Fretless 6 String Bass

[Vivi]

A few months ago I posted about fretless bass guitars. Well I traded in my Ibanez 4 string and picked up this beast today. Very, very happy with it. I love the sound of a fretless bass and 6 strings will work a lot better than 4 for playing chords and stuff.

I was wondering if anyone has some general tips or suggestions for learning how to play this bass well. I'm gonna poke around online and probably find a bass forum to ask this at, but thought I'd go ahead and post it here for the time being.

 

[moonwilson]

I'd go ahead and put some sort of markers on the fretboard so you know where the frets were supposed to be. Fretless basses are a pain in the rear to play well, without sounding all out of tune. Having "fret markers" will help out until you figure out how to play by feel alone. You can just use tape or stickers so you can peel them off later and not damage the fretboard. Having another bass with a same-length neck would really help the sticker placement. Your fingers need to go a little further down the neck on a fretless, because your fingers are now in effect the frets.

I'm not a big fan of 6 strings (necks are too wide) or fretless, but I bet that thing would be fun to monkey around with. It would be pretty easy to play really weird slides and unconventional chords on it. Nice score, Vivi. I'm not familiar with the maker but your new bass looks pretty nice. I'm partial to the Music Man Stingray and good ol' P-basses myself.

 

[Vivi]

I plan to buy a 4 string beater bass at some point, so looking for one with a similar neck length would be a great idea. What I plan on doing is finding out where the individual fret positions should be, then placing little white tape dots on the side where the other marks are for 3rd, 5th, 7th fret etc.

This bass is surprisingly comfortable for me to play. Granted I have big hands and 6 strings never bothered me as much as other people, but compared to my friends 6 string alvarez the neck is a lot smaller. I'm just having so much fun with the sound, it feels much more expressive and just feels "right" to me compared to fretted ones. If anything you should try finding a cheap 4 string fretless to mess around, I've seen some online as low as 100$ (Not too sure about the quality though).

 

[M. McCord]

You could try someplace like Stewart McDonald or Warmouth to see if they have a scale marker. These are the "rulers" that are used to mark the position for the frets. Get one of these and you can mark out the lines perfectly.

I never got the hang of a fretless. So I'm content with a 4 string. Although I did at one time fancy getting ahold of a Washburn double neck with a fretted neck on top and fretless on bottom.

 

[fishface5]

fretless is great for allowing "expression," lots of sliding & vibrato possible. I loved it when I played years ago, but I came from a cello background. You will definitely need to get the frets marked precisely at first until your hand develops a feel for where the notes are. Nice lookin' bass!

 

[brewthunda]

I have an Ibanez 4 string that has frets only up to the 12 fret and is fretless after that. I also have a fake fretless Fender J Bass. Both have fret marks on them, so you can figure out where the frets should be. Just lots of practice and remember to place your fingers on the actual fret points, not between frets like on a normal bass.