My little cousin wants a bass but...?
 

He has nevered touched a bass but once or twice. He really wants his first bass to be fretless. Do you think this would be too hard on him? He is 13 and i believe he would be heavily devoted to playing bassbut am wondering with enough practice if a fretless bass would do?

If he wants fretless, let him have a fretless. The worse thing that could happen is that he becomes discouraged and drops the bass, but on the flip side, you can take his fretless and add it to your stable.

It's like learning on any instrument w/out frets. My god... if violins had frets... I'm not sure if that would have made things any easier for me cause I still suck at playing it!

Remember Stand up bass? That is what all school grade kids learn on in concert band. No frets there.

K guys guess ill get him a fretless. Thnx for ur time and experience

My son, now 12-years-old, has played bass since age 7. Fretless & fretted Electric Bass, as well as Double Bass.

He prefers basses without frets.

If your cousin already knows what he wants, why question it?

I wouldn't recommend it but at least get him one with fret lines painted on the fingerboard. A fretless is harder to play double-stops, chords etc.

Ya the squier vintage modified fretless , that would be a great first bass .
You could always get another fretted neck for cheap if he wanted.

My first bass was a fretless P-Bass. Man, I struggled and thank God I barely understood and heard pitch, cause I rarely landed on the exact note. Got into the habit of sliding up and down to the note. I'd just slide til I found it. Toughest part was playing in dark clubs and being expected to see those little, tiny dots on the side of the fret board
I sold it for a Gibson with frets. Dang, amazing how I sounded so much better on pitch and easy to play.

OP, I say tell him to go for it. The earlier your cousin gets used to fretless, the better. Get the hard part out of the way in the beginning.