Help me love frets..

[pbass2]

One thing that does transfer from fretless to fretted is the rolling 'fretless' vibrato, which can impart a nice subtle sweetening to fretted notes - with the right pressures and motion it is even possible to move ± around the pitch and not just go # in the 'usual' style. I wouldn't say it's enough to go all 'barbershop' with intonation, but it can be enough to really 'lift' a note - Jeff Berlin is a master of this.

Lee Sklar does this a lot too. I use the technique quite a bit on ballads and whatnot (though sadly I don't sound like Lee!)

 

[BlueTalon]

ABsolutely. And that's why I don't do vibrato on fretted basses because I don't want to develop that as a habit that transfers to my fretless, DB, or EUB.

I don't think you need to worry about that. Learning one technique is not going to cross-contaminate your other techniques.

 

[Jazzdogg]

I've been playing fretless most of my bass-playing life, and played string bass first. My formal schooling and degrees are in violin performance, and piano and violin were my first instruments of serious study, beginning at ages 5 and 8, respectively.

Picked up a fretted Peavey Grind5 a month or so ago as my first fretted bass to see what I've been missing, and have been dutifully practicing with it daily, but I confess I don't get it. It's kind of the way I feel when I have to play a sampled grand piano keyboard instead of a real beautiful concert grand piano; yes, it can work, and yes, it's always in tune, but it's just not as ... Flexible? Expressive? Not sure how to say it.. just like somebody took away some valued tools.

What are the plusses to frets, other than making percussive slapping easier and more effective?

Honest question... Not putting down or flaming/trolling fretters...

I came up playing double bass, too. Today, about half of my electric basses are fretless.

Advantages of fretted basses, for many, are consistent intonation with less effort, and easier sight-reading. Additionally, many prefer the sounds that are endemic to fretted basses in genres like rock.

I played fretless bass with one band for a dozen years before the band leader noticed that my bass lacked frets. That's probably because I was playing the music, and not concentrating to trying to achieve the sound many associate with fretless electric bass.

When I switch between fretted and fretless basses, I find a period of adjustment is sometimes necessary - as is also the case when playing instruments with different scale lengths.

Not better or worse, just different.