Is fretless decreasing in popularity?

[Bass4Gsus]

Maybe folks do it like me, when faced with the choice of buying a fretless, they go to upright instead? At least that's my impression.

I did get the fretless first, but my wife bought me an Upright for a special occasion because I always wanted one. I consider them two different instruments. Not giving either up. But I will readily admit the fretless is much easier to carry and go up and down stairs. Upright is also a much bigger financial commitment. Both those things would probably discourage some. For me I thought Upright fulfilled a jazz role.

 

[groovepump]

Maybe folks do it like me, when faced with the choice of buying a fretless, they go to upright instead? At least that's my impression.

I Agree. Using a bow on my fretless bass guitar is screwing up my intonation big-time.

 

[Killing Floor]

I love fretless and I would not hesitate to play a set with one. But I also think here on the bass forum we vastly overestimate the size of the market. There are more bassists today than there were 20 years ago as evidenced by increased demand for basses and increased # of bands. But people are intimidated by fretless. It’s the same notes as a fretted and in my opinion it’s easy to learn, if you’re flat move up! If you land incorrectly on fretted it’s an awful buzz. If you land incorrectly on fretless you’re about to dazzle folks with lovely glissando.

My experience is the intonation comes more naturally playing with others.

 

[Bob_Ross]

How popular does something have to be before totally normal market fluctuations can be considered statistically significant?

 

[Hummergeist]

When so many of us are playing over programmed music and synths, there's more pressure than ever for fretless players to nail the intonation. Perhaps this is a concern for some players, and some producers?

 

[IronLung1986]

I think fretless has definitely declined in popularity. In fact I was probably a little kid the last time fretless could be called "popular". I started playing bass on fretless, and when I bought it my friends in high school were all like why? They'd never even heard of such a thing. Neither had I until the day I bought it lol. I'm fine with it being unpopular because it's an easy way to stand out a little more.

 

[swarfrat]

I'm not gigging and i find it way more fun. I miss my electric 12string strat too. Similar beast. Yeah its a wierd niche instrument. If you're playing for fun you can totally use it for 70% of everything if you like.

I seem to have a gift for it, but gift only takes you the first 2% and I haven't put in the other 98% of the work yet. Right now its more like a cool party trick. I could totally rock fretless if we're jamming in rock in E all night. If I had to play a bunch of songs that are not my thing in wierd keys and I'm in the background, at some point pretty quick people are going to stop saying "hey look that guitar player plays a pretty cool fretless bass for a beginner" and start asking me to just play the fretted bass already.

 

[Tom Bomb]

I'd say they'll grow to be even more popular, over time. In one sense, fretless is just another effect, but, as an effect, it's a doozy. They'll stand in for an otherwise identical fretted bass, no sweat, with little audible difference, if that's what's called for. But, having removed all the pesky speed bumps, you'll also now have an analog instrument with a freaky pitch wheel, and so much more besides. Versatile. Very handy And loads of fun.
​

 

[Bunk McNulty]

I wish, just once, people would find some numbers to back up their speculations.
This morning, there are 1,126 electric basses for sale on Reverb, of which 907 are fretted electric basses. There are 219 fretless basses for sale. No, it's not any kind of rigorous research, it's just a snapshot, but in the absence of any other data, maybe it's a proxy for actual popularity? (Best, of course, would be somebody who has access to Fender sales data.)

 

[LoTone]

I believe that part of it is that there is no professional player right now that is featuring that instrument prominently. Once upon a time, there was Jaco then Pino, etc. Right now, if you look at the contemporary music coming out these days, it rarely feature fretless playing.

 

[perfektspace6]

It has always been a niche variant. I don't see that changing much over time.

 

[LowActionHero]

i too would prefer them by a long margin if my intonation was considerably better

Me too, I think I might play fretless exclusively if I was good enough that it was second nature. That could and probably would change if I ever actually got there.

 

[Empr Guillotine]

I think there is more interest in fretless, but it is short-lived.

Players are lured by the challenge of playing fretless, but don’t invest the time necessary to play up to their fretted proficiency , and simply give up.

This is spot-on accurate based on what I've seen recently. ^

Within the past 2-3 months, I have tracked down and purchased some fretless basses for friends (read as: clients/customers) because they developed a sudden interest in playing fretless. It's a different sound for the arsenal, ya know? That is mainly what lured them. Not really the challenge of obtaining perfect intonation while playing on a fretboard without frets. It's the actual sound that they were after. With that said, all of them are now selling the fretless instruments, but for various reasons.

So, it is indeed a short-lived interest based on an individual player to player scenario. Ultimately, it just depends if the player chooses to stick with it or not. Again, it's a different sound for the arsenal.

 

[groovepump]

I did get the fretless first, but my wife bought me an Upright for a special occasion because I always wanted one. I consider them two different instruments. Not giving either up. But I will readily admit the fretless is much easier to carry and go up and down stairs. Upright is also a much bigger financial commitment. Both those things would probably discourage some. For me I thought Upright fulfilled a jazz role.

I agree. DB is harder to manage from every angle... but it has a sound (timbre) that can't be generated by a bass guitar. Arco is harder with an electric bass guitar as well.

 

[Pings Bass]

Bass guitar in general is decreasingly common in popular music.

Fretless has always been a niche.

I'll always play it because it suits me. But I've never been any kind of mainstream player.

 

[FullumMusic]

I think there's probably an equal amount of interest in fretless from bass players, but we don't hear it as much in the wider world of music because it's such a uniquely fretless sound. And in a world of "Everything must sound like a P Bass!" (ok, not really, but you know what i mean,) fretless is so left field sounding, nobody wants the bassist to actually record one on their songs, even if they think it's really cool. It's almost a novelty sound, you know?

And anecdotally, i think people are less likely to want the bassist to use a fretless for things because almost universally, we pick up fretless basses and every note we play becomes a slide, bend, and vibrato. It sounds SO COOL and it takes so much self control not to do it. And the producer/songwriter/etc usually didn't write their song thinking, "Yes, what a lovely progression and melody. Now all i need is a bassline that goes VrroooooooWEEEwwoooomMMMMmmm wherwherwherwherwhervreeEEEEEEE the whole time."

Ugh. Now i can't wait until my fretless is built and delivered.

 

[groovepump]

This is spot-on accurate based on what I've seen recently. ^

Within the past 2-3 months, I have tracked down and purchased some fretless basses for friends (read as: clients/customers) because they developed a sudden interest in playing fretless. It's a different sound for the arsenal, ya know? That is mainly what lured them. Not really the challenge of obtaining perfect intonation while playing on a fretboard without frets. It's the actual sound that they were after. With that said, all of them are now selling the fretless instruments, but for various reasons.

So, it is indeed a short-lived interest based on an individual player to player scenario. Ultimately, it just depends if the player chooses to stick with it or not. Again, it's a different sound for the arsenal.

It can also be dependent on how one starts in the "bass" world. Players who have orchestral or jazz experience with a DB will find fretless bass guitar a familiar and preferred instrument. I don't have a problem with players who at least give it a try, even if they abandon fretless bass entirely.

 

[swarfrat]

Re: everything must be a P bass. In the world of fretless on Talkbass its the polar opposite. i think a fretless P or even using the neck pickup on your jazz is not even on most posters radar.

 

[groovepump]

Bass guitar in general is decreasingly common in popular music.

Fretless has always been a niche.

I'll always play it because it suits me. But I've never been any kind of mainstream player.

Agreed. Same.

 

[GTHintz]

If we see someone really popular using a fretless bass that bass and anything resembling it will get a huge boost but as it stands it's about as popular as fretted which is sadly in decline like it's been for years. If hip hop guys really bring live bass playing back into fashion you could see a resurgence. Rock and jazz is in the fringe these days and pop is getting more hip hop and acoustic oriented than ever so hard to say. I kinda would like to see some famous pop star up front on bass bringing some popularity back to our instruments. I'm sure it would help the industry as a whole and we'd benefit no matter what music we play.