New Forum, New Fretless!

[cjj]

Cool! A brand new fretless section. Well, I guess this is just the place to post another gratuitous picture of my new 4003FL:

[woodyng]

GRATUITOUS or not,that bass is making me drool......i do think amber fireglo is my all time favorite color on a rick bass......yowsa.....

[rickenbrother]

A great find, CJ. It sure is pretty. I'm sure it sounds as sweet as it looks!

[cjj]

A great find, CJ. It sure is pretty. I'm sure it sounds as sweet as it looks!

Unfortunately, I won't know that until probably next weekend. It's supposed to ship out on Monday, then a few days in transit, then the obligatory warm up period since we're supposed to be in the low single digit (F) temps this next week...

[rickenbrother]

CJ, I could show you more pics of mine until yours comes.

[cjj]

OK, I still think yours is gorgeous, but I think I'm gonna like mine even better...

[ajish4]

Congratulations CJ,

I KNOW you will love this one, it SHOULD have a nice thin neck like mine did.

The AFG blend on these is KILLER, Eric & his crew have mastered the bursts.

[basmansam]

Awesome!! Great looking bass.

[FretlessOnly]

CJ: Very nice! Gorgeous, actually.

DId you get this new? If so, it likely came stock with RIC rounds, which you will likely want to change out ASAP.

[bluewhale]

Congratulations, cjj!

And wow. With that darker burst, this bass looks like it means business.

[cjj]

Yep, this baby's new, first time out of the RIC shipping box was when the dealer took the pics (Mike Parks at the Rickenbacker Page). Yeah, it'll have rounds on it, but I've got a set of D'Addairo Chromes waiting...

[rickenbrother]

CJ, have you ever played a fretless before?

[cjj]

No, I haven't. I'm sure this will be an entirely new experience for me after 30+ years of fretted basses. The concept of playing instruments with no set notes isn't exactly unfamiliar to me though as I spent many years playing trombone. So, the idea of relative positions for notes and adjusting the pitch to get it exact is something I've done before, just not with a guitar neck. Should be lots of fun...

[FretlessOnly]

CJ: Yes it is a great deal of fun because it's a chance to apply everything you know to a strange set-up. You can make it do things you've never done and perhaps what noone else has ever done.

One thing: I'd recommend sighting the side dots and never looking at the fingerboard. The off-set fingerboard dots (where they usually are on a fretted bass) are worthless for intonation (unless you have a self-shrinking brain-wave thing going on that allows you to approximate reality using parallax to your benefit). All intonation comes from the side dots.

I recommend trying to finger each note spot on the proper spot using hand-shifting techniques. Later, once you've gotten this, you can develop a sliding technique that allows you to move up or down into the corrct intonation and gives that extra growl (or mwahh as Joey calls it). Thing is, it's better to know how to do it right before you develop the "cheating sliding" technique. That way, the sliding is an embellishment to your style as opposed to a crutch in place of it.

I mean that seriously. There is a big tonal difference between not knowing the right way to intonate and sliding as opposed to knowing the right way to intonate and sliding.

Oh, and just to add: you generally get much more growl sliding up into a note than you do sliding down into it. Probably related to the leverage one can generate in either direction.

Oh, and another: jack up the low mids a bit. Fretless is designed to be a more mid-range beast. Sure, you can hit the lows too, but...

[rickenbrother]

CJ: Yes it is a great deal of fun because it's a chance to apply everything you know to a strange set-up. You can make it do things you've never done and perhaps what noone else has ever done.

Just wait until CJ does his first harmonic slide!