Tacoma CB10C Fretless

My bass is a Tacoma CB10C lined fretless bass with a Fishman pickup. It has a full 34" scale. It has a nice solid spruce top, solid mahogany neck and back, and laminated mahogony sides. The soundhole is missing, moved to the left upper bout, in the shape of an apostrophe. An ample cutaway provides lots of access high on the neck. There is no binding, and the finish is satin. It has no bindings at all. It is a very striking, utilitarian, woody looking guitar. It has a 2+2 headstock with eacy access to four large tuners. The neck is thin and very fast, like a Fender Jazz bass. It actually bolts into the body. The heel of the neck is a separate piece, mounted inside. This allows mounting of the front strap button where the neck's heel would normally be, resulting in good balance. The face doesn't want to dive downward. The back is slightly curved along the long axis, and the bracing is unusual, taking advantage of the lack of a soundhole. The case is a big padded thing. Tacoma offers a choice of electronics from Fishman, Baggs, and I think someone else. Mine has the Fishman Prefix Plus, with volume, 4 band EQ, phase switch, notch filter, and midrange sweep. Original strings were the same Elixer bass strings that Tacoma ships on their fretted basses.

This is a big bass with a long neck and a big body.

A fretless bass can have many personalities, based on the setup. Lower the strings, and get that "mwah" sound that everyone loves. I find it as limiting as the tone of an oboe. Raise the strings, and you get more of an "upright" sound, and, in the case of an acoustic bass, much more volume and attack. Mine came this way from the factory. I think this bass can do either sound, and anything in between.

Unplugged, the bass is loud and rich. Almost as lound and rich as my Guild B30 fretless. You could thump bluegrass along with a guitar or two.

Plugged in, I find the sound aggravating, If I turn off the mid, treble, and presence totally, the response approaches flat. Every time I sound a string, my bass driver makes a big excursion. My other basses don't do this. I don't like Piezos. I'd love to stick Fishman's new magnetic bass pickup in this sucker, but alas, no sound hole. I'm going to try a K+K pickup in it. The bass feeds back at fairly low volume. That's the price you pay for the big body and good unamplified bass tone.

I strung the bass with LaBella 760N Black Nylon Tapewounds. They take advantage of the instrument's excellent bass response, and give that "upright" sound. It won't fool you into thinking you're playing an upright (the undertones are different), but the same style sounds good, and fits in the same way musically. It would work for Jazz or bluegrass. The strings also help with the sound of the pickup. The strings cost you a bit of unamplified volume, but it is very nice to practice with alone without an amp. Get the strings for less than $20 at Carvin. With an .060 G string, you'll file the nut and need a new one to go back to .045 sets.

For recording, use a microphone.

Try to get the bass with the Baggs setup. It is getting good reviews. My Fishman wouldn't get good reviews.

The Elixer strings tell me that Tacoma doesn't grok fretless. I liked the setup, but that's my preference. You should always expect to adjust at least the bridge height on a fretless to suit your taste. I got lucky. The bass is not an example of fine woodwork. The branded logo in the headstock matches the style of the instrument. The bass arrived with an internal noisy flopping cable that was easily secured. I had to file the nut to mount the LaBellas, but this is to be expected too.

The thin, long Mahogany neck is a bit whippy, but it stays straight and sounds good. Changing string guage/tension may require a neck adjustment. It is easy to do. The bass is as fragile as a nice acoustic guitar. We can live with that, right?

I haven't needed Warranty support.

I play the bass through an SWR Workingman's 15. I've owned Fender fretted and fretless Jazz basses, and I currently use a Yamaha electric fretless with DR roundwounds. I've got a gretless Guild B30 that sounds wonderful, but it has a 30" scale and no cutaway. I'm not sure I'd buy the Tacoma again, though I could be swayed by an unlined fretless 5-string. This bass is very hard to find. I could only find one on the web, and I'm not sure that Tacoma still makes them.

I've listed lots of warts - factory strings, no soundhole, poor sound from the Fishman pickup - but the fact is that this is a big ABG that sounds like a bass and puts out enough unamplified to keep up with guitars. It really does have a wonderful unamplified tone, and it would be perfect for an upright bluegrass player to take to to the woods for a festival. Now you could do the same thing with a $350 Olympia fretted bass, or a $500 Michael Kelly Fretless, but they won't be as cool as the Tacoma. If you can find a fretless Guild, it's even cooler. The Martins are nice too, and you can actually buy one, though I haven't seen a fretless. Michael Kellys are available in 5-string fretless, but the fingerboard is full of inlays. Tacoma/Guild/Martin kick butt on all the other ABGs I've tried. I haven't tried a Michael Kelly, and the Olympias are known to fall apart a bit. They stopped making the good Guilds a few years ago. I could see someone prefering the Tacoma to a Martin, and what it loses to the Guild in tone, it makes up for with the 34" neck, fast neck and cutaway.

The Tacoma CB10C fretless really is a nifty bass. It might be even better with frets, booming along with guitar, banjo and fiddle around the campfire, or laying down smooth bass for a quiet folk or country tune.