What is the difference

[bass_asaph]

hey,just wanted to know the difference between a fretted and fretless bass.its been weighing on my mind for a while and ive heard u cud make the fretted bass sound like the fretless so i thought i'd ask u guys cos u r blessed with a lot of knowledge. Gos bless

[dhagler]

A fretless bass has lines where the frets would otherwise be (although some fretless basses don't have them).  The result is a sound that more approaches an upright bass. 

Fretless is more challenging to play because you must be right on the line to get the proper tone whereas on a fretted bass as long as you are somewhere above the fret the fret takes care of the tone.  I play one of each, and having to be more precise in my fingering on the fretless fretboard has helped my playing on the fretted bass.

[carlmack7183]

i recently began to play fretless bass, and I suddenly began to get a new excitement about bass b/c the sound and playability is different than that on a fretted. I would definitely recommend starting out on a fretted bass first, but fretless is finding it way out of primarily jazz music and into many different genres of music. My favorite fretless bass song would have to be Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall" on his Off the Wall Album. I think it Louis Johnson on the bass, but the fretless song is really brought in the entire song

[malthumb]

dhagler explained it very well.  A fretless can also deliver some very distinct effects when you incorporate slides, note bending, or vibrato in your technique.  If you get a chance, listen to Jaco Pastorius recording of "A Remark You Made"  Actually, it may be Weather Report or Jaco as a solo artist, I can't recall which.  You will clearly hear a tonality that people refer to as "mwah".  I haven't heard of anybody who can get that sort of a tone from a fretted bass.

Personally, I like the sound of a fretless on ballads and slow gospel songs, so I've been playing my fretless a lot more at church the past few months.

Peace,

James

[uriahsmusic]

.....you need to stop into your local music store and give fretless a try....the difference is distinct. Because there are no frets in the way, you get to slide around and growl as make different sounds....but you miss the sharpness of the frets and it's weird at first seeing where you are going!

[T-Block]

I prefer the fretless because when your fingers get tired, u can slide down the strings and still have a good, decent sound, LOL.

[dfwkeys]

i play with frets, but i love the fact that the fretless has not fret buzz, you can lower the action really low and get a nice clean sound...  For more of a jazz, smooth r&B, or neo soul with a tight groove and growl, the fretless would sound nice....

the only downside is that you don't get that nice slap n pop sound like a fretted bass.  best option is to get both... You can't go wrong with a squire fretless if you do not want to spend a lot of money and just want to try it out.

[bass_asaph]

thanks y'all cos i was thinkin of getting one.one thing that stil quizzes me is how u can identify notes  and keys without frets.do they usually have some sort of guide or lines on it.

[floaded27]

some fretless basses have line markers where the frets would be. if i get a fretless, i definitely have to have that. others just have the inlay dots that normally mark where the 3,5,7,9,12, etc frets would be and you just have to have muscle memory to go to the right places and a trained ear. others then have nothing at all, just as upright basses have no markers.

[malthumb]

some fretless basses have line markers where the frets would be. if i get a fretless, i definitely have to have that. others just have the inlay dots that normally mark where the 3,5,7,9,12, etc frets would be and you just have to have muscle memory to go to the right places and a trained ear. others then have nothing at all, just as upright basses have no markers.

Cosign all o' that.

Here's my fretless



It's not as intimidating as it looks.  There are dot markers along the side of the neck that correspond to where the lines would be, if it were a lined fretless.  The rest, as Floaded27 stated, is muscle memory and ears.

When you really think about it, do you watch your fretting hand finger placement on every note you play, or just the first couple when you change position?

Do you actually look at or feel the frets when you are playing, or do you sorta just know where to go? 

I was intimidated by the thought of an unlined fretless, but I HAD TO HAVE an ebony board on this one and Roscoe will not put lines on ebony, so I had to kick off the training wheels and go for it.

Peace,

James

[dhagler]

Malthumb, that is one beautiful bass.  My Fender has lines but I honestly don't look at them all the time.  Muscle memory and practice has helped a lot.

And dfwkeys is right:  you need one of each in your arsenal.

[dfwkeys]

Cosign all o' that.

Here's my fretless



It's not as intimidating as it looks.  There are dot markers along the side of the neck that correspond to where the lines would be, if it were a lined fretless.  The rest, as Floaded27 stated, is muscle memory and ears.

When you really think about it, do you watch your fretting hand finger placement on every note you play, or just the first couple when you change position?

Do you actually look at or feel the frets when you are playing, or do you sorta just know where to go? 

I was intimidated by the thought of an unlined fretless, but I HAD TO HAVE an ebony board on this one and Roscoe will not put lines on ebony, so I had to kick off the training wheels and go for it.

Peace,

James

Wow! she's a beauty.  What kind of bass is she?

[malthumb]

Wow! she's a beauty.  What kind of bass is she?

Her name is Roscoe.

It's a Roscoe LG-3005.  Spanish Cedar body with Quilted Maple Top and Tobacco Sunburst finish.
Bartolini 3-band EQ and Bartolini pickups.
Maple and Purpleheart neck with Ebony fingerboard.
DR Black Beauty strings.

Peace,

James

[floaded27]

malthumb, that roscoe is a monster. it looks crazy intimidatring so i guess i'll have to take your word for it. does the fact that the pickups are slanted have any affect on the sound u get out of it?

[malthumb]

....does the fact that the pickups are slanted have any affect on the sound u get out of it?

I'm guessing it does, but I wouldn't be able to tell you why or how.  Roscoe basically has 3 models.  The LG is the only one that has slanted pickups.  If there was some significant advantage to it, I would think they'd do all their basses that way, like Dingwall does with the fanned frets.  Makes me wonder....what would a fretless Dingwall look like?

Peace,

James

[mr.dj]

My friend who worked for Roscoe told me that the slanted pickups are for the tight Low B.

[malthumb]

My friend who worked for Roscoe told me that the slanted pickups are for the tight Low B.

Yeah, I just wonder why they wouldn't do the same for the Century or SKB model basses.  All three are 35" scale.  Depending on who you believe, the 35" scale also helps the B string.

Peace,

Martin

[MrEdabass]

That bass looks to me like it would be fun to play.

I have 2 fretted basses. Once I went to Washington on tour from the UK and I played a fretless Ken Smith and it was like "wow, its easier than I thought", somehow I could play exactly the same as I do fretted. I guess when you learn alot, so do your hands. Personally I find fretless basses much easier and better because you can do niiiiiccceeee slides and the feel is so much clearer.