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Differences between a frettless and a fretted bass

Dukecrescent

Dukecrescent

Guest
Sep 19, 2015
32
30
Port Jefferson Station, Long Island, New York
#1
Well hello friends here at talk bass, You all were correct with your responses to all my threads. I also appreciate the honest opinions and the humor that you all impart on this forum. It one of the best communities that I have been apart of in a long time.

I am curious to know how much different is it to play a fret less bass then a fretted one. What I am looking for is to know how much harder it is to play. Is there any advantage one over the other...

Whatever you have to tell me I sure I will get a better understanding... Thanks!
 
#2
I've been playing bass for nearly 40 years. The first 30 of those were all on fretted. I had no problem adapting to fretless and I find a fretless is no harder to play. I actually prefer it because of the smoother slides you can do. I play with a pick, so aside from the slides, the fretted and fretless sound pretty much the same to me. But when I do play with my fingers, the fretless takes on that mwah type of sound and it is a very different sound from fretted.
 
#3
Depends on a few things: How long you have been playing, whether you know where notes are by feel alone, is it a lined or unlined fretless, and is the scale the same as your fretted bass.

If you aren't confident you can find the notes by feel alone, then a lined will suit you better, but you will have to look at the fingerboard almost all the time.
Vibrato and slides are easier.
Tuning is harder, so you have to have an advanced ear.
Heavily fretted styles and songs are lost on a fretless (Funk is almost impossible).
 
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#5
Dukecrescent said:
I am having issues with the frets on my bass and was going to attempt to remove them or have them removed do you foresee issues with doing such a thing?
Click to expand...

Plenty of issues. It's easy to do this badly - not so easy to do it well. Check out the sticky at the top of the Hardware Setup and Repair Forum.
 
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#9
They are different, but related. The techniques are different. Owning both, I think fretless is trickier, because you have to think about intonation in ways that you don't on a
Fretted. That said, with practice it is likely a no issue.

How you do vibrato is different on each. A fretted is essentially a bass GUITAR and you can shake notes side to side. On a fretless, it is along the string like a violin. Some argue the fretless is more expressive, but I think it depends what you want to express.

Tonally, they are different. I have two identical basses but for the frets. The attack on the fretless is noticeably softer. For some genres, this is good, for some bad
 
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#10
I only started playing bass about a year ago, mainly because of all the really small basses that came out. My first was a 23" scale fretted with poly strings, which falls in the u-bass category. I got comfortable with it quickly and ordered a custom fretless 21" u-bass with fret markers. Even though I read here on Talk Bass how fretless can be difficult, when I got it and added a set of Kala metal wound nylon core strings and gave it a test run, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that difficult. I play the fretless almost exactly on the fret markers, and my fretted about in the middle between frets and it's not much of transition switching between the two.
 
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#12
Baird6869 said:
Wood contracts and expands much more than metal. Sharp fret ends can happen on super expensive basses as well as entry level ones. This can be fixed quickly and won't cost you much $$$.
Click to expand...
The flip side is that this will never have to be a concern on a fretless bass!

If you fall in love with the tone, and "expressiveness" of a fretless bass, everything else will fall into place over time; don't expect to be playing like Percy Jones within a week, be patient and look at it as if you have just picked up a new and different instrument that requires a bit of a learning curve, and don't sweat the little thing right away. Just play and make notes, even if the intonation is a bit off for now.

I recommend a fingerboard with no lines on it, this forces you to learn to use your ears and muscle memory to get better at the intonation thing. Even then, you will be looking at the neck as it is a really long piece of real estate to handle, although it is really no different that your fretted bass except that is allows for more stuff you can do (such as sliding harmonics and cello-like vibrato) as you get better at playing it.

Have fun.
 
#13
Sound, feel and technique are different an a fretted vs fretless
If the reason your considering a fretless is the fret sprout only, then you may be better off having your bass repaired. As Baird mentioned. It is not an expensive repair.
If your considering a fretless for other reasons, you may be better off keeping your fretted for now a getting a used entry level fretless and putting some timo on it to see if it is for you. Squire makes an inexpensive fretless- a Jaco model that can be had for a couple hundred dollars if you are patient. They come up occasionally on theGuitar Center used website. For the cost of having the frets professionally pulled and filled- board revealed, you would be able to purchase the Squier.
Good luck!
 
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#16
I started on a fretless and I tend to have a bit of problem playing as comfortably on a fretted. I have minimally better intonation on a fretted, but I end up
1) playing a lot of wrong notes if I'm not looking, because the frets mess up my estimating distance by feel
2) slipping a bit too far over the edge of the fret, since I'm used to playing exactly on the "fret" itself
3) getting crappy tone. I don't really know how to use my fingering to get a good tone from a fretted
 
#17
(Funk is almost impossible).
Click to expand...
onda'bass said:
Say what...
Click to expand...
Let's clarify - it's hard to get that bright 'slap & pop' sound without a metal fret for the string to smack against.
There are people who can and do both slap and pop on fretless (with some risk of damage to the fingerboard) but it is not the 'expected' sound.

Some would argue the essence of artistry is making unexpected sounds work - but that's a different conversation...
 
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#20
i have also played bass for 40+ yrs ( piano 50+ ) ... and have a pretty good ear ... but , ... the few times i have tried fretless , it was fun ... but for me , it was difficult to play fretless and sing at the same time ... it is necessary to be able to hear yourself well in a band situation to keep all things in tune .. !

on the flip side ... the frets had nothing to do with it ... !!

i'd have the fret ends filed/sanded down ... that happens to many guitars/basses ... you do need to keep the fretboard cleaned and conditioned to help keep the woods moisture content stable ... ! that will help keep it from shrinking .. ! or the fretboard wood might not have been properly dried in the first place .. !?

i've had a couple of my extra/spare basses turned into fretless over the decades ... the process worked fine ... sanding down the fret leaving the fret bottom as ' the line' ... then a hard poly coating over top ... did that to a older Yamaha BX1 headless bass and also a Alembic Elan II ( whoops .! ) ended up selling both ... and regretting their fret removal ...

more recent fretless attempts have been done by just changing out a Fender type bolt on neck on a spare bass ... !! at this point , i'll not be trying fretless again ... if needed , i can emulate that on my keyboards !
 
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