Her intonation will be great, she won't have to stare at the neck constantly and can read her charts (did you remember that part?) and she won't throw it down in frustration as "Electric bass sucks because I can't play it in tune!"
Which is exactly what I was referring to when I said, "as long as she is aware of the issue and isn't getting frustrated and giving up".
Of course she needs to be aware of her intonation whatever bass she is playing and
diligently work to improve it. That being said, electric guitars and electric basses are two of the only instruments you would start a child on (the other obvious one would be piano) that do not require the constant fine adjustment of tuning with each note that is played. If you are suggesting that
every student should start out on an instrument that removes tuning from the equation, well, that is one opinion and certainly not an uncommon one. That being said, many musicians begin on instruments that are far more difficult to play in tune than the fretless bass guitar without any long-term detriment.
As to your argument regarding tactile landmarks, my experience has been that teaching intonation based on tactile landmarks is a surefire way to wind up with horrible intonation. Is your real concern that the EBG's neck runs quite a bit longer than that of the double bass before the hand bangs into something? Seriously, when you started playing a fretted bass, how long did it really take you to be able to find the 5th, 7th, or 12th fret without looking? The bass we are discussing does have fret markers and I would say it is unlikely that the young lady in question, having played double bass in the past, is simply wailing away on the thing without any regard to whether the notes she is playing are the correct ones and are in tune. If she is, indeed, failing to pay attention to her intonation problems, that would be a strong indication that she is not aware of the issue, in which case my entire suggestion would be, as I stated in my previous post, that the fretless is
not a good choice.
In regards to the lack of high school fretless bass ensembles, are you suggesting that she will be unable to tell if she is out of tune unless she is playing with such a group? As long as she is either playing in an ensemble or playing along with some manner of recorded practice material she will be able to tell if her intonation is off. This of course presumes that there are other players in the ensemble who are playing in tune (criteria that a middle school fretless bass ensemble, or for that matter a middle school trombone choir, would be unlikely to meet).
I don't believe that this parent is trying to suggest that his kid is brilliant or that he even wants her to start on fretless bass. The original post was, in fact, a plea for advise on how to convince his daughter
not to commit to the fretless. If she has found an instrument that really speaks to her and the barriers to learning it are not nearly as great as many people seem to assume I see no reason not to try to assuage the concerns of the OP.
) violin, and I attribute my excellent intonation (which is really the only thing I am excellent at 
) to being forced to listen and tune constantly when I was younger. Granted, playing out of tune for I while is likely a fact of life, but as long as she is aware of the issue and she isn't getting frustrated and giving up she is likely to end up a better player in the end.
