to the bridge, and a bit of the loss of low end, but happy to be corrected on that

[drTStingray]

There’s not much to beat a Stingray H as far as fretless goes - needs the EQ and other accoutrements though (mutes are useful as well). Think Pino early to mid 80s. Would be even better with coil tapping (and series/parallel/single coil. 
 

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by drTStingray

[franzbassist]

My Franz Sirius has a Delano Xtender in just about the perfect position for me:  far back enough that it can give a nice bark if you want, but also plenty warm enough for mwah.  The three-way switching and passive volume/tone setup mean you have a load of different tones beneath your fingers.

 

 

[fleabag]

Pino is not really on my list for fave fretless players, tone wise  ( so sorry Pino fans ) but neither is Jaco.

 

For tone, i love this guys sound on a  ( is it a Zon ?  )  Del Palmer ex Kate Bush band  but maybe tricky to emulate because the Zon doesnt use a regular pickup

 

Del said in an interview that he wished he'd done the original recording on a fretless

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ-9TWI-UAk

 

 

 

[fleabag]

2 minutes ago, franzbassist said:

My Franz Sirius has a Delano Xtender in just about the perfect position for me:  far back enough that it can give a nice bark if you want, but also plenty warm enough for mwah.  The three-way switching and passive volume/tone setup mean you have a load of different tones beneath your fingers.

 

 

 

That's a fine looking axe.  Maybe thats the sweet spot, but tone is personal so it wont be the sweet spot for everyone, but i'm kind of thinking somewhere there abouts.

 

[Ralf1e]

Just had the thought if you are building this as a project how about considering the movable sliding pickup idea that was used years ago? I can't remember the maker was it a Dan Armstrong?

Maybe some kind of mini rails built into it with a cam locking mechanism to set the locations as required.

Just exploring ideas.

[Ralf1e]

16 hours ago, fleabag said:

Good points .  I too used to have the SB 900, but cannot recall the distance

Just got the SB900 out to measure for you.

Neck is 270 mm from 12th fret to centre of pickup

Bridge is 375 mm

Puts the neck pickup rather close to the 24th fret. This one came to me with what I was told was the factory fitted optional USA made Kahler whammy. Unfortunately I have no bar for it which may be a good thing.

I know it's scruffy but I still love it.

[ikay]

15 hours ago, fleabag said:

For tone, i love this guys sound on a  ( is it a Zon ?  )  Del Palmer ex Kate Bush band  but maybe tricky to emulate because the Zon doesnt use a regular pickup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ-9TWI-UAk

 

This looks like a Lightwave bass which uses an optical pickup in the bridge - https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Lightwave_VL_5_SH.html

 

John Giblin also played fretless on a lot of KB songs (Babooshka and Breathing among others). For many of these he used a Zon Legacy custom with a single Bartolini pickup. I bought the actual bass from him some years ago, see pic below (I no longer have it unfortunately). The pickup centreline was 345mm from the 12th fret marker which is exactly the same as the Stingray position.

 

[fleabag]

6 hours ago, Ralf1e said:

Just had the thought if you are building this as a project how about considering the movable sliding pickup idea that was used years ago? I can't remember the maker was it a Dan Armstrong?

Maybe some kind of mini rails built into it with a cam locking mechanism to set the locations as required.

Just exploring ideas.

 

A good suggestion , but i dont think that's for me

[fleabag]

6 hours ago, Ralf1e said:

Just got the SB900 out to measure for you.

Neck is 270 mm from 12th fret to centre of pickup

Bridge is 375 mm

Puts the neck pickup rather close to the 24th fret. This one came to me with what I was told was the factory fitted optional USA made Kahler whammy. Unfortunately I have no bar for it which may be a good thing.

I know it's scruffy but I still love it.

 

 

Yes i see the bridge is not original ,  as bridge pup is not that close to the bridge on the 900

But the measurement from the 12th fret will be accurate

[fleabag]

3 hours ago, ikay said:

 

This looks like a Lightwave bass which uses an optical pickup in the bridge - https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Lightwave_VL_5_SH.html

 

John Giblin also played fretless on a lot of KB songs (Babooshka and Breathing among others). For many of these he used a Zon Legacy custom with a single Bartolini pickup. I bought the actual bass from him some years ago, see pic below (I no longer have it unfortunately). The pickup centreline was 345mm from the 12th fret marker which is exactly the same as the Stingray position.

 

 

That looks prettty awesome, and yes Giblin was on a few KB tracks , as was David Paton, another fine bassist who played on 8 of the tracks on her first album and 5 tracks on her second

[Lfalex v1.1]

10 hours ago, Ralf1e said:

Just had the thought if you are building this as a project how about considering the movable sliding pickup idea that was used years ago? I can't remember the maker was it a Dan Armstrong?

Maybe some kind of mini rails built into it with a cam locking mechanism to set the locations as required.

Just exploring ideas.

See also the Spalt Viper/Wiper. That looked  clever, but I wonder how well it worked? 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Lfalex v1.1

[fleabag]

Dont know about Armstrong  but Gibson certainly made one.  Grabber ?

And of course there was,  i think, the Westone Rail Bass.

Edited January 16, 2023 by fleabag

[lidl e]

3 hours ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

See also the Spalt Viper/Wiper. That looked  clever, but I wonder how well it worked? 

Ive never seen anything like that! 

[fleabag]

3 hours ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

See also the Spalt Viper/Wiper. That looked  clever, but I wonder how well it worked? 

 

 

Dear cliff  !

 

Thats extraordinary.  So unique , and quite frankly, bizarre ..in a good way

[ead]

Simple passive V/T set up on this Letts bass.  IIRC this was slightly closer to the bridge than a P bass.  I'd also like to hear what a Sandberg Central would sound like in fretless form.  It's a bit like a Stingray but the pickup is more towards the neck.

 

 

Edited January 19, 2023 by ead

[mcnach]

On 14/01/2023 at 13:46, chris_b said:

I've had several single pickup basses, Framus Star bass, Gibson EB0, MM SR5 and a couple of P basses. 

 

My favourite single pickup sound and location, would be as per the Precision.

 

+1

 

I've owned a few fretless basses, mostly with 2-pickups, usually JJ or JP, but it turns out I preferred Precisions.

 

I only have one standard electric fretless bass now (and two 'ukes'): Precision, D'Addario black nylon tapes, Model P pickup. Passive. It is remarkably versatile!

 

[fleabag]

Anyone with an MM know the distance marked ..and is that standard single MM pickup position ?

 

 

 

 

[ezbass]

I’m fast coming around to the opinion that a fretless P (or any pickup in that position) is probably the tone for me. After years of playing either MM or J type fretless basses, I’ve gone right off of the tone. Given my current short scale affections, I’m wondering if a fretless Mustang might be the fretless grail for my ears and fingers.