Author Topic: Orion frettless? (Read 88 times)

pietzouille · « **on:** August 12, 2007, 06:08:05 AM »

Hey guys,i'm thinkin of taking of the frets of my orion,but i'm a bit scared of the sound i'll have, do any of u guys have frettless orion? does it sounds good?? (i already play frettless,all i want to know its if orion's sound good frettless)
thx dudes
cheers

keith_h · « **Reply #1 on:** August 12, 2007, 11:10:37 AM »

I have both fretted and fretless Orions. Here is a link to my fretless Orion. It is probably my favorite bass. If you decide to have yours defretted I would be sure to take it to a competent luthier.

Keith

pietzouille · « **Reply #2 on:** August 12, 2007, 11:36:48 AM »

yes thx keith; i have a very competent luthier here in belgium..
do u think that the fact of have fretmarks (considering it would be a defrett one) would change the sound?? could it be bad?(alembic are never bad:-))

thx

keith_h · « **Reply #3 on:** August 12, 2007, 11:59:11 AM »

The most common thing I have see is after the frets are removed they get replaced with a wood such as maple. To me this seems to be no different than having a lined fretless bass built. I have not played a lined fretless so I cannot say if the different woods cause a tone difference. I do not believe it does since the amount of fret wood is small. I have heard some people say they can feel the different fretboard woods while playing. Is this enough to effect someones playing? I cannot say.

I think you could be successful in converting your Orion to a fretless if you wish to. I also think the Orion is very good as a fretless bass. Maybe somebody else will post that has more experience with defretted or lined fretless basses.

Keith

adriaan · « **Reply #4 on:** August 12, 2007, 03:03:17 PM »

My Epic was defretted by a builder in The Hague, Peer Dellen. The fretlines are blackened maple.

One thing you might tell the builder is that they take a good look at the nut, because it is much too high for a fretless. What they must NOT do is to simply remove the base plate. In the end, I gave the bass to Edwin van Huik to shave off a couple of millimeters from the bottom of the nut itself (not the base plate).

And the last thing, which they'll probably forget, is to tighten all three bolts.

Epic and Orion are basically the same instrument. You'll notice that the tone of voice is much the same after defretting - just a different sort of articulation.

Enjoy!

bassjigga · « **Reply #5 on:** August 14, 2007, 01:26:38 PM »

Well I haven't played a fretless Orion, but Trip Wamsley makes them sound pretty damn good.

garyhead · « **Reply #6 on:** September 29, 2007, 08:44:18 AM »

I have an Orion Fretless 6. (roundwounds) IT SOUNDS FANTASTIC! BUT!....I have Europa electronics installed. So your experience may be a bit different. Very expressive with just slight variations in finger movements....punchy, greasy, growly, sneezy & doc
PLEEZE don't do a hack job on an Alembic! If you must defret...instead of sell / buy one....have the fretboard replaced with one piece of wood....have professionally set up for fretless...and enjoy! Yes, it will cost more than the maple inserts...but man.....those gliss' on a one-piece ebony board....there is nothing else quite like it.