Jeff's Fretless Basses?? I don't get this??

Thumbing My Way

I don't play the bass or anything so maybe thats why, but i don't understand how he plays a fretless bass.

I couldn't play my guitar without frets..does it actually have NO FRETS?!?!??!

If so...how does he play it??

LOL..Thanks

exhausted

the fingers still control the length and thus pitch of the strings. you just have to have a better ear and control to play it.

Thumbing My Way

But he doesn't know where the frets are.....does he play it by feel & eye?

I would screw up all the time if i had no frets...

Does anyone else play these??

moster78

People that play the violin or cello have no frets, they manage.

exhausted

Thumbing My Way wrote:

But he doesn't know where the frets are.....does he play it by feel & eye?

I would screw up all the time if i had no frets...

Does anyone else play these??

you have to know your instrument much better. feel, ears and eyes.

brain of c

don't fret it.

All Those Yesterdays

Just like trombone players don't have valves or anything to hit to play different notes, they just use the slide.

moster78

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

Just like trombone players don't have valves or anything to hit to play different notes, they just use the slide.

I actually played trombone in middle school. When I was first learning I had to write out the slide positions on top of every note on my sheet music just so I'd know the general area I needed to hit. Took a good year or two to be able to read the music and just know where to put the slide. Of course I've forgotten it all now. Would come in handy if I ever wanted to start a ska band.

Thumbing My Way

Wow!!

That's so impressive!!

I just gained so much more respect for Jeff!!!

the unseen

some fretless bass necks have fret lines painted on them as a guide to where the fingers should go,but they arent perfect and one still has to work the finger to find the perfect pitch on the neck.

mccreadyisgod

Don't forget, there are such things as fretless guitars out there...

Upright basses also don't have frets, so a fretless is more natural and intuitive to anyone who knows how to play an upright. And, like unseen said, most fretless basses have markers where the frets would be. In fact, some of the first fretless electric basses were converted fretted basses, and had shims put into the fret slots, so you could use the shims as fret markers. This method is still pretty popular... take a bass you know and love, and yank the frets out.

They do take a better ear and better-trained hands than a regular bass... so props to Jeff, definitely.

JofZ

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Don't forget, there are such things as fretless guitars out there...

Upright basses also don't have frets, so a fretless is more natural and intuitive to anyone who knows how to play an upright. And, like unseen said, most fretless basses have markers where the frets would be. In fact, some of the first fretless electric basses were converted fretted basses, and had shims put into the fret slots, so you could use the shims as fret markers. This method is still pretty popular... take a bass you know and love, and yank the frets out.

They do take a better ear and better-trained hands than a regular bass... so props to Jeff, definitely.

And the new Fret/Fretless axes that are popping up all over the place. The tone from a Fretless axe is awesome!

jeff's_the_man

i have a frettless bass and i love it dearly, the tone you get is just so much better. it sounds like a real bass, no treble or metallic string noises, just pure bass.... its a p-bass copy, and yes it did initially have frets on it, i got them yanked out and filled it, so yes i have markers in there to help with getting the pitch of the note right, sure its cheating a bit, but ive only been playing bass for coming up 2 years, so i still need all the help i can get
what i love about it is the sound you get from slides especially on the g string, very cool, and the harmonics come up alot clearer which is always nice for playing indifference

in conclusion, fretless basses rock... end of story

All Those Yesterdays

moster78 wrote:

I actually played trombone in middle school. When I was first learning I had to write out the slide positions on top of every note on my sheet music just so I'd know the general area I needed to hit. Took a good year or two to be able to read the music and just know where to put the slide. Of course I've forgotten it all now. Would come in handy if I ever wanted to start a ska band.

I too played the trombone, I played in the fifth grade. Did the in school lesson and also private lessons once a week. Actually enjoyed it. Why did it stop. Well when summer came I stopped lessons, and when school was back in session I forgot a majority of it, and gave up.

Pearl Jam and toast

Now don't give him tooooo much credit, its not nearly as hard as it must seem to someone who doesn't play

But it still takes practice and knowing your insturment very well.

Jeff's real brilliance is in his tone.... oooooh man..

frank coztansa

while jeff is great, its hardly because he can play a fretless bass. ive played bass for over 4 years, and i could play a fretless easily. every just get in that zone and you close your eyes? well, you cant see the frets then either.

the dots are still on the neck of the guitar/bass, so you do have some sort of feel for wear your fingers should be.

jeff's_the_man

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Jeff's real brilliance is in his tone.... oooooh man..

couldnt have said it better myself, how does he do it?!?!?!?

JofZ

frank coztansa wrote:

while jeff is great, its hardly because he can play a fretless bass. ive played bass for over 4 years, and i could play a fretless easily. every just get in that zone and you close your eyes? well, you cant see the frets then either.

the dots are still on the neck of the guitar/bass, so you do have some sort of feel for wear your fingers should be.

Jeff is great for many reasons, none of them because he can play a fretless instrument IMO. Is his tone better because of it? Is he taking more of a chance live? Well, that is something we could argue for a decade. Jeff is the backbone to the band, without him PJ would probably suck balls

coffee_party

jeff is playing an electric fretless bass on EVENFLOW live, if i am correct it is really amazing that he can play live w/ an electric fretless bass while jumping and running around during the early years of pearl jam w/ EVENFLOW.

mccreadyisgod

coffee_party wrote:

jeff is playing an electric fretless bass on EVENFLOW live, if i am correct it is really amazing that he can play live w/ an electric fretless bass while jumping and running around during the early years of pearl jam w/ EVENFLOW.

Most of Ten and a lot of Vs. and Vitalogy were recorded with fretless basses.

coffee_party

i know he uses the upright bass most of the time but on evenflow i think he uses an electric fretless bass while playing he runs and jump around the stage w/c is amazing he is still get the notes.

it is not hard to play fretless bass when you are just sitting and you can clearly concentrate on hearing clearly what you are playing but on jeff's case ? jumping around and running arround w/ a fretless ? thats amazing

jeff's_the_man

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Most of Ten and a lot of Vs. and Vitalogy were recorded with fretless basses.

dont foget the old 12 stringer, he used that a bit as well!!
thats one of the things i love about jeff, he playes all these different types of basses, fretless, 12 string, standup...he is most definatley a tone freak!

given to jam

coffee_party wrote:

i know he uses the upright bass most of the time but on evenflow i think he uses an electric fretless bass while playing he runs and jump around the stage w/c is amazing he is still get the notes.

it is not hard to play fretless bass when you are just sitting and you can clearly concentrate on hearing clearly what you are playing but on jeff's case ? jumping around and running arround w/ a fretless ? thats amazing

that is really impressive, but they have played even flow atleast 500 times live, so to some extent muscle memory takes over...

mccreadyisgod

coffee_party wrote:

i know he uses the upright bass most of the time but on evenflow i think he uses an electric fretless bass while playing he runs and jump around the stage w/c is amazing he is still get the notes.

it is not hard to play fretless bass when you are just sitting and you can clearly concentrate on hearing clearly what you are playing but on jeff's case ? jumping around and running arround w/ a fretless ? thats amazing

Actually, he only uses his upright bass on a handful of songs.

You're right, he does play a fretless electric bass guitar during the live set, and it is pretty amazing that he can find the spots on the fretboard while getting that into the performance.