Remember me... and thanks!

I don't know whether my name seems familiar to anyone here, but I came on here around June (or July or August, I forget which one) asking about which bass to buy because I knew I wanted one. Well, this afternoon, I went to two different music stores (remember, I'm in Honolulu and a music store is somewhat tough to find), and after being totally ignored in the second store, I went back to the first one where I had to chose between a Cort 5-string, 24-fret bass for $269 or a Fender 4-string Jazz Bass for $350. The Cort was made in Indonesia and the Fender in Mexico, and after four hours of decision, I chose the Fender. I chose it because eventually, I want to trade up to a 5-string bass.

So anyways, I wanted to thank everyone that gave me advice some months ago. I would have bought it sooner, but our Hawaiian economy isn't too reliable (it's almost wholly tourism based -- you don't have to be an econ major to see the fault there); you can be employed today and jobless tomorrow. Then, September 11 happened, and now I am finally employed with enough cash (and credit) to purchase this instrument. One thing though, after I got through playing a few songs on it (haven't quite bought an amp yet, so I'm playing it pretty ghetto -- literally by ear), I bothered to look at the inside tag on the head and I see that I have a Fender 4-string FRETLESS Jazz Bass. Before I get too comfy with this little puppy, does anyone think that a Fretless Jazz Bass is a bit much for a beginner (at $350 though, it is quite a deal... gig bag included)? I couldn't even tell that it was fretless because the neck still has the white fret markers printed on it. Stupid me, I suppose.

Thanks!

 

Apparently, I neglected to mention that playing the basses at the two stores is why it took me four hours to choose one. Now I've mentioned it. I know my vision is crappy, but fretted and unfretted did not look or sound that much different to me. I'm sure there's a laundrylist of differences that any decent-to-great bassist would know, but I am not one of them, and where I live, everyone plays either the guitar or the ukelele. There was one $1200 unfretted bass and its neck had no fretlines, and it may or may not have had dots. It probably didn't. If that's an unfretted model...

Aww, forget it. I have it now, and I really enjoy it. I put about 5 hours of time in on it today and I'd be doing it now but I got hungry.

Either way, I listen to and (attempt to) play a wide range of music: reggae, rap, alternative (I'm quickly making progress on No Doubt's "Spiderwebs"), rhythm and blues, classic rock, techno, and more. I didn't buy it for one specific genre and I don't really expect to be playing in front of more than 20 people at once, in other words. Learning to play on the fretless will (hopefully) allow me to have that skill down solidly so I can perhaps play both fretted and fretless.

Alright, well, I'm going back to playing now... thanks for the input, gentlemen!