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Is a fretless necessary? Poll

Is a Fretless Necessary?

  • I own a fretless. Wouldn't be without one.

    Votes: 219 66.6%

  • No need for a fretless.

    Votes: 110 33.4%
  • Total voters
    329
#84
The real world answer for the original question is that the vast majority of bassists will never own a fretless and will never be asked to play one, either. But most bassists who play for a lot of different bandleaders and producers own one just in case they get a request for fretless. I have had exactly two requests for it in my life. I didn't own one back then, and neither were paying sessions, so I didn't sweat it, but if I was getting paid, I would have lost out because of not having one. There are some fretless players like Pino Palladino, Steve Bailey, or Mick Karn who have become known for playing fretless and have made a career out of it, but the demand for fretless isn't exactly overwhelming.

Now the fun answer is hell yeah, you should get a fretless! I have a blast playing mine, and I think it's made me a better fretted bassist as well. Even if you get a cheapo, you'll have a lot of fun with it.
 
#85
JimmyM said:
The real world answer for the original question is that the vast majority of bassists will never own a fretless and will never be asked to play one, either. But most bassists who play for a lot of different bandleaders and producers own one just in case they get a request for fretless. I have had exactly two requests for it in my life. I didn't own one back then, and neither were paying sessions, so I didn't sweat it, but if I was getting paid, I would have lost out because of not having one. There are some fretless players like Pino Palladino, Steve Bailey, or Mick Karn who have become known for playing fretless and have made a career out of it, but the demand for fretless isn't exactly overwhelming.

Now the fun answer is hell yeah, you should get a fretless! I have a blast playing mine, and I think it's made me a better fretted bassist as well. Even if you get a cheapo, you'll have a lot of fun with it.
Click to expand...



+1000
you'll find something new with fretless...fretted and fretless are wonderful instruments, it just not wise to compare apple and orange..
i will buy a cheap cort curbow fretless tomorrow :bassist:
 
#90
If I could own just one bass then it would be my fretted Fender P bass but I love playing fretless whenever possible so I have a fretless Fender Jazz bass too. Fretless has a different sound and feel, and works really well in both electric and acoustic sets.
I also find the discipline of playing fretless improves my fretted playing too.
 
#91
Well, funny, but basses were originally fretless and Leo Fender made frets popular.

So, fretless basses should be simply called "basses" and fretted ones should be called "fretted basses."

I personally love the sound of fretless and double bass more than fretted, and with care, they can fit any style.

Fretted basses are just easier to play and more popular.
 
#93
It depends on what kind of music you play. For my Praise & Worship band at church I usually play a 5-string Lakland Skyline 55-01 or my Cirrus V. For the jazz ensemble I play in, the boys seem to like the sound of my MIJ fretless Jazz more than any of my fretted basses. It just seems right for that type of music. It has a different sound, a thumpy and percussive attack with fairly quick decay that sounds more like an upright acoustic bass.

Like some have said, it's not as hard as you think to learn to play a fretless and it's fun because it's different. My Jazz doesn't have fretlines (which is a very nice look IMO) and it's no worries because it has the usual side markers at the fret positions.
 
#94
My take on this issue is that fretless basses were designed to approximate an upright's non-fretted sound as much as possible, but suffer from the basic flaw of the bass guitar itself: it's an excellent tool to cover the bass spectrum of music, but cannot 100% emulate an upright bass' sound.

That being said, there are tools for every job.

The Fretted Bass brings the ease of frets to bass playing, which is one of the reasons more people play electric bass (and fretted ones at that) than they do upright bass. It allowed for the popularization of the electric bass and its spread throughout pretty much most of the music styles out there.

If you're going for the non-fretted sound, chances are, you're trying to sound like an upright bass and specifically are trying to avoid the non-continuity of fretted bass (with respect to sliding from note to note). If that's your goal, why not get an electric upright or an acoustic upright and do it the authentic way?

This is why I own two fretted bass (a gigging one, and my backup) and plan to get an electric upright. I'm skipping on getting a fretless bass because I figure the few times I'll need it, I'd rather use the electric upright and get a more authentic upright sound.

About the only reason why I think people should use fretless basses is that they don't wish to take the time to learn upright bass technique and want a quick "adaptation" of their already familiar electric horizontal technique that also gives them 90% of the upright sound. If that's your gig, go for it. Instruments were designed with choice in mind...and people should have the choice of playing whatever they want.

But if you ask me, "is a fretless bass necessary", I'd say no. The fretted electric bass is excellent for pretty much most styles out there, and if you really want to go very authentic on some style (polkas, jazz, country, bluegrass, etc.), just play the real thing: an upright of some sort.

I want to add: I say this not as some sort of purist. I'll play whatever you give me at a particular gig, including a bass guitar at a jazz or polka gig...but I have my preferences and see the fretless pretty much as I see imitation crab meat: it's tasty, but it ain't the real thing.
 
#95
jamiefoxer said:
My take on this issue is that fretless basses were designed to approximate an upright's non-fretted sound as much as possible, but suffer from the basic flaw of the bass guitar itself: it's an excellent tool to cover the bass spectrum of music, but cannot 100% emulate an upright bass' sound.

That being said, there are tools for every job.

The Fretted Bass brings the ease of frets to bass playing, which is one of the reasons more people play electric bass (and fretted ones at that) than they do upright bass. It allowed for the popularization of the electric bass and its spread throughout pretty much most of the music styles out there.

If you're going for the non-fretted sound, chances are, you're trying to sound like an upright bass and specifically are trying to avoid the non-continuity of fretted bass (with respect to sliding from note to note). If that's your goal, why not get an electric upright or an acoustic upright and do it the authentic way?

This is why I own two fretted bass (a gigging one, and my backup) and plan to get an electric upright. I'm skipping on getting a fretless bass because I figure the few times I'll need it, I'd rather use the electric upright and get a more authentic upright sound.

About the only reason why I think people should use fretless basses is that they don't wish to take the time to learn upright bass technique and want a quick "adaptation" of their already familiar electric horizontal technique that also gives them 90% of the upright sound. If that's your gig, go for it. Instruments were designed with choice in mind...and people should have the choice of playing whatever they want.

But if you ask me, "is a fretless bass necessary", I'd say no. The fretted electric bass is excellent for pretty much most styles out there, and if you really want to go very authentic on some style (polkas, jazz, country, bluegrass, etc.), just play the real thing: an upright of some sort.

I want to add: I say this not as some sort of purist. I'll play whatever you give me at a particular gig...but I have my preferences and see the fretless pretty much as I see imitation crab meat: it's tasty, but it ain't the real thing.
Click to expand...

My choice to use fretless had and has never had anything to do with tying to emulate the sound of an Upright Bass.My choice to use a fretless was a very natural and conscious choice based off of how the electric bass finger board felt and sounded to me(with the frets on it),about 4 or 5 months after I started playing electric Bass I was not comfortable with the metal things on it,I found out they were called frets so I got a fretless Fender P-Bass(and when I first started playing Bass at the time I had no clue that the very gifted Jaco Pastorius existed)again I was acting on the innocence of my natural want to get rid of those metal things.

I later went on to study and to this day on occasion play an authentic Upright Bass.

Is a fretless necessary? in some situations yes it is.I do studio sessions and I have learned that in some instances a fretless is a must need for some producers or songwriters.
 
#96
Fretless is not mandatory, but what a fantastic option to explore a different way to interpret a song. I always take a fretted & a fretless bass to a gig. Depending on the style of music a song is, I’ll make a choice for one instrument or the other.

Some songs cry out for fretless (IMHO), like slower ballads. Fretless can give you the freedom to be more expressive so it completely changes the dynamics of the song. It’s not that you can’t do an excellent job on fretted, you just interpret things differently on fretless.

Once in a while I’ll do a whole gig on fretless on purpose just for fun. Playing songs that I’m use to doing on fretted can make a nice challenge to keep things fresh & make you think more.

Of course it helps if you have a great fretless bass. Thank God we have a wonderful choice of amazing Luthiers now with the talent to craft basses that sing.
 
#97
About the only reason why I think people should use fretless basses is that they don't wish to take the time to learn upright bass technique and want a quick "adaptation" of their already familiar electric horizontal technique that also gives them 90% of the upright sound.
Click to expand...

That's just what you think. I've played upright, never liked the sound much, although I liked upright with a bow. I play fretless exclusively. Rock, jazz, blues, funk, progressive, I'd play metal if I had to. In fact we do when me and my guitarist are fooling around playing old metal and hardcore tunes. I like the sound of fretless bass. I don't limit it to upright imitation and porn ballads. There's more to fretless than mwah and slides.
 
#98
jamiefoxer said:
About the only reason why I think people should use fretless basses is that they don't wish to take the time to learn upright bass technique and want a quick "adaptation" of their already familiar electric horizontal technique that also gives them 90% of the upright sound.
Click to expand...

I don't know if Christian McBride would agree with this observation.

He said fretless was so difficult for him to figure out that he almost got rid of his fretless bass altogether.

I studied Simandl in college and started upright and it is difficult in the sense that it is a different instrument, but with the thumb positions and "landmarks" on the upright, I think it's easier to play in tune than an unlined fretless bass. I've owned a lined fretless bass and even that was a bi*** to play in tune but an unlined fretless would drive me crazy.

As always IMO and all that...;)
 
#99
jamiefoxer said:
My take on this issue is that fretless basses were designed to approximate an upright's non-fretted sound as much as possible, but suffer from the basic flaw of the bass guitar itself: it's an excellent tool to cover the bass spectrum of music, but cannot 100% emulate an upright bass' sound.
Click to expand...
You are astonishingly far off the mark. The idea that an upright bass is every person's dream sound is very strange (even for the Internet). The bass guitar has not been an attempt to emulate or replace the upright for many years. Neither is the fretless bass, even though it is a little more similar. I play a fretless bass because I the sound better than fretted basses or upright basses.
 
#100
jamiefoxer said:
My take on this issue is that fretless basses were designed to approximate an upright's non-fretted sound as much as possible, but suffer from the basic flaw of the bass guitar itself: it's an excellent tool to cover the bass spectrum of music, but cannot 100% emulate an upright bass' sound.

That being said, there are tools for every job.

The Fretted Bass brings the ease of frets to bass playing, which is one of the reasons more people play electric bass (and fretted ones at that) than they do upright bass. It allowed for the popularization of the electric bass and its spread throughout pretty much most of the music styles out there.

If you're going for the non-fretted sound, chances are, you're trying to sound like an upright bass and specifically are trying to avoid the non-continuity of fretted bass (with respect to sliding from note to note). If that's your goal, why not get an electric upright or an acoustic upright and do it the authentic way?

This is why I own two fretted bass (a gigging one, and my backup) and plan to get an electric upright. I'm skipping on getting a fretless bass because I figure the few times I'll need it, I'd rather use the electric upright and get a more authentic upright sound.

About the only reason why I think people should use fretless basses is that they don't wish to take the time to learn upright bass technique and want a quick "adaptation" of their already familiar electric horizontal technique that also gives them 90% of the upright sound. If that's your gig, go for it. Instruments were designed with choice in mind...and people should have the choice of playing whatever they want.

But if you ask me, "is a fretless bass necessary", I'd say no. The fretted electric bass is excellent for pretty much most styles out there, and if you really want to go very authentic on some style (polkas, jazz, country, bluegrass, etc.), just play the real thing: an upright of some sort.

I want to add: I say this not as some sort of purist. I'll play whatever you give me at a particular gig, including a bass guitar at a jazz or polka gig...but I have my preferences and see the fretless pretty much as I see imitation crab meat: it's tasty, but it ain't the real thing.
Click to expand...

This is a very ignorant post, no offense, but you should look at the fretless on its merits. It is a completely different instrument from the fretted bass and the upright bass. It is its own animal and has many interesting facets.
 

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