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 Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:22 pm
It works the same way a regular bass does. Just without frets. You can do regular two-finger pluckin' on it just like normal, or of course, you can thump and tap.
But slapping on a fretless is fun, you should definitly give it a try. I have a story about my encounter with a Jaco Pastorious Relic Jazz Bass.
I was at GuitarCenter, and I notice they have said Jaco Jazz bass. It was all torn up and everything. Even the back of the neck was green. So, naturally, I yanked that bad boy down and plugged it in. I plunked on it a bit, and that's when one of the guys workin' at the place comes over and ask's me what I think. I tell him it's pretty good and I start slappin' and poppin' on it.
The more I do this, the more he starts to look uncomfortable. I could tell he was 'not' very happy that I was slapping on a $1,500 fretless bass. So, I put it away and decided to op for a Gibson SG bass.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:29 pm
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:53 pm
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:53 pm
Infact, Claypool slaps on his fretless six-string. 'My Name is Mud' is a good example.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:56 pm
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:04 pm
MuchachoDelZorro It works the same way a regular bass does. Just without frets. You can do regular two-finger pluckin' on it just like normal, or of course, you can thump and tap. But slapping on a fretless is fun, you should definitly give it a try. I have a story about my encounter with a Jaco Pastorious Relic Jazz Bass. I was at GuitarCenter, and I notice they have said Jaco Jazz bass. It was all torn up and everything. Even the back of the neck was green. So, naturally, I yanked that bad boy down and plugged it in. I plunked on it a bit, and that's when one of the guys workin' at the place comes over and ask's me what I think. I tell him it's pretty good and I start slappin' and poppin' on it. The more I do this, the more he starts to look uncomfortable. I could tell he was 'not' very happy that I was slapping on a $1,500 fretless bass. So, I put it away and decided to op for a Gibson SG bass. OMFG Whats wrong with you?!? You DONT EVER slap on a fretless bass unless you want it to be ruined!!! The difference between using frets slapping and slapping without frets IS there, and it IS possible with both ways, BUT you can replace frets at a lower price. On top of that, slapping without the frets is just like taking a thin hammer to your neck! ANY time where there is wood vs metal guess what wins? The guy at guitar center probably almost lost his mind because you were ruining a $1500 Jaco bass!!!
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:35 pm
Now i know not to ever slap with a fretless bass. eek
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:09 pm
Escaflowne_11 MuchachoDelZorro It works the same way a regular bass does. Just without frets. You can do regular two-finger pluckin' on it just like normal, or of course, you can thump and tap. But slapping on a fretless is fun, you should definitly give it a try. I have a story about my encounter with a Jaco Pastorious Relic Jazz Bass. I was at GuitarCenter, and I notice they have said Jaco Jazz bass. It was all torn up and everything. Even the back of the neck was green. So, naturally, I yanked that bad boy down and plugged it in. I plunked on it a bit, and that's when one of the guys workin' at the place comes over and ask's me what I think. I tell him it's pretty good and I start slappin' and poppin' on it. The more I do this, the more he starts to look uncomfortable. I could tell he was 'not' very happy that I was slapping on a $1,500 fretless bass. So, I put it away and decided to op for a Gibson SG bass. OMFG Whats wrong with you?!? You DONT EVER slap on a fretless bass unless you want it to be ruined!!! The difference between using frets slapping and slapping without frets IS there, and it IS possible with both ways, BUT you can replace frets at a lower price. On top of that, slapping without the frets is just like taking a thin hammer to your neck! ANY time where there is wood vs metal guess what wins? The guy at guitar center probably almost lost his mind because you were ruining a $1500 Jaco bass!!! Whoa man, chill, you can slap on a fretless. You just have to have either an incredibly hard finger board (like ebony or even rock maple) or you have to laquer the s**t out of one made out of softer wood. Over time you will make indentions in both, on the hard wood they won't get deep enough to affect it and with the laquer you can just reapply to the worn areas. That's also part of the reason most fretless players use flatwounds, they're softer and not nearly as rough as rounds.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:48 pm
My my.. Someone got a bit 'antsy'.
My fretless can withstand the 'damage', I guess I should say. But yes, that slipped my mind.
Sorry for defying the laws of tradition.
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Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:21 am
MuchachoDelZorro My my.. Someone got a bit 'antsy'. My fretless can withstand the 'damage', I guess I should say. But yes, that slipped my mind. Sorry for defying the laws of tradition. Has nothing to do with tradition. Its crazy to slap on a fretless in my opinion. Sound aside, its way to expensive of a technique. Even if you have a hard wood, or something to apply over that area, the strongest wood would wear over time, and the extra applications would alter the tone of the bass, making it worse and worse over time. You can do it if you want, but its your call. Slap hits the fingerboard much harder than just regular playing, so be weary of that. I only got worked up because he did it to a 1500 doller bass. You damaging it, and having to pay for damages would ruin your visit. All of my adivice about slapping on fretless basses isnt made up, its passed down from the pros, and their advice. Go ahead slap em away, but in the end its not good for them. And yes, having those dents in your fingerboard affects different areas of your sound. The strings wont have a consistant hight at certian points, and if your concerned about the string height, you wont ever be able to get it right with an unbalanced, dented board. In the end I see it as the same way as putting sandpaper to my double bass. I guess it wont do enough damage to it, and I guess you could lacquore the hell out of it, but why the hell would you want to do that to a perfectly good bass?
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Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:09 pm
Escaflowne_11 MuchachoDelZorro My my.. Someone got a bit 'antsy'. My fretless can withstand the 'damage', I guess I should say. But yes, that slipped my mind. Sorry for defying the laws of tradition. Has nothing to do with tradition. Its crazy to slap on a fretless in my opinion. Sound aside, its way to expensive of a technique. Even if you have a hard wood, or something to apply over that area, the strongest wood would wear over time, and the extra applications would alter the tone of the bass, making it worse and worse over time. You can do it if you want, but its your call. Slap hits the fingerboard much harder than just regular playing, so be weary of that. I only got worked up because he did it to a 1500 doller bass. You damaging it, and having to pay for damages would ruin your visit. All of my adivice about slapping on fretless basses isnt made up, its passed down from the pros, and their advice. Go ahead slap em away, but in the end its not good for them. And yes, having those dents in your fingerboard affects different areas of your sound. The strings wont have a consistant hight at certian points, and if your concerned about the string height, you wont ever be able to get it right with an unbalanced, dented board. In the end I see it as the same way as putting sandpaper to my double bass. I guess it wont do enough damage to it, and I guess you could lacquore the hell out of it, but why the hell would you want to do that to a perfectly good bass? This question is still debated much in bass world, and I like to take a middle ground on it. Laquer is applied to most fretless fingerboards no matter how dense or hard it is to begin with, just a precaution. You will make grooves in the wood, eventually. I've seen basses with grooves after one night of heavy slap, and I've seen 20 year old basses in practically pristine condition after all the "abuse" it's taken in the past years, a lot of it depends on your technique, if you're an aggressive slapper, then yeah, you're going to wear out the board faster than if you had a softer touch, but either way, it's going to wear. But so will a fretted, and it's not necessarily cheaper to replace frets. Assuming you take it to someone knows how to do it well, it'll run you about $100-$200 for a refretting. If you want to try it yourself, considerably less, but you'd better have to tools and knowledge, because it is easier to fix dents on the end of the fingerboard than a big chunk out of the middle. A lot of pros slap on the fretlesses as well, Claypool, Hellborg, Manring, Palladino, and even Jaco slapped his fretless. Just save it for when you own the bass instead of taking a chance on a test run. And am I mistaken in saying that many people slap their uprights? Edit: Sorry guys, I've been saying laquer this whole time while I meant epoxy, my mistake.
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Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:15 pm
angrymalazar Escaflowne_11 MuchachoDelZorro My my.. Someone got a bit 'antsy'. My fretless can withstand the 'damage', I guess I should say. But yes, that slipped my mind. Sorry for defying the laws of tradition. Has nothing to do with tradition. Its crazy to slap on a fretless in my opinion. Sound aside, its way to expensive of a technique. Even if you have a hard wood, or something to apply over that area, the strongest wood would wear over time, and the extra applications would alter the tone of the bass, making it worse and worse over time. You can do it if you want, but its your call. Slap hits the fingerboard much harder than just regular playing, so be weary of that. I only got worked up because he did it to a 1500 doller bass. You damaging it, and having to pay for damages would ruin your visit. All of my adivice about slapping on fretless basses isnt made up, its passed down from the pros, and their advice. Go ahead slap em away, but in the end its not good for them. And yes, having those dents in your fingerboard affects different areas of your sound. The strings wont have a consistant hight at certian points, and if your concerned about the string height, you wont ever be able to get it right with an unbalanced, dented board. In the end I see it as the same way as putting sandpaper to my double bass. I guess it wont do enough damage to it, and I guess you could lacquore the hell out of it, but why the hell would you want to do that to a perfectly good bass? This question is still debated much in bass world, and I like to take a middle ground on it. Laquer is applied to most fretless fingerboards no matter how dense or hard it is to begin with, just a precaution. You will make grooves in the wood, eventually. I've seen basses with grooves after one night of heavy slap, and I've seen 20 year old basses in practically pristine condition after all the "abuse" it's taken in the past years, a lot of it depends on your technique, if you're an aggressive slapper, then yeah, you're going to wear out the board faster than if you had a softer touch, but either way, it's going to wear. But so will a fretted, and it's not necessarily cheaper to replace frets. Assuming you take it to someone knows how to do it well, it'll run you about $100-$200 for a refretting. If you want to try it yourself, considerably less, but you'd better have to tools and knowledge, because it is easier to fix dents on the end of the fingerboard than a big chunk out of the middle. A lot of pros slap on the fretlesses as well, Claypool, Hellborg, Manring, Palladino, and even Jaco slapped his fretless. Just save it for when you own the bass instead of taking a chance on a test run. And am I mistaken in saying that many people slap their uprights? Edit: Sorry guys, I've been saying laquer this whole time while I meant epoxy, my mistake. No your correct, I would just like to warn those that its a price heavy technique. You can totally do it if you want, but I would say its way less expensive to fret your bass instead of replacing the fingerboard. Especially if you want the fingerboard done right. Frets will also last longer than the wood will. Either way, wearing your fingerboard down, and replacing it with a different material isnt my idea of a good replacement. It can be done, but I like the wood sound more than an artificial material.
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Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:03 am
Escaflowne_11 angrymalazar Escaflowne_11 MuchachoDelZorro My my.. Someone got a bit 'antsy'. My fretless can withstand the 'damage', I guess I should say. But yes, that slipped my mind. Sorry for defying the laws of tradition. Has nothing to do with tradition. Its crazy to slap on a fretless in my opinion. Sound aside, its way to expensive of a technique. Even if you have a hard wood, or something to apply over that area, the strongest wood would wear over time, and the extra applications would alter the tone of the bass, making it worse and worse over time. You can do it if you want, but its your call. Slap hits the fingerboard much harder than just regular playing, so be weary of that. I only got worked up because he did it to a 1500 doller bass. You damaging it, and having to pay for damages would ruin your visit. All of my adivice about slapping on fretless basses isnt made up, its passed down from the pros, and their advice. Go ahead slap em away, but in the end its not good for them. And yes, having those dents in your fingerboard affects different areas of your sound. The strings wont have a consistant hight at certian points, and if your concerned about the string height, you wont ever be able to get it right with an unbalanced, dented board. In the end I see it as the same way as putting sandpaper to my double bass. I guess it wont do enough damage to it, and I guess you could lacquore the hell out of it, but why the hell would you want to do that to a perfectly good bass? This question is still debated much in bass world, and I like to take a middle ground on it. Laquer is applied to most fretless fingerboards no matter how dense or hard it is to begin with, just a precaution. You will make grooves in the wood, eventually. I've seen basses with grooves after one night of heavy slap, and I've seen 20 year old basses in practically pristine condition after all the "abuse" it's taken in the past years, a lot of it depends on your technique, if you're an aggressive slapper, then yeah, you're going to wear out the board faster than if you had a softer touch, but either way, it's going to wear. But so will a fretted, and it's not necessarily cheaper to replace frets. Assuming you take it to someone knows how to do it well, it'll run you about $100-$200 for a refretting. If you want to try it yourself, considerably less, but you'd better have to tools and knowledge, because it is easier to fix dents on the end of the fingerboard than a big chunk out of the middle. A lot of pros slap on the fretlesses as well, Claypool, Hellborg, Manring, Palladino, and even Jaco slapped his fretless. Just save it for when you own the bass instead of taking a chance on a test run. And am I mistaken in saying that many people slap their uprights? Edit: Sorry guys, I've been saying laquer this whole time while I meant epoxy, my mistake. No your correct, I would just like to warn those that its a price heavy technique. You can totally do it if you want, but I would say its way less expensive to fret your bass instead of replacing the fingerboard. Especially if you want the fingerboard done right. Frets will also last longer than the wood will. Either way, wearing your fingerboard down, and replacing it with a different material isnt my idea of a good replacement. It can be done, but I like the wood sound more than an artificial material. After reading all what you guys said, i found a Fretless Bass in a Store today and Gave it a whirl, It was a Squire Jaco Bass (the New looking ones) at about $500 AUS, Ebony Fretboard with Lines, and it does Sound pretty groovy, alot Different than Frets, so i guess its just how you like the sound i guess, if it suits a song better than with frets, why not? and i just had an Idea, a Steel/Graphite/Whatever Fretboard with the Flatwound Strings, it would have a pretty Harsh Industrial kinda Sound, and the Fret Board would probably last longer than the Guitar, that would be pretty cool, kind of a Novelty though. Though i do Prefer Rosewood Fretboard Fretted Basses, Maples too Bright Ebony is too, i dunno, not my thing
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Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 4:18 pm
Escaflowne_11 angrymalazar Escaflowne_11 MuchachoDelZorro My my.. Someone got a bit 'antsy'. My fretless can withstand the 'damage', I guess I should say. But yes, that slipped my mind. Sorry for defying the laws of tradition. Has nothing to do with tradition. Its crazy to slap on a fretless in my opinion. Sound aside, its way to expensive of a technique. Even if you have a hard wood, or something to apply over that area, the strongest wood would wear over time, and the extra applications would alter the tone of the bass, making it worse and worse over time. You can do it if you want, but its your call. Slap hits the fingerboard much harder than just regular playing, so be weary of that. I only got worked up because he did it to a 1500 doller bass. You damaging it, and having to pay for damages would ruin your visit. All of my adivice about slapping on fretless basses isnt made up, its passed down from the pros, and their advice. Go ahead slap em away, but in the end its not good for them. And yes, having those dents in your fingerboard affects different areas of your sound. The strings wont have a consistant hight at certian points, and if your concerned about the string height, you wont ever be able to get it right with an unbalanced, dented board. In the end I see it as the same way as putting sandpaper to my double bass. I guess it wont do enough damage to it, and I guess you could lacquore the hell out of it, but why the hell would you want to do that to a perfectly good bass? This question is still debated much in bass world, and I like to take a middle ground on it. Laquer is applied to most fretless fingerboards no matter how dense or hard it is to begin with, just a precaution. You will make grooves in the wood, eventually. I've seen basses with grooves after one night of heavy slap, and I've seen 20 year old basses in practically pristine condition after all the "abuse" it's taken in the past years, a lot of it depends on your technique, if you're an aggressive slapper, then yeah, you're going to wear out the board faster than if you had a softer touch, but either way, it's going to wear. But so will a fretted, and it's not necessarily cheaper to replace frets. Assuming you take it to someone knows how to do it well, it'll run you about $100-$200 for a refretting. If you want to try it yourself, considerably less, but you'd better have to tools and knowledge, because it is easier to fix dents on the end of the fingerboard than a big chunk out of the middle. A lot of pros slap on the fretlesses as well, Claypool, Hellborg, Manring, Palladino, and even Jaco slapped his fretless. Just save it for when you own the bass instead of taking a chance on a test run. And am I mistaken in saying that many people slap their uprights? Edit: Sorry guys, I've been saying laquer this whole time while I meant epoxy, my mistake. No your correct, I would just like to warn those that its a price heavy technique. You can totally do it if you want, but I would say its way less expensive to fret your bass instead of replacing the fingerboard. Especially if you want the fingerboard done right. Frets will also last longer than the wood will. Either way, wearing your fingerboard down, and replacing it with a different material isnt my idea of a good replacement. It can be done, but I like the wood sound more than an artificial material. Actually, replacing finger boards is very cheap, providing you have the knowledge and tools to do so, generally a heat gun, something long and very thin (but not sharp, don't want to gouge the wood more than you have to), varying grades of sandpaper, a saw of some sort, and some more glue. Take the old finger board, head to any place that sells hardwoods (I recommend flooring and furniture suppliers), and buy a good 2x1 sheet of 1/4 in. laminate of the wood that strikes your fancy (my new bass is gonna have a Gonco Alves finger board, very dense and awesome grain). Slowly heat one end of your old finger board (don't use a high heat setting for obvious reasons) and gently pry up with whatever tool you picked, it will take a long time for the glue to loosen but it will eventually. After you have it off, lay it on your sheet of new wood and trace around it and cut out the design. Sand it up and put a nice finish on it, reglue, and you're set. Time consuming, but much cheaper and you have more options available to you. And don't forget to sand down the board into curve you like, all fret boards have a slight curve, that's the one point I'd suggest taking it to carpenter or luthier of sorts.
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:21 pm
Extra strings are good with most six strings they add the extra low b, and a high c this gives a lot of diversity. though I'm not a big fan of the six string.
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