buying a fretless bass - suggestions?

[Rogueleader]

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

Any chance of some pictures/more info about Sandbergs? Quite rare here in the US, but I've been a fan of the designs ever since I've read that Markus Grosskopf uses them, one of my favorite bass players.

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

Any chance of some pictures/more info about Sandbergs? Quite rare here in the US, but I've been a fan of the designs ever since I've read that Markus Grosskopf uses them, one of my favorite bass players.

Did you visit the Sandberg website yet? They have a gallery for each model plus demonstration videos, a video of the shop, dealer list incl. the USA and more.

And here's a picture of my Sandberg Bullet Custom:

 

[Felix Neumann]

No time to write some more atm, but let me tell you...I´m fucking Impressed, Holger! What a great looking instrument

 

[prostetnic]

Such an unique, pulsating sound. I'd love to learn fretless some day.

 

[Josh Burgess]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGiVclJSyog

Such an unique, pulsating sound. I'd love to learn fretless some day.

Awesome. I want that bass. Did he just take a normal BTB776 and have it converted into a fretless?

 

[Felix Neumann]

There is a Warwick Rockbass Corvette Fretless for 399 Euro (UVP 763 Euro) How good is that price? And how realistic is that before/after shit? 763 Euro worth?

http://www.musik-schmidt.de/Warwick-Rockbass-Corvette-Premium-4-Fretless-Modell-2009.html

Sandberg, Marleaux...phew I think, I will start with some cheaper first. And after I taste that new fretless blood, at some time I´ll switch over to where the real shit is But guys, thanks so much for your help!

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

Well, the Rockbass is worth a try, from my experience with Rockbasses you will get what you pay for.
So it should definitely be playable and sound ok. The MEC pickups often come in the real Warwicks as well, but nevertheless aren’t that great.
I wouldn’t pay 763 Euro for it, but for 399, well ok.

It will definitely be enough for you to decide whether you like playing fretless or not (you will), but I predict that in that case you’ll soon want to upgrade. And after you’ve upgraded, I’m sure the Rockbass will collect dust.
So it’s your decision if you want to pay 399 for a new bass just for that decision.

As I posted before there was a used Gary Willis Ibanez for 450 Euro, and you might get more mileage out of a used bass that offers a bit more for the price. Also it will be worth more in case you want to sell it later.

FWIW, my first fretless was a Harley Benton for 160 Euro - the only black production fretless bass with two pickups on the market at that time, as the Rockbasses were not available due to a production restructuring.
I had already been able to try out a Sandberg and a few Warwicks but wasn’t sure enough about what I wanted, so I decided to first get the HB just to try it out in the bandsetting for a while and see if it would even fit.
It played and sounded as expected for the price (well… yuk!), but despite that I did not touch my fretted Ibanez SR 505 for months. At that point it was more than obvious I would stick with playing fretless, and I soon proceeded to order the Sandberg of which I posted the photo earlier. Of course the HB got totally neglected once the Sandberg arrived. But I had gotten exactly what I wanted out of it, in the cheapest possible way.

But seriously, drive to Musik Schmidt in Frankfurt and try a few out, it’s what, less than 100 km from Karlsruhe?
If for some reason they don’t have a bass on display that is featured on the website as available, they can bring it over from the warehouse in about 30 minutes. Then you can compare yourself and decide whether the Rockbass is worth it for you.

 

[StefTD]

a bit more than 100kms

I played that rockbass in a shop in Stuttgart a few times, it's ok-but I would spend abit more and get a better
bass like the Gary Wills sig. Like Holger said, if you're going to play fretless and get yourself a better one later
it will collect dust
Imho playing fretless is a more "intimate" thing so you have to connect with the instrument, not as much as a
tool as a normal bass or guitar, at least for me.

edit:
that rockbass bass was about 400 as far as I remember in that shop in Stuttgart, and there are cheaper shops
out there