Fretless Bass Guitars

Fretless Basses

August 28th, 2009 |

Depending on the performance both the fretted and fretless bass guitar is used. It is becoming more popular to use the fretless bass since they increase the movements and speed of the bassist. The fretless bass guitar does not have the metal spacers that often slow the playing performance. The fretless bass have the note markers inlaid in the fingerboard replacing the need for the metal spacers.Some of most popular bassists feel the fretless bass give them more freedom of musical expression. Bassists such as Eric Clapton David Gilmour Pino Palladino Steve DiGiorgio and Colin Edwin use the fretless guitars. Fretless basses are often associated with jazz while other types of music have fallen in love the ease and comfort of the fretless bass.

In 1961 Billy Wyman created the first fretless bass guitar by converting a Japanese fretted bass when he removed the frets. The first manufactured fretless bass was the Ampeg followed by AUB-1 and Fender. In the early 1970s jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius created his personal fretless bass guitar by removing the frets filling in the holes with a putty then coating the fretboard with an epoxy resin.This technique was then used in later manufactured models for fret lines markers to be inlaid in the fingerboards to guide the bassists for the proper fingerings. Even with years of experience the markers help to verify the right placement of the fingers as well as adding to the appearance of the fretboards.

The standard strings on the fretless basses are either 4-string or 5-string. There are 6-string basses but they are more a custom-made instrument used for richer sounds and tones. The 4 and 5 string basses are just as fresh sounding and much easier to play. One fact to know it is the experience of the bassist that makes the real rich and soothing sounds of the bass guitar.