All About The Bass - Fretless Ibanez Vs. Spector Fretless 

Till that out of tune part at the end lol

It’s the Elephant Shuffle 😂😂

Hello, do you still feel this way. Would this be good for a first time fretless bass? TY

Self-deprecation is the mark of a true musician

Well, Lee DID have it outta tune. Love my Spector.

Its because of the EMG pickup. It doesnt match the fretless sound-style imo.

Agreed, not very impressed by either though.

Agreed. The Ibanez has more character and fuller sound.

Haven't played it myself but got to agree with you on the looks. You really wonder if they couldn't have made it a bit prettier. It has a spruce top, I believe they use that on violins etc. as well and those look a lot better.

super late comment but i love how minimalist the ibanez is, the looks are what drew me in to begin with

I saw the bassist for the band America play a Spectorcore 5 string fretted, so it seems to work for that type of music.

Spot on - was very annoying

just use your ears and make sense of it, if you can't do that good luck making music

Todesnuss I recently picked up an sr700 fretless, and it's fantastic. i picked up a Jack Pastorius signature fretless (£2000) and couldn't believe how much better mine sounded. highly recommended!!

Thanks for that info. I had no doubt that those are propably the best fretless basses in the price range but it's nice to hear some people confirm it from experience.

Oops, answer given in the video..

It depends entirely on what sound you're after. Jaco Pastorius used roundwounds - as do a lot of jazz-fusion players - and they did cause wear on the board. However his tone had a lot more highs and high mids - more of the "mwah" tone - and using flatwounds won't get you that sound. If you want to use a fretless to play rock or metal then I'd recommend using roundwounds and budgeting £50-100 a year to have a luthier re-level the board. If you want a more upright sound then using flats or nylon flats will be the way to go. I have 2 fretless basses - and two fretless guitars. One of my basses has an Ebanol fingerboard (Which is a man-made material and really hard) and I use roundwounds on it; it has scuffed slightly but I've had that bass for years and it's not damaged the board enough to warrant any maintenance. The other bass has an Indian Ebony board, I did use roundwounds on it but it did begin to wear grooves into the board so I swapped for nylon flatwounds - which don't wear the board at all.

Flatwounds all the way. Roundwounds will damage your fretboard over time.

unless you make a steel fretboard

It depends entirely on the tone you want. If you want a more "upright" sound then nylon tapewounds will do that. If you want a more "Jaco" like tone then you'll have to use roundwounds. I have fretless basses with both types of strings. On my bass with rounds; the damage - in my experience - is mainly cosmetic and it's not expensive to get a Luthier to sand down a board to take out the scratches or grooves if there are any. I had a fretted bass converted to fretless and it only cost £80 to remove the old rosewood fingerboard and put on an Ebony board.

Or glass. Ned Evett has fretless guitars with glass fingerboards.

TheFatStringer you play right where the Fret would've been.

I played one recently, 'twas awful because you can't see the lines

TheFatStringer Yeah that can be a bastard.

learn better intonation? you shouldnt need the lines or dots

I use the dots on the top of the fingerboard. Never see the lines or dots on the fingerboard.

I never knew if I was pronouncing it properly. I always said "pee-et-so" but heard Americans pronounce it pie-zo. So it is pee-et-so then?

Pee-et-so or peet-so, but not pie-zo(to rhyme with fly!)).

piezo is a greek word so if you wanna hear the correct pronunciation listen to a greek or italian guy.

Yeah man)

18:41

Thanks

I owned an inexpensive fretless (SX Vintage series) and a more-expensive ESP LTD. Both basses responded remarkably to roundwounds, except the fretboard itself. Regardless of board material the rounds wore grooves into them. I didn't (and still don't) have the skill and patience required to smooth out the fretboard, but I didn't want to further damage it; I bought flatwounds. I just could never get the classic fretless tone with them, and I didn't want to regularly pay a luthier to refurbish the fretboard...so I ended up selling both. Sometimes I really miss those babies, but the maintenance expenses bring me back to reality.

tone4days Yeah Jaco had like boat epoxy on his board to stop the rounds from digging into the board.

who the hell is Paul Young? i only know about Pino Palladino

I expected someone to actually mention Pino Palladino in this video lol.

room42 Paladino made his name in the '80s playing fretless bass on Paul Young's albums. You can hear it in the background on songs like "Every Time You Go Away." Paladino replaced John Entwistle in the Who after Entwistle's death. He has also toured with Paul Simon and John Mayer.

All the uprights that I've heard have that 'meowing' sound. Could depend on the strings.

If action is low enough it makes that sound.

Blech319 there is a fretless a-bass/e-bass hybrid that can be played as an upright and an e-bass

It's called the toby chennel arco acoustic bass guitar.

yess man. if u want super mwaah grab a bass with an ebanol fingerboard. normally used on cheap basses but damn it sounds nice on a fretless

And did you say the Spector had roundwounds on it? What the hell, Spector!