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fretless vs. distortion


Ryan Griffith

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Here's the deal... I have a nice MIM Fender Jazz with TI flats on her, and my erstwhile g*****rist uses a big ole Rat distortion pedal alot. Not surprisingly, my flatwound fretless gets fairly buried under that. Anybody ever deal effectively with this? I don't want to string her with rounds, since rosewood gets chewed up. Mayhaps I just need to stick to fretted bass? Anyways, thanks for any suggestions, gang.

:D

Regards,

~Griff

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Fretless with flats is going to sound thuddy under that Ratted-out guitar no matter what you do. You'll need the upper-partials that roundwounds have more of just to create a tone that's audible against that sound.

 

Get some roundwounds or stick to fretted. Or fight back with buttloads of distortion of your own! :D

 

I've never been impressed with the way fretless basses sound with flats in any situation other than jazz, old-school rock, soul and funk (1950s, early 60s), or country. I like flats on a fretless (flats in general, actually) in those situations, but if you're playing modern hard rock, you're going to be fighting to be heard.

 

They eat the neck up, yes...take it to get fixed every once in a while, get groundwounds or half-rounds, or get the fingerboard coated with epoxy a-la Jaco.

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Compressed wounds such as Smith Compressors will put you in the running. So close to roundwound sound when you attack, yet way easier on the board.

 

But I think with my rig I could use the deadest flats around and still be heard when Marshall Man (cue theme) attempts to save the day - simply by boosting EQ in the ranges where he isn't so strong, which those flats will have no problem doing.

.
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Touche', greenboy.

 

I like the roundwound-on-fretless sound so much I haven't even considered other options...

 

The flatwound-on-jazz bass (fretted) slap tone, though, WOW!!!! That's how that "Hair" sound got to tape! Nice...

 

I'm torn between strings for slapping, now. Doh!

 

--Ben

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I would also stay with the flats if that is what you really like. You can try a brighter set of flats and/or ones with more tension to get more punch. You can alsways turn up your highs and/or play with a heavy guage pic (if you like pics, I don't). But the best way I have found is to remove the fuse from Marshall Man's surge protector ;)
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I'm sure you have tried this already, but boost your low mids. It will help you cut through. Although, if this doesn't work for you, I use TI flats on one of my fretted basses,and I think they kicka mucho arso! :D My old G**tarist had a 300 watt Line-sux Flextone head powering a Mesa-Boogie full stack... I know where you are coming from :D ...

"Suppose you were an idiot ... And suppose you were a member of Congress

... But I repeat myself."

-Mark Twain

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/63/condition_1.html (my old band)

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Here's my suggestions...

 

*shoot the guitarist

*hide the R.A.T. overdrive pedal

*get a Boss Metal Zone, and bury the needle on the sucker!

:D:D:D:D:D

 

On a more serious note, I'd try a bigger/higher powered amp with more head room, or boost the mids a little bit to cut through the mix a little more if a new amp isn't in the budget.

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