Can a fretless be played without all the mwah/meow?

[lumgimfong]

Just wondering if it can do double duty as a mwah bass and a more traditional sounding bass. Thanks.

[WillyWonka]

Just bump the action up a touch and play more staccato.


The mwah for the sake of mwah isn’t my thing.

[rickenbrother]

Version 1 of the Tech 21 Sansamp BDDI will kill the mwah of a fretless bass when activated, probably because of how much it scoops the mids. I don't know about version 2, since I haven't used it, but it has a mid control that might do the same if you dial out the mids. Might work with the mids of your amp eq and/or other preamp pedals dialed out, but try not to get lost in the mix.

[teb]

Much of it is your technique and how long you are holding notes. You will also find that there are some notes that do it more than others. It is possible, however, to set up a fretless bass to play really cleanly. This is my old Frankenstein fretless Les Paul (one Gibson humbucker neck pickup into one channel of the amp and a P-Bass bridge pickup into the other channel. Amp was an old Acoustic 140 attached to a Sunn folded horn cabinet with one 18" speaker in it. No effects and tape-wound flats. Ebony fretless fingerboard, no lacquer, flat picked).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0-CnjPo3oo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLna8SJMruo

On the other hand, my Pedulla Buzz is all about mwah, especially with rounds against that shiny fingerboard. You can diminish it somewhat by avoiding long holds on some notes which seem to be really prone to mwah, but there is still going to be some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_SzXYV3f4g

[Dirk]

Sorry that's blasphemy, play another bass if you don't want the wonderful mwah.

Frets or high action will surely disperse the effect, also old strings and flats.
Actually why not engage your string mute?

To me it's almost the same as folks not wanting any fret buzz on their Ric.

My Zon bass does mwah like no other, if that stopped I would no longer play it. Like Pedulla it's all about rounds and the coated fingerboard.

[sloop_john_b]

Try flatwounds and/or rolling off the brightness.

[teb]

Sorry that's blasphemy, play another bass if you don't want the wonderful mwah.

Different strokes (and that's the nice way of putting it).

When I started playing bass with a folk group, I didn't want any mwah as it didn't fit in with the sound very well most of the time. What I did want, and the reason that I went fretless, was clean slides without them being segmented by the frets. If I want mwah, I play my Pedulla, but for much of the stuff we do, it would be really out of place.

My fretless Hofner Beatle bass also had no mwah last time I checked....

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0dtiun026in7n ... L.mp3?dl=0

[teeder]

Not a big fan of mwah, but my cat has a pretty cute meow. Sounds just like Gary in Sponge Bob.

[Kiddwad57]

Count me as another fretless player who doesn’t exploit mwah. I do like the notes to sustain.

[rickenbrother]

Raising the mute to just lightly touch the strings will minimize the mwah. In most cases, I love the mwah, but when I did the bass track for Brian Medway's version of Ray Charles' "Georgia", I felt that the heavy mwah was a distraction in the song, so I raised the mute and soloed the neck pickup on my 4001S. The bass had a strong presence in the mix, but mwah was subtle. It sounds a lot like an upright bass in the song. Unfortunately, I can't post a link to it anymore since I gave up my website.

[Kiddwad57]

The mute is cool and I used it all the time with flats when I had a fretted bass, but with the fretless it's mostly about the left hand finding the desired response. Fretted with flats and the mute is a truly an awesome sound!

[Korladis]

Just don't slide into and out of notes.

[cassius987]

Just wondering if it can do double duty as a mwah bass and a more traditional sounding bass. Thanks.

Absolutely. It's all in the technique. Fretless can be made to sound like really clean playing on a fretted bass. It can even clank a bit (against the wood) if you dig in, though that sound is definitely not the exact same.

[lumgimfong]

Good to know!
Hopefully they will put them out again one day and I can get one!!

[AndyM]

A variance on make/model...
I was in the music store specifically to check out a certain amp. I grabbed a nearby bass, on a stand and began playing. After a good five minutes, I realized it was a (lined) fretless, not a Ric. Nevertheless, I never once heard a mwah when using my every day technique.
That was a very fast, glossy neck and I was quite surprised by the whole experience. BTW I do not own a fretless; no desire to.

Point is, as stated by others, technique has a big influence on this mwah thing.