First fretless bass, a drake custom?

[wizerd]

Let me join the others who have said get a nice fretted bass. But also let me dissent a bit and recommend a Squier fretless to start out. I bought mine as an open box special on MF and it arrived flawless. Have since done a few gigs with it too. Very nice fretless tone to it, and yes the cheesy ebanol board will mar up some after use, but its purely cosmetic, and we play for tone right?
Try a couple at a local store if you can or eat the return shipping charges and call it an education. Check out Rondo music too, but buy a new set of strings to put on immediately. If the thought of a Squier or SX makes you want to hurl, then check out the TB classifieds here. Good luck.

 

[Old Blastard]

I've played some nice Squires that had no flies on them at all. You can always trade up once you get comfortable with the fretless and the intonation. I had rounds on my Fender when I got it back in the 80s and they marred up the rosewood fretboard, but I switched to flats and later to nylon/tapewounds and got both the sound I wanted and quit messing up the board.