Over the weekend, i was changing strings on my first bass and (Needless to say, it was my least expensive one) i decided i wanted a fretless bass. Out come the pliers and after 10 minutes or so of pulling out frets and then another 10 of sanding with sand paper and then steel wool, i have a fretless bass. So, anyone else here ever done that? What is your guys' opinion on fretless basses and does anyone know an example of how fretless basses havebeen used in metal?

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i believe you would have to check the intonation and possibly adjust the truss rod. Also you might want to put a protectective coating on the fingerboard because my friend did the same thing and the roundwound strings ate it up.

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Thats great man, nice one, ive never had the guts to de-fret any of my basses.. even my cheap first ones..

But yeah, like Jester said, put a coat of Epoxy (http://www.woodwiz.com/guitarlab/longshot226.jpg - http://www.woodwiz.com/guitarlab/Mi...slant%20226.jpg ) on the fretboard, to protect it, or just change your strings to flatwounds, if you havent already.

Post pics aswell!

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sounds like you could quite easily ending up butchering your fretboard...i'd like to try it, i never thought to do that. lets see some pics man!

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i am working on getting flatwounds and i will post some pictures of it after i put in some wood filler and sand it down and maybe put a few coats of tung oil. I have to do this when my dad gets back from a business trip because i dont know where the wood filler n tung oil stuff is. by the way, this is one of those cheap $100 rogue basses. I cant say it was an aweosme bass but it was decent for the price and served its purpose till i got my ibanez 6 string

and, do you know what kind of epoxy was used on those? because those are beastly. i might consider doing that to this one or a fretless i might acquire in the future?

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make sure you take pics of the process so far, that'll be cool

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One time I got a cheap electric guitar and de-fretted it. It sounded really cool, except for on the thinner strings, which would always dig up into my finger instead of staying firm against the fretboard, thus producing a muted sound.

Yeah I dunno much about doing it yourself but I'd say do what Jaco Pastorius did, use epoxy, I'm not really sure if he did anything else though....would be best to read a bit about him and how he de-fretted his bass, that should give you a good idea of how to go about the rest of it. And as for some fretless metal bass players? well...theres Steve Digiorgio, a fucking AWESOME metal bassist, he uses a 5-string fretless, an ESP I think....there are some videos of him here you should watch http://www.stevedigiorgio.com/music.html the three Dynamo ones at the top....he has an amazing sound. And I don't know of any other metal fretless players besides him, anyone else know?

Good luck man and cheers

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sean malone also uses a fretless........try getting the cynic album awesome shit...but he didnt use a fretless in that album unfortunately

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i like the epoxy idea but i was thinking...is a rogue $100 bass worth the epoxy? and w00t steve rocks. dont flame me for it but i was never much a fan of death but steve is sweet. just like im sure most people think that paul gilbert is an awesome guitarist but mr big sucks balls

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no but thanks for the idea

I had a fretless but the buzzy kind of tone annoyed me after a while. I have a couple friends who went the flatwound fretless route full time for a while and they all came back. It kills your callouses.

Mr. Big totally sucked balls....

mr big did totally suck balls but you cant deny that paul gilbert was a great guitarist. and i allready have beastly callouses from playing my ibanez 6 string bass for like a month straight

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Listening to Paul Gilbert is like listening to a cokehead type - I'd rather hear Sheenan solo than him. Is your 6 string your main bass? How do you like it? I used to have a Washburn 6 - it played OK and I thought it would be good for death but I never really liked playing it.

He did use a fretless in Focus,
Kubicki Ex Factor 4.

I have a fretless Warwick bass, I like it pretty much.
But at the moment It's at my fathers house (I borrowed it to him and he
borrowed his Warwick FNA Jazzman to me)

i like my 6. it is an ibanez sr506 and it works pretty well. it is a really beautiful guitar and it is a lot darker than on the picture in music 123 (MF doesnt have it).
it is my main bass when i want to play fretted and it sounds really nice with the active bartonlini pickups. the 6 works really well because i have decently large hands and my fingers are longer than the fretboard when i lay them across it so i figure i could take at least a 9 or 10.

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Are the bartolinis aftermarket or is your bass the BTB series?
I play the SR506 too...amazing action and amazing neck, but the electronics on it definately need to be upgraded. I'm buying a 6-string Spector (for a VERY good price, I mad add...) and the EMG's in it sound amazing.

Cheers

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[QUOTE=epitaph]He did use a fretless in Focus,
Kubicki Ex Factor 4.
QUOTE]

by looking at the pics n the video it looks like he is using a fretted

i kno he had a fretless version but he got a new fretted neck n started to use that.

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Listen to the Album dude, you can hear the nonexistance of frets on his bass.

ive decided to try this with my b.c. rich
im going to defret and install a whammy bar
I've already replaced the passive b.c. pickups for emg selects
main question:
Did you really just rip out the frets with pliers?
and
does a bass whammy bar need special routing?

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probably lined

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yea dude, i just got some pliers and ripped em out, it really is easy once you get your technique down

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no, the bartolinis came with the bass

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I just defretted my old Oscar Schmidt bass and so far everthing is going smoothly, but I want to know if it is alright to use any regular house hold wood finish to use on the fretboard..

Thanks.

Putting a whammy bar on a fretless bass is almost redundant because you can easily manipulate the pitch as there are no frets....

nah, theres just no way to get the kind of dives and pulls Im looking for without the whammy.

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Why sure there is. Slide!
You've got almost two octaves worth of sliding from a given note (depending on where you place it) at your disposal. I don't know much about whammys but I would guess that 2 octaves is more than enough.
Of course if you plan on using the whammy for harmonics then its a different story, but I'm pretty sure that except for natural harmonics, on fretless harmonics are nearly impossible.
On the other hand, I have difficulty getting pinch harmonics to be loud on fretted bass, let alone being able to do them quickly enough so that I don't have to stop to position my fingers, so I doubt that's why you want a whammy.

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well, thats a little more moving around than I want to do...
playing should always be comfortable, and building stamina is one thing, but why waste energy flinging yourself all over the neck when you could just move a bar thats right by your hand anyway?

you couldnt be more wrong

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Well, it probably isn't THAT hard, and if it saves you at least 500$ ... why not at least give it a try?




Regarding harmonics being more difficult on fretless:

Please enlighten me.

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harmonics are much easier on fretless, you just have to have good intonation, and without that...you suck reguardless of whether or not youve ever had frets.

I play an upright bass,so I know what im talking about when I say moving around constantly sucks.
its all about being able to play for a long time. If youre going to be playing for 4+ hours at a time, throwing yourself all over your instrument really wont help much.

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So then you mean for artificial harmonics too? Can you do them well enough so that you don't have to stop to place your hands? And if so, how?


Speaking of intonation, does anyone know how to fix the problem I have?
My B string is slightly too sharp (what I mean is, the open string is perfect B but the 24th fret is 3-4 Hz too sharp), but I have made the string as long as possible by adjusting the bridge saddle for that string. Is there anything else I can do?
My strings are fairly high up right now, but I don't know if having less relief on the neck and lowering (if necessary) the action would change much for intonation, apart from me having to readjust it and probably have the same problem as before on the B string.

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part 1 - practice
part 2 - bridge or neck adjustment

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part 1 - Do you recommend the thumb for pinch harmonics or a finger (like the pinky maybe)? Out of everything I've tried, there is nothing that gets a note out nearly as loud as regular plucked notes. And this is true even if I pluck really hard.

Tap harmonics are easier to do, but these aren't loud either, not matter how hard I hit the string.

part 2 - I suppose I could use a setup anyway ...


Thanks

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tapped harm's arent about force
you have to hit right perfectly over the fret

as for the above part, use your thumb

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i plan to defret my 5 string bass aswell..so the people who have done it is it working out fine? or is it just better to go with a new fretless bass

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In regards to defretting basses, the best thing to do is get a soldering iron and heat up the fret first, then work it out with pliers. Heating up the fret will melt the glue that holds it in place, making it easier to remove.

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thats ingenious.

also invest in a set of fret pullers, 25 bucks never made your life easier.
IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you fill the frets with wood filler as soon as you get all of the frets out. if you dont that thing is going to warp worse than anything you've ever seen.
and sand it alot

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