A fretless bass is a bass guitar whose neck does not have any frets. While the instrument is played in all styles of music, it is most common in pop, rock, and jazz. It first saw widespread use during the 1970s, although some players used them before then.
| Other names | Fretless bass guitar |
|---|---|
| Classification | String instrument |
| Inventor(s) |
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| Developed | Early 1960s |
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Instead of being invented by an instrument manufacturer, the first fretless basses usually resulted from modifications made by bass guitar players. One of the first (if not the first) examples of this is Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, who removed the frets from his bass guitar in 1961 to fix a fret buzz issue.[1] The first fretless bass to be produced by a designated company is the Ampeg AUB1, first released in 1965.
The lack of frets allows for more fluid slides between notes, but also requires greater precision by the player, as the instrument may sound out of tune if notes are not fretted accurately. Like fretted bass guitars, they can have four, five, six, or even more strings. While some have "fret lines" indicating where the players should place their fingers for correct intonation, other basses may only have inlay dots or nothing at all on the fingerboard. While many fretless players use flatwound strings as they are believed to not wear down on the neck as much as roundwounds, some players, such as Jaco Pastorious, are mainly known for using roundwound strings to gain a brighter tone.