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Playing Fretless has made me appreciate frets.

#21
The one thing I have found is, it's tough to be out of tune on a fretless if you have any kind of ear. I'm speaking of during a gig, and slowly by sound finding a string out of tune. (Mostly flat). A slight adjustment with your fretting hand while playing can fix that. No one typically notices except the player if its minor. Sometimes an inexperienced fretless bass player misses it as well if not into what they are actually putting out. Hard to make that same adjustment on the fly with a fretted bass if there isn't a tuner in line. You can hear it but, until a song is over you can be stuck with "out of tune". I love my fretless' but, I really appreciate my fretted basses as well.
 
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#23
Playing the fretless will "let" you appreciate the frets on your fretted bass :) . I need to find a bass with very short and narrow frets (and slim C neck). Frets all feel like train tracks after playing the fretless for a while.... Banjo or mandolin frets are interesting idea on the bass guitar.
 
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#24
@conttador

I agree. I'm fully committed to my fretless Jazz, but will never sell my beloved fretted Jazz. Playing fretless has actually made me more of a "good boy". (A bit less busy). That and I've experimented more with my pickup settings on the fretted per my fretless time spent.
 
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#29
I went to try a fretless sandberg booster today. I sold a g&l fretless prior as it just wasn't really what I wanted. The sandberg booster was great ; I love the body shape and sound of that model. It had ghs precision flats on it. The thing is, if it had frets I probably would've been all over it. I have a double bass which is the ultimate fretless challenge albeit quite different. It was light, sounded great , and is a 4 string compared to the heavy 5er I have. It required perfect technique and was not forgiving. I'm still thinking about it but the price wasn't what I want it to be either and I have no disposable income at the moment for it unless I move some stuff. I'm also unsure of what I would REALLY use it for , but I would hope that I could and that it could make me a better player
Thoughts? Input?
 
#31
I remember pulling frets then buying fretless necks.
Gave me a good laugh reading the OP.

Definitely learned some new things and dialed in my ears working with fretless.
For many years actually.

Was a strange day, picking up a precision neck after years of fretless playing.
Comical how we change over the years.
Fretless Jazz turned into a Precision
Where have you been all my life shiny metal things.
And why is your body so small
 
#35
It's funny - for me it's quite the opposite, but maybe I'm just weird 😁. The more I play fretless, the less appreciation I have for frets - they just feel so unnatural to me nowadays. The only reason I still keep a single fretted bass around is for when I want to try my hand at tapping (which I'm not very good at BTW LOL). No way I'm good enough to be tapping on a fretless - at least yet.
 
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#36
I am surprised there are that many fretless players here. Out in the wild I never see other fretless players. The musicians I work with tell me they never see other fretless players. In one band when the singer introduces the members he tells the audience that I play fretless because I couldn't afford the frets.
I play fretted when I'm reading sheet music at home trying to memorize a new tune.
 
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#37
I am fortunate to have a pair of 5 strings, fretted and fretless. They aren't identical (pickups are different) but they are both Roscoe Century bodies with the amazing Roscoe neck. I play the fretted in my cover band so I can try to be more active on stage. I play my fretless at church. At one time I was thinking about just going fretless, and it is my best sounding and playing bass, but I do like having both options. My other basses are all fretted. My P has flats for "that" sound. My jazz has rounds. Both passive. I am blessed with nice options.

I always bring 2 basses to gigs, just in case, and the fretless has come along as we do Boys of Summer and it's fun to pull it out for that. I wish we'd add a couple more that are fretless. Every Time You Go Away would be killer. Anyway, I may try the fretless on a few tunes next weekend. Maybe not Footloose or anything like that, but we do some country and a couple ballads. Jack Bruce played fretless and rocked. Terry Hale used a fretless on occasion when playing for George Strait. Seems like good company.

Whatever the reason or gig, I think fretless is a great instrument/tool/option to have.
 
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#38
I bought my first fretless less than a year after buying my first (fretted) bass and made a conscious effort to learn the two concurrently. The result was that I have split my time between the two for the entire almost 40 years that I've been playing. Sometimes I lean more heavily on one than the other and I've gone through periods where I've only gigged on one or the other but I've never even considered restricting myself to one option.

The aspects of each instrument are different enough that they're almost two entirely different instruments. Almost.

I choose which gets used based entirely upon the material being played and I tend to stick to one only for each project - I'm not switching basses on the bandstand - so I make a decision when I start a new project and I stick with it. Mostly.

My intonation on fretless is good (I've played an occasional show on fretless without the bandleader realizing it until they looked) and my reading is pretty poor in general so I'll just say that I read just as badly on fretless as I do on fretted.
I prefer unlined boards (the lines actually throw me off!) but I realize that's just a personal preference. I've never bought into the importance some people seem to attach to that. I keep two guitar stands in my practice area and you will almost always find one of each within reach at all times.

To @Dr. Cheese specifically, yes! Despite the fact that I prefer playing fretless, I never stopped loving fretted bass and I could never imagine not having at least one in my stable. There are just too many things they do that a fretless bass won't. Not well, anyway!
 
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#39
I've been on the hunt since 2018 for the perfect fretless. Pedulla, Fodera, Ibanez… the thing was they were all pretty drastically different than the fretted instrument I'm most comfortable with. Once I fully realized that, I stopped chasing and just bit the bullet. Why mess with a good thing? Why not just get the thing I love without those pesky metal frets? NBD coming soon.
 
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#40
Element Zero said:
I've been on the hunt since 2018 for the perfect fretless. Pedulla, Fodera, Ibanez… the thing was they were all pretty drastically different than the fretted instrument I'm most comfortable with. Once I fully realized that, I stopped chasing and just bit the bullet. Why mess with a good thing? Why not just get the thing I love without those pesky metal frets? NBD coming soon.
Click to expand...
If it's what I think it is …..smart move. ;)
I tend to stick with what works best for me.
 
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