Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I started about a year ago to dip my toes into the fretless world. I purchased an inexpensive Yamaha rbx250f,slapped a Lollar pbass pickup and fender tapewounds on it and went at it. After about 6 monthes,i started feeling some progress was happening,and i like the way the bass sounds and plays well enough,but it does kind of have "beginner bass" feel overall. I am recently considering having my cii converted to fretless,either by filling in the fretslots,or possibly putting a new (ebony) fretboard on it,and am talking with our favorite luthiers about such. Problem is,i love that bass as it is! Yesterday a friend brought over a '81 Ibanez Musician fretless for me to look at. I remember Sting playing one (so i just had to play "walking on the Moon" when i demo'd it). This is a VERY nice bass,5 piece neck through,3 band active eq,and even better there is a toggle to defeat the active circuit....sure enough in active mode,it tended to overdrive (fart). It is set up beautifully,maybe even too low of an action for me,but it is definitely a big step up from the Yammie.
That's my quandary....otoh,wondering if i would love the Conversion on the cii,or miss having it as a flatwound equipped alternative to my Laredo,versus "here ya go,the universe has brought you a really nice fretless cheap". I do know the yamaha's days are numbered either way.
Your opinions of encouragement and/or scorn are solicited.

Buy the Musician Bass!

Are you sure?

I had one back in the day, heavy, but a very nice bass. I'd give it look before I'd mod a 4004.

Would buying another 4004 and modding it be an option? If money's no object, that's how I'd go.

jps wrote:Buy the Musician Bass!

+1. You know you like it. When you mod a bass, it's a guessing game how it may turn out.

IF you decide to mod your 4004, and I say IF, I would carefully pull the frets and fill them in. Then, if you decide you want to keep it fretless, you can go the new ebony route. If not, refretting would not be out of the equation.

If you do the fingerboard replacement dealio I'd use ziricote instead of ebony.

jps wrote:Buy the Musician Bass!

Jeff's right. Best way to go.

Thanks,folks. I really do like the various custom Rics i have seen out there,and even feel like the newer 4004 neck profile might make for a "better" fretless,so i am really on the fence about defretting my cii. Who knows,maybe RIC will make a batch of them someday...i also like the idea of a finished carribean rosewood board...the ibanez is a bit on the heavy side,not too bad,but it has a lovely 2 octave neck,that you can pluck on the upper area of the fretboard for a really nice sound. And i am starting to figure out how to use my compressor (never use it with my Ricks) multi fx on it to get the best out of the 3 band active eq. The Ibby is on loan from a friend,but i think we may be talking trade/sale in the near future.
Jeff,i don't know if its the same thing as zircote,but i've owned a couple of Modulus basses,and really did not like the feel of the (non-wood)fretboards. Ther was a very cool Zon 8 string for sale on TB,but i just kept thinking about the whole graphite/phenolic/active barts sound as a bit too clinical for my taste. The ebony fingerboard on the Ibanez is really sweet.anyways,thanks again,everybody!
Ps,Money is ALWAYS an object,as in,we are doing house remodelling projects every year for the last 5 years....!

Woody, ziricote is a wood, not a phenolic/man made material. I have owned played fretless basses with maple, rosewood, ebony, phenowood, and CF; the ziricote on my Martin Keith basses are amazing, and the fretless Elfin has one of the finest fretless tones IMHO.

Ibanez Musician fretless (I think, anyway) sighting:

http://youtu.be/CAaxZPjbrVQ

I love XTC. Colin Moulding is a terribly underrated bassist.

jps wrote:Woody, ziricote is a wood, not a phenolic/man made material. I have owned played fretless basses with maple, rosewood, ebony, phenowood, and CF; the ziricote on my Martin Keith basses are amazing, and the fretless Elfin has one of the finest fretless tones IMHO.

It is a nice feeling fretboard. Also, even I could get a mwah out of it.

I would buy a Music Man Sting Ray fretless. Fantastic bass.

Jeff-thanks,for some reason i thought ziricote was some kind of synthetic,so i now will keep zircote in mind if i go that route.(i am also considering doing the operation on my hollowbody Rimini). Morgan- I used to own an early stingray,but i really prefer NT or SN basses overall.
Colin Moulding is great! That does indeed look like a FL Musician bass he's playing that very cool bassline on.