Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Same here! Although I bet the strings you use really factor in.

I've yet to seriously use a pick on a FL bass, but I rarely use a pick on a fretted bass anyway.

Guilty....I even have some VERY OLD felt picks that I've used on fretless on rare occasion.

FretlessOnly wrote:I'll add this nugget regarding the FL: given its "organic" nature and ability to "speak," I wouldn't dream of using a pick on one.

Don't limit yourself there John! Using a pick on a fretless produces a very different attack and tone - you can almost get the sound of an upright and tic-tac bass playing simultaneously - a very cool rockabilly vibe.

I also note that there are some slap players who use fretless basses - Les Claypool being the one that immediately comes to mind. If you can stomach it, (Primus's sound can be a bit confronting) you should check out his solo on "Tommy the Cat".

antipodean wrote:"Tommy the Cat".

My favorite Claypool performance... ever.

I'll check out your Les Claypool ref, but if I want to sound like a double bass, well, I'll use my double bass (see, I even go so far as to refer to my "upright" by its more "dignified" name ). Would you use a pick on an upright? Call it snobbery (and you'd probably be correct in doing so!), but a FL bass is, to me, a compact electric convenience offering the portability and weight preference to an upright (some sounds approach an upright, others do indeed surpass it), and I only like to use human features to get the strings humming.

How about fretless for heavy metal?

Apologies if I have offended - no disrespect was intended John. As I can't play upright, fretless is the best approximation I can manage to get that woody tone. A pick can just add a bit of attack that sounds "different" and can be applicable to the limited genres I am capable of playing. I confess that I only play fretless around 5% of the time, and 70% of that would be played fingerstyle, but there have been instances when the fretless-pick combination gets an outing.

Evan, no offense at all. I'll guarantee that I am more likely to offend than you are!

I do have some rather "purist" opinions about bass, and fretless/upright in particular-and I am more than willing to share them (clearly). To each their own, of course. And take the winks in the spirit in which they were intended. I know when I'm being overbearing, I just can't help myself...

Sting plays fretless basses with a pick. He gets some pretty cool tones.

Sting is a great singer/songwriter.

I've used a pic on VERY RARE occasions.

Most times, I review all our material for a Sunday, and depending on the mixture of the set list, I judge which bass I'm going to use.

It never fails, but one or two just don't fit in to the rest of the list and I just want to play something a little "different" to fit the bill.

The old felt pic does a decent job of just changing the sound just a bit.

It's a rare occasion that I use a pic on fretless, and it's always the felt...I've never used the felt pic on my roundwound RICs...

Anyone else ever try the felt pics?

Just throwin' another FL tip out there, free for the holidays...in general, avoid open strings, as your fingering hand makes the notes speak, not you plucking/picking hand. Of course, open notes do have their place, but they do tend to sound out of place in the midst of a bassline done with other fingered notes, especially on FL.

An exception would be a pedal tone, where the open notes ring more and provide a bit more oomph to the overall sound, particularly in conjunction with fingered octaves or fifths.

I agree with you, John. You can't make the open string notes of a fretless bass sound like the notes played on the fingerboard.
Though except for the open E, I don't use open string notes very much on fretted basses either.

Well, you could always tune the E down to Eb.