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Advantages of a Fretless Neck

#4
1) I never have to worry about the ins/outs of fret redressing or wear.
2) I can get away with blaming my quarter tone intonation on "jazz" (only works if you have unlined neck)
3) Puts an end to guitar players staring at my hands trying to figure out chord.
4) No one wants to borrow my bass.
5) No non-musician will ever talk to me about my "guitar".

...
 
#6
Yes, they obviously sound fretless, but what does that really mean? My original motivation was that i believed fretless gave me more freedom to shape tones and express ideas; i viewed frets as an obstacle. But i also was into avant-garde music. And the very shallow me thought fretless basses just look stunning. And because appearance used to mean a lot to me, playing one made it apparent that i had truly mastered the instrument; pulling a fretless out of the case brought instant respect. Of course one has to back that up by playing well. I'm 60 now and couldn't care less, but those were the original motivations.

The fretless sound is also very appealing and frequently sits in the mix more satisfactorily than a fretted bass.
 
#9
Ok, let's take a look at this from 2 points, a) musically and b) practically.
Music wise, the fretless has a very unique sound, its tone is often described as 'mwah', of course with some quick EQ adjustments, I believe you can get rid of this vocal effect, the lack of frets gives you a beautiful legato effect when you move across the fingerboard, a great advantage of this, is that you can get really nice horizontal vibratos and bend one or more notes a range of less than a quarter-tone to more than a full tone (But that would really just be sliding). Markent17 also brought up a good point that I agree to, that is, the fretless (can) grant you the freedom to be more expressive, the way you slide between notes at different speeds, pull off different bends and utilize legato creates tones and phrases not possible on a fretted.

From a practical viewpoint there isn't as much, you no longer have to worry about fretbuzz and cleaning the fretboard is bit easier as you can access more of it, that's really all I can think of.
 
#14
I found another advantage back in 73. It was Winter and I was playing a borrowed fretless Hohner. We would often come straight in from the cold, set up, and start playing straight off. As the bass warmed up to room temp, the tuning would drift. I found I could easily compensate by shifting my finger positions until the tune ended and I could retune. It was easy and seamless. Unfortunately, for me, the guy who owned it didn't want to sell. :(

-Raf
 
#18
I feel I'm more in control of the sound. Lots of tonal and articulation varieties. Ability to play in tune with other instruments that might vary their pitch. Greater sense of blending with different ensembles (I play with a lot of vocalists, and string sections).
 
#19
vmabus said:
Am I the only one that finds fretless easier to play?
Click to expand...

Fretless is way easier for me as well. Live performance is everything for me... looking at and making a connection with the audience. I usually go through most of the evening without a glance at my fretting hand. My arm already knows what position my hand should be in, and one note on a fretless instantly tells my ears what adjustment my fingers need. There's a constant play-listen-adjust feedback loop. I find with frets I'm more frequently glancing at my fretting hand as I don't get any sound info about if my fingers are drifting... until an unintentional note is played.
 

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