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Re: Eberhard's intonation...



>> Fretless is way harder than fretted, in my opinion. 
 
I switched to "fretless" basses almost exclusively for the last 3 years (both electric and by playing upright) ... I actually find it harder to play fretless now.
 
>> Hey, if Gary Willis, and Jaco use(d) lined necks,
>> why the hell am I so worried about no lines as some
>> kind of legitimacy issue?
 
Do what's best for you as a player ... but I don't think fret lines have any effect on Gary's or Jaco's intonation when playing their blazing riffs or when playing cross string runs ... it's just muscle memory and ears at that point. Although, Gary Willis says he would ~never~ play a fretless bass without lines ...
 
No matter whether you have lines or not ... you have to work on your intonation ... I use two methods to work on this ... I set-up my arpeggio/scale practice charts in Band-In-A-Box to play along note-for-note, or just use root tones as a drone tone for intonation reference. I find that I called the horn players in my one band on intonation issues more than realizing I was having issues during performance ...
 
After playing violin as a kid, I figured if little kids aren't frightened by violins, I shouldn't be afraid of a fretless bass with no lines as an adult ... there's much more room for error on a bass, even in the upper registers.