buying a fretless bass - suggestions?

[Felix Neumann]

Hay guys

After listening to Beyond Creation´s Aura album, my decision is carved in stone. I´ll get me a goddamn fretless bass :Spin: Have some of you guys any experience with that? If so, let me know. I wanna spend 500 - 1000 Euros.

Cheers

 

[egan.]

What sort of sound are you after? The fingerboard wood makes a massive difference (obviously) on fretless.

 

[Felix Neumann]

Phew..I see, I go into completely new territory My plan is to perform really improvisatory and free, so I think it would be important getting enough assertiveness when we talk about frequences. It should not rub too much with the rythm guitars. I don´t think, it´s much important having a deep bass sound.

 

[Josh Burgess]

I'd check out the Ibanez Gary Willis signature 5 string fretless. I want one.

 

[Felix Neumann]

Oh yeah thanks, I´ll check this out for sure! I love Ibanez basses, very comfortable to play with.

 

[StefTD]

the Gary Willis bass is really good, but if you never played a bass with the ramp before
there's a chance you will hate it because you have to play a bit different. Gary Willis
for example plays really, really soft, but it's a cool bass and it costs around 750€.

Warwick Rockbass has a fretless version of this one for 580€, too:
http://www.thomann.de/de/warwick_rb_corvette5_bk_ofc_2010.htm

I am not a fan of fretless Jazz Basses, they're cool if you want to play Jaco style, but
I just don't like them very much.

If you have more money or if you want to buy used, too, Sandberg basses are really cool,
their custom thinline fretless is the best fretless bass I've ever played!

 

[Felix Neumann]

Thanks a lot, Stef! The best thing would be going to the Thomann shop and check em all out or ordering a selection. Rock Shop here in Karlsruhe isn´t equipped pretty well. I´ve never played one and my curiosity couldn´t be higher It seems like an awesome possibility to live up creativity and free spirit in music.

 

[StefTD]

I think Station Music http://www.station-music.de/ isn't as far away as Thomann.
They have some great stuff, lots of expensive stuff, but afaik they have loads of fretless
basses.
Soundland has some nice fretless basses, too and it's just an one hour drive and we could
meet and drink a beer

Another great fretless bass is the Yamaha TRB5F, awesome bass, had it for quiet some time,
but needed money

 

[Felix Neumann]

Dank dir für´s Angebot, Stef!! Klingt ziemlich verlockend

I like the design of this one a lot: ESP LTD B205SM FL sunburst. Must check it out!

 

[Terminus]

I played in a band with a guy that had a nice 5 string fretless Alembic bass, sounded great. Kinda looked like this:

 

[StefTD]

yep, they sound awesome, but the cheap ones are about 7000€ new afaik
The "better" ones cost between 12-14k.

 

[Felix Neumann]

yep, they sound awesome, but the cheap ones are about 7000€ new afaik
The "better" ones cost between 12-14k.

Fuuuuu Nevertheless, thanks for posting this beautiful instrument, Mike.

 

[StefTD]

just looked them up at station music, seems like they have some cheaper ones for 4k
but the standard ones are between 7-14k, the old bass player of a band I know had one
too, sounded awesome, looked like woodporn, but you could get a decent NEW car for the
price of some of these alembic basses

this one costs 17k €, for all the Americans-that's like 22k $ right now...

looks like you can remove the ramp, for jazz style playing I really like to play a bass with
a ramp, but it depends, the neck of this bass is really great!

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

Hi Felix, nice album to be converted by. The Aura was my favourite album of 2011!

I've switched to fretless bass about 2 1/2 years ago and basically never looked back. Back then I faced the same task as you and just recently faced it again. Finding the right fretless bass for yourself is not easy, especially for metal, you pretty much need to find out yourself what works for you. But at the same time, this gives you more space to find your own voice...

There are much less options to choose from than on fretted basses (except when going custom of course!), WAY less instruments to try out in person, and you can pretty much all forget about getting a special color/finish on a production bass. The target audience for fretless basses is small, so companies seem to usually just produce them all in natural finish. Except the cheap ones and a few exceptions from the rule.

For a nice selection of fretless basses with at least a few of them in your price range, check out Session Music in Frankfurt (ehemals Musik Schmidt ).
http://www.musik-schmidt.de/de/Baesse/Fretless-Baesse

For example they have some of the Warwick Rockbasses and a real Corvette priced at 1099€.

I went there two months ago because I needed a new fretless bass better suited to my tonal needs for recording my bands debut album. Long trip down from Hamburg, but well worth it, because their staff is very knowledgable and helpful!

They also put demo videos of alot of their basses on Youtube, so you can get an impression of quite a few models, like this Sandberg Panther:


I have read good things about the Yamaha TRB5 Fretless which Stef recommended, this should be a solid choice. I think they aren't made anymore, but if you find one used it should be in your price range.

Speaking of used, definitely keep an eye on the bassmarkt if you're thinking about buying used:
http://www.bassmarkt.de/?q=fretless

For example there's a Gary Willis for 450€ that just went up 4 days ago.

Personally, I am a fan of ebony fretboards and two-pickup configurations.
Since the fretboard will wear down from usage, you get more mileage out of an ebony fretboard and a slightly snappier sound compared to a rosewood fretboard.
While the bridge pickup on a fretless produces the well-known mid-heavy "MWAH" sound best, a neck pickup with the right EQ can get closer to the sound of an upright bass (not like the real deal, of course).
The combination of both pickups, if wired in series, gets you closer to the typical scooped sound of a fretted bass.

Ok, that's all I can think of right now... any questions, just ask!
Good luck and have fun on your quest, I promise you won't regret it! There's a certain freedom and expressiveness in the fretless world which you just can't get on a fretted instrument.

 

[Rupturemetal]

Pedulla Thunderbuzz

 

[StefTD]

Pedulla Basses are like 4k here if I remember right

Good tip about the neck pickup thing @Fifth Horseman, really like to play with the neck
pickup for more upright bass sounds, never tried it in a metal context, no clue if it cuts
through the mix as a bridge pickup fretless sound does
And you're sooo right about the fretboard, played on a 25 year old fretless Tokai once,
that bass had his 3rd fretboard...

Sandberg basses are pure sex imho, loving the California JM 5 String with maple fretboard.

 

[Felix Neumann]

Wow thanks a lot @Mr. Horseman!! I really appreciate it Can´t wait to try out some basses. Tbh I´ve never played one yet, but I own an E-Contrabasson ( I trained til my fingers started bleeding) and my ears are schooled Maybe I´ll check out some different music shops in different citys. I can imagine, it´s not easy finding THE right fretless Bass for me. My plan is to play progressive Metal /Death Metal.

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

You're welcome!
BTW, as of today there appeared a Clover Argo 5.1 fretless on eBay. You might want to have a look at that one, though maybe it's too early to commit on a used bass before you have tried out a bunch.
Just mentioning it because a buddy of mine owns two fretted Argos; these play and sound great and sometimes go for ridiculously cheap used.
This fretless Argo does not have my preferred specs which I mentioned yesterday, but I can tell you it will cut through the mix like a boss! It comes with the Delano Xtender pickup, an innovative quadcoil design that has a quite distinctive, crisp sound. It's supposed to cover a wider frequency range than a traditional pickup design.

Sandberg basses are definitely great, and I love the Bullet shape, which is why I tried really hard making them work for me. My main bass until two months ago actually was a Sandberg Bullet Custom Fretless with ebony fretboard, two soapbars and a metal slapplate at the fretboard end. Great build quality, great playability, great looks, and live I was also happy with the sound, at least when heavily boosting the highs. Then it was time to record, and I had to finally admit it just didn't deliver what I needed tonally. It has a very warm sound with too much lows and lowmids, which didn't work out in the mix.

So I decided to go all out, and after a 5-hour marathon tryout session at Musik Schmidt in Frankfurt, I took home a Marleaux Consat Custom Fretless. Definitely the most incredible instrument I have ever layed my hands on... plays like butter and has the most beautiful, transparent and versatile sound I could ever dream of. Also has more attack than I ever thought possible in a fretless bass.
Well, if you like to look at instrument porn, check out the Marleaux site: www.marleaux-bass.de/
Of course they are expensive, as it's basically just Gerald Marleaux himself and another employee building them from hand in his shop in the Harz, using premium woods and components.
But still not nearly as expensive as Alembic, Ritter and that stuff. After all, well worth it in my book, I haven't touched my Sandberg Bullet a single time in the last two months since I got the Marleaux.

Ok, speaking of expensive stuff is probably not helping you much right now, you need to get started first.
And a nice Clover, Yamaha, Warwick or whatever you may find in your price range will likely make you happy for years. So, definitely try out as many basses as possible to find out what you like.
Just think twice before trying out basses above 2k, basically all those basses from small german builders like Marleaux, Human Base, Bassculture etc.. These are on another level and can get you spoiled really bad.

Cheers,
Holger

 

[StefTD]

I think Soundland is a Marleaux Dealer.

As soon as you know the dates you will go to a shop, I would call them before and ask how many fretless
basses are available atm, the Soundland homepage for example says that many instruments aren't there
atm but they got them in the shop and so on.
Not a fan of the looks of the Clover Argo but only heard great things about it!

 

[Rogueleader]

Hmmmmmmmmm, I don't know how much these are overseas, but here's quite a few options that are at or under ~$1284 here in the states (equivalent to 1000 Euros).

-Cort Curbow: At the cheaper end of the spectrum. But regarded by everybody who uses them as quite good. Space age composite materials kind of vibe going on. Very cool stuff. Good stock electronics as well.

-Zon: I'm actually not sure if the new "Standard" import series are offered as fretless models? But many of those should be in your price range. Epic quality from the reports I have heard thus far. With $1300 you could maybe even get a used USA Zon if you look around a bit and are willing to take what pops up.

-Modulus: Lots of these routinely go for under $1300 used. Fantastic instruments. Might have to wait around a while for a fretless, since they pop up less often.

-Carvin: You could go used or new here. I personally don't have enough experience with Carvins to attest to their quality myself, but a lot of people REALLY like them. Used, they go for quite good deals.

-Warmoth: Build your own! Used Warmoths go for quite good deals as well, and are worth buying if the assembler knew what they were doing.

-Warwick: Tons of options here, both used and new.

-Conklin Groove Tools: Once again, I don't recall which (if any of these) are offered as fretless models, but these are all very good "modern" thinking guitars.

I'm presuming because of the whole Beyond Creation influence you'd rather have a more modern style bass than something fender influenced? Fender still makes great bass guitars, and they always have. Plenty of options there as well. There are some fretless Fender style ESP models that they produced in the late 80s, early 90s that pop up on the market from time to time that look amazing as well. I'm presuming you also want 5+ strings, correct?

Hang around talkbass. One of the best online communities. Lots of knowledge there about everything. The knowledge and maturity level there really puts most guitar centric forums to shame. The classifieds are also a never ceasing carousel of WANT.