Fretless Bass for $100? Glarry Fretless GP Bass Review.

[@johnwelsh5591]

Not what I wanted to hear, but what I needed to hear

[@allanedgar8499]

Took me 15 min. to set up my $75 Glarry, flatwounds and gig worthy. Leaving the P & J at home. Love my fretless Rogue!!

[@stefanovite664]

Fretless Ps are severely underrated, especially with a pair of flatwounds and with the tone all the way up.

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

Agreed, I love that sound.

[@sethbrown8912]

Honest review. Can't beat that. Based on your review, I would still buy it but I would expect to do some work. I think that many of the major, long-standing brands expect a physical music store to get the instrument into proper playing condition.

[@dx7guy]

Thank's, Review (and lesson). I actually have a Peavey fretless, it has lines where the frets were suppose to be. Gonna go see if the Dots line-up

[@deathmetaldouglas69]

I could barely call this a review. It's like "my music master class" on fretless bass. Subscribed. After 40 yrs of bass me thinks I want to get a fretless. Grateful I watched this before having done so.

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

You should be fine learning fretless. I would suggest getting one with lines or side dots, correlating with the actual notes though. There are many available. Good luck!

[@karlsonkab51]

How much gap between the bottom of the strings and the fingerboard would you give it at the "1st fret" position?

[@mileskirklin346]

Can someone explain to me how these $100 basses have rosewood fingerboards?

[@arvidlystnur4827]

I would think the Glary uses the same template for the side dots on fretted basses as fretless bass. They should use different templates. On my acoustic upright, ( CHUBBY JACKSON FIVE STRING KAY), I marked the side of the neck with lines referencing individual frets, five, 9 and 12 and higher with stickers and markers and up higher with sticker between A and D string. They wore off eventually as I learned but I only used them as reference points. Now I have only 5 and 9 as reference. When I first play during the day I just shoot for the octave at the unmarked 12 and might be off by a full step but my brain reconfigures.

[@joesalyers]

For the price I would expect to have to set it up but for a beginner this might be a pain. So when I started playing fretless bass back in the early 90s after I set the intonation I would take a silver marker and on the top of the fretboard where the dots are while using a tuner to mark each fret. I thought I was really smart then I discovered they make fretless basses with fret markings so I never went back LOL. But a buddy of mine was curious about a cheap fretless bass we watched your video and I then just told him to get the Rouge Fretless from Musicians Friend for an extra $80 and it has 2 pickups and is was better than the price reflects at $169.

[@brCharlieNagy]

Great detailed video, sir. Are the single coil pickups noisy or properly grounded? Thanks

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

It's a split coil P pickup so it doesn't have much noise. It's grounded properly too.

[@brCharlieNagy]

@@MyMusicMasterclass thank you sir

[@sammychiba86]

Also did it come with flat or round wound strings? I heard round wounds will chew up the fretboard

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

It came with roundwounds. I've never seen a bass shipped with flats, but I'm sure somebody has done it.

[@brbadge]

Some epoxy will help with that.But this bass is so cheap, why worry?

[@rsaathoff]

Are the dots where the frets would be? Or are they the same as a fretted bass? Edit.... question answered.

[@sammychiba86]

I found this for about $70 ive been playing guitar for 14 yrs and bass for about 4 years...and honestly i just wanna make non conventional music with it so my playing doesn't have to be super accurate...however i do want its intonated...my question is...can i intonate it to where the dots are or will that not work? Also how hard would it b to put lines?

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

You can't intonate it to their markers, but I suppose you could get stickers and carefully put them on the correct positions.

[@PeterDad60]

You do not intonate fretless stringed instruments. All you do is tune each open string to the correct pitch! How funny is it if someone asked how to intonate a violin, or an upright acoustic bass or a cello or viola?

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

@@PeterDad60 You CAN actually intonate fretless basses like this because they have an adjustable bridge. You can see that I did it in the video due to necessity, but it can only make small changes (like with a fretted instrument). Proper setup (and intonation) of a fretless electric bass is important because with experience, you will know where the in-tune notes are. If the bass is not intonated, the notes won't be exactly where you think they are, especially up in the high register, leading to frustration and dissonance. Orchestral instruments (like you mentioned) have fixed bridges which cannot be intonated at home with screw driver, but they should be setup nicely out of the factory (hopefully lol). So basically, instead of being set up and playable out of the box like a nice acoustic guitar or an orchestral string instrument, many budget fretless basses (like this) are just slapped together in the factory with an adjustable bridge. It's up the customer to set it up and intonate it at home for optimal performance.

[@wilhelmbeck8498]

If you adjust the saddles - length-wise, the fingerboard-dot-placement will probably prove to be correct. Adjust to get 12'th "fret" harmonics equal to the octaves, fingered at the 12'th "fret"

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

@@wilhelmbeck8498 Nope, as explained in the video, they are display markers which are in between the frets. There are no fret lines or dots correlating to the actual notes.

[@robertjohnson5776]

Good review

[@bandicoot5412]

A great time for music! Great info!

[@RammilJohnIson]

The truth about fretless bass! Thank you for the excellent detailed explanation! 😍

[@brbadge]

Well THIS particular one.

[@tubekook55]

I really like Adam's reviews, and they have helped me make good decisions on purchases on other Glarry basses. I just wanted to add and weigh in with my experience of the fretless P bass. I'm a beginner and certainly don't have the experience and knowledge that Adam does, so with that qualification, my own experience has been very favorable. I'd watched this video, and so generated and printed a fret template from an online website, and used a thin line white posca (acrylic paint) pen to make lines at the fretting locations along the top of the fretboard for all of the fret positions. I did notice a variance from the standard side dot positions, particularly higher on the neck. They still function as 3,5,7,9 etc. markers well enough, but the dots aren't centered in the areas further up the neck. They look a little wonky, but this is far made up for by what I found to be the overall quality of the build and performance. As an alternative to making permanent marks along the top, you can use stickers or tape, as Adam mentions in a response to a comment below. Very thin auto pinstriping tapes works pretty well. I started with this, but then decided I really liked having those markers and so replaced with the posca pen lines. I did make some set-up adjustments, lowered the action by cutting all of the nut slots significantly deeper, and spent a fair amount of time making admittedly OCD adjustments to the truss rod and bridge saddles. But...at the end, the action was low, and uniform across the length of the neck. I swapped the strings for LaBella low-tension flats. It plays very well, and it was pretty easy to adjust to the fretting pressure change difference (for me a little different without frets). I'd bought an alnico p-bass pickup, but found that the stock pickup actually sounds really good. I might swap it out later, just to experiment with a different tone, but I'm going to stick with the original (ceramic?) pickup for a while. (My other two basses are the Glarry Jazz and short scale Bronco-style bass. I swapped out pickups in both for Bootstrap alnicos, and I found it to be an improvement in the case of the short scale, following Adam's advice in a video that he did on that. With the Jazz, it might come down to a matter of personal preference. Again, the overall build quality and playability are great on those.) So overall, I've been very happy and impressed with the fretless bass. Been playing it exclusively for several months now. The tuners and neck are stable once adjusted, the neck is very straight, and action very smooth. In some senses, it actually seems easier than with with frets, because of the smoothness, once you get used to the amount of focus required to really nail the intonation fingering. Having the little posca lines on the top helps a lot. The fingerboard board itself was left as is, without line markings. Nice rosewood appearance. I find that the light weight on all of the Glarry basses to be pretty comfortable. From what I read, I think that it is Paulownia. Used for musical instruments in China for hundreds of years. Really nice resonant quality with electric instruments, rich with full expression of complex overtones, and kind of open-sounding to my ear. I look like a kook, attached (by tying) the strap to the neck at the nut side of headstock where it narrows, but It takes care of the neckdive of such a light body.

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed response! This is great info for those watching the video and deciding on an instrument. Awesome!

[@tubekook55]

@@MyMusicMasterclass Thank you for your videos!

[@guymangotree2185]

Very nice video, Sir ! I love modifying my instruments_ This may be a good one to get_ I have a $100 Rogue Fretless bass that i really like_ did a few mods to it, but nothing major, and its sounds & feels like a Champ

[@PierreLewin]

I bought a very cheap "Gear4Music" fretless bass to experiment, called "Chicago", which is for sale for 150€ in Europe. Like the one you show, it came completely unplayable from the factory. After some time setting it up, it's a really good instrument now!!! I did pass sand paper on the fretboard to streight it up a bit. But that was not a big job. One thing you could mention is a very comun problem: the nut string height. It has to be quite low on a fretless, because the first couple of notes near the nut will sound off if the strings are too far from the fretboard near the nut. I recomand half a mm. Do that BEFORE setting up your bridge saddles, it will allow more freedom to set the action you like.

[@baronsting]

Yep almost every chinese guitar i ever bought needed a full setup adjustment. Thats true they dont ever bother with fine tuning them. Often its needs new nut, tuners, pickups, trus rod adj, intonation, etc... but with an exchange rate of 7:1 meaning if you buy a $100 guitar they are getting $700 in their currancy. Which a setup dept should be doing to their instruments. But they are trying to save a buck. A nice apartment fully furnished in a nice part of Shanghi is $350 a month rent. Im talking big nice condo style place. Which is why when u buy a Fender or Gibson you pay extra for them to do a great setup on your high end instruments. So just be aware if u buy Chinese you will need to replace parts and get it setup properly but if you got a great deal and its well made body & neck you will still make out ok and even have a nice playing guitar.

[@Anotherfloydinthewall]

I bought one to practice until my Jaco is back in stock. So I replaced the bridge with a Badass, put on Flats, put in Steve Harris pups, it plays better now. 😂

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

Oh absolutely. That would definitely help the tone!

[@livebassngames]

It makes so much sense the frets is the hardest part in making an instrument so a cheap fretless one would be the best kind of cheap instrument

[@BlackuLaLa]

FIRST THING: Thank you for this awesome video! So informative, even-handed, and honest. I love it. No cost-shaming like every time you ask a question on Reddit. I'll be a subscriber for kids! Second: Get a $100 bass. Learn to set it up as part of your growth as a musician or hobbyist. Or pay $70 (in my area) to get it set up (although if you live in my area EVERYONE at the Ogden, UT Guitar Center is A COMPLETE tool and they will probably be nasty about it). Either way this seems like a good buy for someone who wants to play the bass and already has a regular fretted instrument. Maybe not the greatest idea for a first instrument, as you said. Anyway, awesome vid. I appreciate it!

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

Thanks! I truly believe that low-cost instruments can be super playable and I have many that I've used in professional situations. Cost-shaming is a very amateurish practice in my opinion. If an instrument is set up well enough, I can play it without issues and it will sound like me. Plus, not everyone can afford gourmet gear, so it's important to show what is possible on a budget. Don't get me wrong, high-end instruments can be nice and worth it as well, but you don't need to spend $2000 to get a playable instrument.

[@lawrencegenereux8567]

The side position markers are always located in the same place as they would be on a fretted bass neck. It's just the way it has always been traditionally. So, the dots are NOT supposed to be where the note locations are; they are always flat of the actual note locations.

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

That simply isn't the case for many fretless basses. For example (Tony Franklin explains fretless side dots): kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4Wbqoqfgc91qa8 Yes, there are some fretless basses that have the side dots in the original fretted positions (like you said), but many have dots on the fret lines. In some budget instruments, the companies just use the same necks (as their fretted models) and omit the fretting process, like this Glarry. This seems to be done either for cost cutting purposes or because the concept of fret lines hasn’t been considered. I’m assuming there are other fretless basses (like yours apparently), that fall into this category for some reason. All of the fretless basses I’ve owned over the years have had dots or lines directly on the fret positions and I personally think this makes much more sense, especially for a budget instrument which is marketed towards beginners. Like I said in the video, the goal is to not look at the lines and use your ears, but that takes a lot of time and practice. I mean, even Tony Franklin (AKA The Fretless Monster) relies on the fret dots to a certain degree…

[@sidsuspicious]

Well Lawrence, I see you edited your post & it's still 100% wrong. Always? Every fretless neck I've owned says you're wrong. Are you not ashamed at pulling nonsense out of your backside & not correcting it? Some people.

[@lawrencegenereux8567]

@@sidsuspicious You're like a hemorrhoid. Always there, and a pain in the ass. You have nothing better to do after FOUR MONTHS than continue your tirade? Some people.

[@elbschwartz]

Not true at all. Basses that were originally fretted and then made fretless, of course. Cheap factory-made fretless basses where they use the same templates but just fill in the fret slots? Sure. But any decent fretless bass that doesn't have fret lines will have the dots in the right places. And there are examples of upright basses with position dots, so I don't know what you mean by "always been that way traditionally."

[@charleskleesattel6477]

Good video. I really appreicate the 'no BS' approach, and not having to listen to a minute or two of some wanking on the instrument. Thanks. Good information.

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

Glad you liked it!

[@davidledford3522]

Probably doesn't have flatwound strings you need them on a fretless

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

@@davidledford3522 I've never seen a fretless ship with flats. They are definitely a cool sound, but many people use rounds too. Totally up to the player.

[@Anotherfloydinthewall]

Jaco used Rotosound Rounds.

[@montreauxs]

Didn't know Paul Simon played bass..

[@vince8081]

A cheap fretless for beginners SHOULD have the fret marks on the fretboard, it's silly.

[@richardletaw4068]

So, this is a great axe, IF you want to learn how to set the action yourself? As long as the buyer knows and accepts that, great. But for the typical beginner? Oh, well…

[@MaliV.Williams]

Just take the Frets off!!😂😉🤨🤐

[@Steve-wz5pz]

Wow, pretty hard on a $100 fretless. Intonation-intosmation, unless it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off, it'll be fine. It's a BASS. Plunky-thunky deep noises. Not that critcal. Also, millions of kids started playing on fretless instruments - violins, cellos, uprights -- frets are overrated.

[@MyMusicMasterclass]

@@Steve-wz5pz It's a review and since we're unbiased on this channel, this is an honest assessment. We're not being "hard" on anyone or anything. As for learning bass on a fretless, while it's possible, it's much easier to get your coordination and technique together on a fretted instrument first. Why burdon a beginner with intonation on top of the normal difficulty that accompanies learning the instrument? Orchestral string instruments are completely different and don't have common fretted variations, so of course you would have to learn without frets. That's a pretty obvious difference. I mean, you can learn to ride a motorcycle without knowing how to balance on a bicycle, but if you are able to learn on a bike first, it will help a lot. As for you saying that proper intonation is not that critical, I'm assuming you either haven't played a fretless bass or play one incredibly out of tune. I'm also assuming you aren't attempting to make money by playing a fretless bass (in a group setting), because (Spoiler Alert) nobody wants to play with an out-of-tune fretless bassist. Not trying to be too hard on you or this bass, but facts are facts.