Going Fretless

I've been playing bass in an acoustic trio, and it's very exciting. The singer is a woman with the voice of an angel who also plays guitar, and a guy who plays a fantastic lead guitar. We connected early in the spring via the Craigslist musician's classifieds, and have been rehearsing weekly. They've played together for a while, as a duo, and with another bass player. We have some gigs coming up, but more on that in an upcoming post.

This post is the last episode of the Great Gear Change of '13. When I started playing with them, I wanted a more "upright bass" sound than I was getting through the Fender Precision. I looked at upright electric basses on Musician's Friend, and they look very cool, but the good ones are very expensive and simply out of my ballpark.

I started investigating fretless basses, and set my sights on the Ibanez SR370F. I went into Guitar Center one evening, and they had the 5-string version in stock. I played it and fell in love with it - but I wanted the 4-string version, not the 5. They said they could order it for me and have it arrive in a few days, so that's what I did. The standard 15% off coupon and the GC gift card that brother Eric had gotten me for Christmas made it a very inexpensive addition to the pack.

Trying to make a long story short - I picked it up, brought it home, *loved* how it looked, but didn't like how it sounded. I suspected setup issues, but it was beyond my ability to fix. I took it back to GC on a Saturday morning, and was lucky to find the guitar tech unoccupied. He made some adjustments, and also talked through what he was doing, which was very interesting and educational.

When I told him I was playing in an acoustic band and was looking for an upright bass sound, he recommended flatwound strings, as opposed to the roundwound strings more common on electric basses. I got the set he recommended, and it really does sound more like an upright bass. The sound is less "boom" and more "thump". (which may make no sense, but I know just what I mean when I write it. :-)) Suffice it to say that it sounds really good and was exactly what I was hoping for. And did I mention it's a *gorgeous* instrument?

As for playing fretless, it's an adjustment - but an interesting and fun experience. The frets are why Fender named their first fretted electric bass the Precision Bass. You put your finger anywhere within the fret, and you get the exact note. Playing fretless is taking the training wheels off. If your fretting hand a little bit off, the note is a little bit off. The neck has marker lines where the frets would be, and I've found them to be very accurate - so that helps considerably.

My band-mates noticed the difference in sound right away. So I've been rehearsing with it for the last month, and I'll be gigging with it this summer.