chris squire frettless

[SilenceoftheValley]

im about [ ] close to finishing a huge defretting project. i know chris squire has a fretless. does anyone know of any songs wear he plays it?

not only with yes

[PO]

Only the first 5 minutes of Awaken have been done live with a fretless (one of his triple-neck necks). The same music on the studio version may well stand up to the scrutiny. Other than that, I can't think of anything that needs a fretless.

Trevor Horn played fretless on Run Through the Light from Drama.

[SilenceoftheValley]

ok tahnks, i didnt think id ever heard one in yes music.

thats intresting about run thorugh the light, i never noticed taht, im not a big fan of the song. ill check it out

[PO]

I'd forgotten of the possibility/rumour of The Remembering from Topographic Oceans. Only the first 7 minutes of the song, though. Everything before "Don the cap ...".

[ELLIS]

I believe he also used one on Conspiracy's album, The Unknown. It was on the title track.

On Topographic he used a Guild I think, Awaken has 3-neck, now he uses Warwick.

[Winston TK]

Check out Chris' fretless playing and tone on "Show Me", one of the newer songs included on Disc 3 of "The Ultimate Yes: 30th Anniversary Collection".

[TempusRoundabout]

I have that CD set, I'm listening to Tempus Fugit right now.

I'm a friend of Silence's IRL

[VanDerGraaf]

Hey, welcome to Yesfans!!

[TempusRoundabout]

Hey, thanks.

[SilenceoftheValley]

howdy ben

[sunburstbasser]

He used his fretless live when I saw them last September. The 3-neck.

I don't think "The Remembering" has fretless. I'm actually listening to it now and not hearing any. I didn't notice any in the beginning at any rate.

I wonder how a fretless would sound for Yes music? They generally don't have the attack of a fretted, which is integral to Chris's tone. I'm building one using a Peavey T-40 body as the starting point, I'll have to check when I'm done.

[sunburstbasser]

Trevor Horn played fretless on Run Through the Light from Drama.

Ah, I just listened and wondered if that was Chris.

[Timmo]

I'd forgotten of the possibility/rumour of The Remembering from Topographic Oceans. Only the first 7 minutes of the song, though. Everything before "Don the cap ...".God knows if and when we'll ever get "The Remembering." Fretless or fretteed.

[sunburstbasser]

From BASS GUITAR MAGAZINE, with Les Claypool on the cover:

"I used a Guild fretless through a Vox AC30 on Close To The Edge, on the title track. I wound it it and played that big bass riff. I never played fretless like Jaco though."

He says something to that extent when asked if he used fretless. He doesn't mention any other songs, though, and I'm not sure which riff on CTTE he's referring to.

[Topographic][Sardaukar]

From BASS GUITAR MAGAZINE, with Les Claypool on the cover:

"I used a Guild fretless through a Vox AC30 on Close To The Edge, on the title track. I wound it it and played that big bass riff. I never played fretless like Jaco though."

He says something to that extent when asked if he used fretless. He doesn't mention any other songs, though, and I'm not sure which riff on CTTE he's referring to.

probably the octave stuff in the "rearrange your liver.... depths of your disgrace" section.

[John Holden]

I have a book "British Rock Guitar" published possibly around 76 -77.
I do recall in the interview with Chris he used a Guild fretless on "the remembering".... I will have to dig it out and read again.
The book was written by Dan Hedges and also contains an interview with Steve Howe.
At the end of the book is some tablature (which was new to me at the time and very good) however Hedges appologised to both Chris and Steve at not including their transcriptions beacause the publishing rights would have been too costly !
Its an interesting read.

[PO]

On The Remembering:

1:20 to 1:28 - Listen to the short glissandos and the 1/4 tones.
2:02 to 2:10 - same thing
2:56 - listen to the long downward glissando

It seems his use of the Guild was more for tone than fretless, but both elements do come into play.

Close to the Edge. I dunno. The lick during the verse with "clear manna from above" (and elsewhere). That could be fretless. I've done it with a fretted and a bit of string-stretching, though. Obviously, Chris does the same thing in a live setting.

[zenslinger]

Within the last year or so, someone on this site had people answer a trivia question of what songs Chris played some fretless on. The answers were surprising. Do a search, the person who asked the question seemed to know what he was talking about.

[Buglunch]

I never noticed a fretless neck on his triple before; he used it last August for 'Awaken' live and it didn't sound like other fretless work. He was only about eleven feet away for the acoustic set and I was so entranced with the whole show I didn't check necks.
I've played bass since 1969 and it was amazing what could be done with my cheap Canora flat-wound stainless-stringed bass, pitch, tone and sustain.
I got to play a '73 Rickenbacker with Rotosounds in Victoria last Thursday and it almost felt and sounded fretless and the strings were very slinky and wonderful.
Man, I hated to put that baby down.
Jack Bruce now prefers fretless, but you can really hear the difference with most players; I've always wondered whether or not Chris went fret-free but never detected it by ear. I know almost every note from my Yes collection but always assumed it was string-pulling and string brand and guitar plus his skill that made those lanky glissandi and buzztones.
And I forgot to ask him about this last August, dang, too many questions in my head and too much to ask Rick.
Arrrrrgh.

[Scooty]

The triple neck bass that Chris uses for Awaken, definitely has a fretless neck..wether it is the 3rd or 2nd neck I can't really tell.

[allpurechance]

...oh,those fretless sounds in The Remembering!...and if they AREN'T fretless...this only makes them amaze as much...

[PO]

The tuning of the triple neck is below. The lower neck is fretless. The strings are numbered low to high.

Anyway, during the quiet, middle section of Awaken, Chris uses the top neck of his triple-neck bass. He plays the drone rhythm part (E & B) along with Jon on the harp. This neck is tuned like a 8 string bass (EeAaDdGg, each string doubled with an octave higher string) but it does not have the E strings (AaDdGg). So it is a 6 string bass, sort of.

Custom triple neck bass (tuned top neck to bottom neck: AADDGG; EADG (fretted); EADG (fretless)

Here's a picture of the triple neck. It's kind of an ugly bass, but what the heck. He had the money and it's for one song only.

http://chrissquire.com/images/imgAwaken.jpg

[Buglunch]

Wow! Thanks, guys. I could not see middle neck clearly last August but I suspected the top one was a three-string doubled by sound and number of machine heads .
Talk about yer service pronto!
:)
I sure wish the whole guitar with everything was shown in that image and not cropped.

[yestor23]

I heard an interview with Chris where he said he used the fretless bass on "THE REMEMBERING"