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You asked the question... how can I configure like HH in position. Please explain what HH means. If you are currently playing fretted Electric Bass with 5 strings, then yes, get a fretless 5 string. If you are currently playing fretted 4 string bass then making the transition from 4 string to 5 stri...

I get complete freedom in my playing; I get to solo here and there; I get to add some funk to my bass lines; I'm expected to bring my fretless; etc You are lucky to have that going for you. The entire live music scene is changing now. Paying gigs are few to none unless you are among the inner circl...

This has happened to me too. A friend (guitarist) of mine has actually stated that he hates the sound of fretless bass and never misses an opportunity to jibe me about my affection for the instrument. He has actually said "People only applaud fretless bass solos because they are glad it's over". Ano...

Welcome to FretlessBass Kiwi60 !!! Sorry, I have no personal experience with optical P/U basses, although I am also intrigued and would like to have one. My personal opinion is that the Upright sound can be closely approximated less expensively with a piezo P/U fretless bass. Since the Lightwave ins...

That actually sounds like a pretty good starter fretless rig. The Fender Squire Modified Jazz fretless is supposed to be good too. Asian basses are much better now than in years past. If you go in that direction look for one with an Ebonal fingerboard. This hard man made material should be great for...

My newest acquisition is an Aria Pro II Avante Steve Bailey fretless six stringer that I found used on eBay. I really love this bass! Instrument $550 on EBay 3/4" spacing at bridge. 34" scale Three piece Ash body Tasty Seymour Duncan P/U's. A bit bright but the treble can always be turned down. Two ...

Can you give me any references for a straightforward (not easy) way to figure out where I am on the neck? It has dots, so I'm not completely lost... I jumped into fretless bass by selling my fretted and then buying my first fretless that happened to be unlined. I was gigging professionally at the t...

More information on this topic:
Defretting for dummies like me

http://fretlessbass.com/viewtopic.php?t=110

An excellent article on defretting by Dan Erlewine at Stewart MacDonald, Issue 139. http://www.stewmac.com/tsarchive/ts0139.html Dan is an experienced luthier and has some very helpful tips. Particularly the part about putting the neck into backbow when extracting frets to reduce chipping of the fin...

Ideally, the P/U leads should be two wires in a braided shield with the shielding properly grounded on one end only . If they are not shielded then it will usually be a pair of wires. For best EMI rejection it is important that this wire pair be twisted, as in "twisted pair". You can replace the uns...

RichmanRush, your comment: Unfortunately, no band currently so they are collecting dust Is my situation too. The gigs are gone. What happened? It seems as if society has little use for local live music these days. My entire life's work has been made irrelevant by societies preference for turbo bass ...

You might try improving the shielding in the P/U routes and control cavity. The noise you mention is classic Fender Jazz single coil hum. Better shielding is a good place to start and won't cost you much. DIY- get some adhesive back foil from Stewart-MacDonald or other source. http://www.stewmac.com...

PM me and we can discuss it.

I can make mine Mwah, Growl, Moan, even Shriek, but I haven't been able to get her to Purr...yet.

The female analogy (although somewhat sexist) is appropriate.

That sounds like a good plan. Ask if you can watch the guitar tech for the purpose of learning how to do set-up yourself.