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Unlined for First Fretless?
- Thread starter MarkF786
- Start date
devnulljp
Supporting Member
Nope. Every kid that learns violin or cello or upright bass does so on an unlined fretless. You'll be fine.
Get an inline tuner if you're worried and need a visual
Nope.......
I too took up bass after many years of guitar and my first (and only) fretless was unlined. You'll get used to it quickly and they look better too.
unless you are playing sitting down and hunched over you are not seeing those lines anyway
Do it! May take a little longer to acclimate but, just take the time. My fretless is lined and I wish it wasn't. It's all preference.
I bought an unlined Precision neck in 1976 and slapped it on my Jazz bass. I bought it because it looked cool. It still does. Been playing the same neck for 50 years now. Why buy an ugly neck?
My first Fretless was unlined. I didn’t even think about it. This was around 1995.
I really don’t think the lines make much of a difference. The side dots and most importantly, your ears, will guide your playing.
I really don’t think the lines make much of a difference. The side dots and most importantly, your ears, will guide your playing.
Brandon Shea
Commercial User
Some perspective: we expect kids in elementary school to play unlined fretless instruments. You can definitely learn to play fretless with or without lines. 
I've been playing fretless for over 25 years and have never had a lined fretless. Just be prepared to practice!
I find an unlined fretless to be easier to learn and play. Honestly, without fret markers I get lost on a lined fingerboard. My intention this year is to build a fretless with lines only where the markers would normally be (3, 5, 7, 9, 12, etc). That's my "best of both worlds" compromise.
Really glad you pointed this out. Upright players have architecture to navigate by, whereas we can lose touch with our exact position on the board since there isn't anything to go by, just a constant thickness, no real visual aids except side dots if unlined. For me, I sometimes get a little ahead of my intended position near the nut, below the fourth or fifth fret line, if I haven't glanced at the board for awhile. Middle of the neck, I'm pretty accurate, and upper register, ears take over anyway.
That is the perfect way to do it, because in upper register you cannot really see the E string clearly if you are maintaining proper posture, but you can see the G.
Im not a master fretless player, but I own, and prefer unlined. Also, I'll just say that while I don't have the best technique, I match my hand/finger position (by eye) to the fingerboard like a fretted, and it seems to work out pretty good.
My first bass was an unlined fretless. Even more difficult, it was a short scale making the region of the fingerboard where acceptable intonation could be found for each note. Even worse, the position markers were not in a place that related to where the actual note was. I found a way to make it work. So, it can be done, but it will come with more challenges starting out. I play lined now and if I had to do it over I would have started lined.
I have both a lined and an unlined fretless. The lined one was dirt cheap and an experiment to see if I could adapt as a guy also in my fifties. A few months later I sprang for a very nice used Godin that happened to be unlined because, as it turns out, you can indeed adapt.
Set aside the lined vs unlined spec and get the best fretless bass in your target price range. If it sounds better than the next best bass in your range, who cares if it has lines or not? You'll learn either way. and it doesn't take long. But once you get comfortable with fretless, if you left the better bass behind because of a small cosmetic difference one way or the other, you'll regret it.
(Implicit to my argument is that the fret lines don't end up doing much when you're actually playing; a quick glance at the side markers is enough to reorient/reassure yourself if necessary.)
Whether you go for lined or unlined, accurate intonation takes time to develop. As long as you take time, you will be alright. In my experience, there are multiple layers of good intonation. In a live situation, you can get away with less accurate intonation. If you are sight reading at a rehearsal, the need for accuracy is much higher. The same goes for recording tracks,
Unlined definitely LOOK better. And... for a gig, you can put small tape markers, "dots" , or other position markers on the top edge of the neck to keep you confident about the positions... and at home, as you practice, you can remove them to start "learning" to move your hand to the correct spot for any note. And you can leave the tape / dot position markers off the bass to keep it looking its best. I occasionally will put a dot (chunk of blue masking tape) at "fret" 7 and 12, for reference, because everything else is a hand position or two between. You will decide how much "help" you need as time goes-on. Lined fretless basses play just fine... they just look....well.... they just look....
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