New fretless fish

[Michele C.]

Well, I found out that I could trade my old BB604 for this for just 70 euros more and I thought it was time to see how good am I at fretless bass.

I think I will miss my BB604 just a little bit. It was so lovely for soloing, thanks to umbelievably presend mids, but has been replaced in everyday life by my new one. My wife was sad, we bought it together and she does not like to see instruments leaving home forever.

Then, here it is. First time I have a bass that is not natural wood.

 

 

(why no picture?)

 

Sound is great. The split coil is very authoritative and the soapbar at the bridge is nasal in the way it should be. Blending the pickups in various positions changes the sound in more than one way. I will not miss the bridge pickup of the BB604 the least.

It has been used very little: no dings, no scratches even plastic on the cavity cover was still there.

It needed setup badly. Action was too high and intonation way out. The neck was like the other Yamaha, pretty comfortable and with just a tad of relief, but action was way high. I lowered the strings as much as I could without too much mwah at medium volume, then it took a lot to tune all the saddles to put in tune the fourth that I have with, say, a low G and a D at twelvth fret, the beginning of Cello sonata number one.

I am discovering a lot about fretless bass. Going up the keyboard is not for beginners and will show the least intonation defect. After twenty minutes or so I could play empty strings and sing near twelvth fret, but it will take some adjustment.

Double and triple stops are difficult and I had to change fingering. When I play a seventh chord, like a G7 at third on fourth, second and first string, i would use the pinky on the high B. My scales are reasonably in tune after setup.

Still learning.

[Michele C.]

Ah, the strings. The strings on the bass are in very good shape. They are flatwound and with a pale green silk wrap at the bridge. I wonder if they could be Thomastick. I am not much into flatwoulds lately, but I would leave a set of almost new TI alone.

i wonder if the rosewood fretboard would really complain for a new set of nickel roundwounds. Still, the bass can growl with those flats.

[Danzilla]

I'm not big on black finishes; but with the chrome hardware & pickup rings, that looks nice. How is the active preamp? That was the main reason I sold my BB1100S about 20 years ago. I'm sure they've improved since then.

[Michele C.]

I am not that much into finishes at all. My main bass is finished like a piece of furniture of a couple of centuries ago and my previous Yamaha was natural satin, but the deal was interesting and the bass is exceptional value in many details, like the excellent tuners, and rounded neck heel. (update; my son and my daughter both find it gorgeous, lots of oohs and wows).

The preamp has three band EQ and does much less harm then the BB604 preamp that had a switchable mid cut that could be moved in frequency. It altered the sound so much that it has not been kicked in in years. The EQ is fine though and it does no serious harm to sound, the lows can be boomed reasonably and the highs can be pumped enough to make flatwounds change league, but I prefer it flat. The EQ is not that much needed because these pickups are really good and usable in any mixer position.

I have tested a five string passive version of this bass that was on display besides this. It was also a good deal, but I was not shopping fo fivers today. I tried a blues in D and it was really growly, fifth string and all, with a very strong output. I was also surprised by the usefulness of the passive tone knob, not the usual on/off situation.

I am enjoying my new fretless, but in the back of my mind i ask myself how much would it roar if it had frets and roundwounds. I think I will switch to roundwounds in a fre months.

[Basshappi]

Congrats!

I've only used rounds on my fretless. I use Elixer nanowebs because I get the properties of a roundwound with greatly reduced finger noise. I've been wondering what a set of Chromes would sound like, I'll be putting together another fretless very soon so I'll find out.

 

Cheers!

[Michele C.]

After an evening with my new bass I am totally satisfied. My intonation locked in after a few hours and at the end of the evening I had the strange sensation that there were frets on my fretboard and that fingers fell naturally on them.

i have carefully setup the bridge so that notes are in the same place as they would be on a fretted bass, that is I put my finger "inside" the fret just left of the line, as if it were a real fret.

I like all the sounds that a fretless can make, but I also like doing it once in a while and be firm and spot on the rest of the time.

The flatwounds sound great, but as gorgeous and full of body and tone as they are through a mixer on monitors, when I plug into the amplifier I feel as if I had two neck pickups. Well, what bothered me of my previous bass was feeling as it had two bridge pickups, so I think I deserved it.

I have a spare set of Naked Strings roundwounds, 45 to 100 in my drawer and I think I will try them. I have very low strings now and everything is great, except that the G string mwahs a little too much.

[Wally Malone]

There was a period in the late seventies, early eighties where I played fretless exclusively. One thing that made it easy was that both my fretted and fretless were Fender Precisions and the fingering was natural. I did a lot of singing and the most important part to me was getting my cabinet positioned on stage so that I could really hear myself. The fretless really gelled with the drummer who even though we were playing covers he was more of a jazz drummer. When we changed drummers and the new drummer had more of a rock feel it seemed the fretless didn't seem to work as well and I switched back to the fretted P bass. I think it was a combination of how they tuned their bass drum and also the feel.

 

Wally

[Paul K]

Congrats on the new fish! IMHO: Don't do the rounds.

[Michele C.]

Paul, saw Palladino with Phillips and Saisse yetsterday at the Blue Note in Milano and now I am longing for flats on my fretted bass too :-). And how beautiful is that black Jaguar (but my fretted bass is a piece of beauty too).

And I have Hadrien Feraud in the speakers as I am writing right now.