The Sweet Allure of the Fretless Bass
If you’re ever asked to play a fretless Bass, don’t hesitate to give it a try.
If you have experience playing electric Bass or double bass, you’ll immediately appreciate how much fun it is and the beauty of its tone.
There are two key points
◯ Knowing the exact pitch
Frets are set into the fingerboard to make it easy to play notes in tune.
Since a fretless bass lacks these frets, it’s essential to press down at the correct position to produce the right pitch.
That said, if you’re off-pitch, you can simply slide your finger to correct it.
The most important thing when playing a fretless bass is being able to tell whether you’re in tune or not.
◯ The Curiosity to Play
That’s all there is to it. If you fall in love with the sound of a fretless bass, or if you fall in love with its fretboard… that’s when you become a fretless player.
Fingering
On a bass with frets, the pitch is determined by the fret nearest to where you’re pressing the string, toward the bridge, and the note sounds at that precise pitch.
On a fretless bass with fret lines on the fingerboard, the line itself roughly indicates the correct pitch position.
The pitch will vary depending on how hard you press down, so please get used to this. If the fretboard has no fret lines or position marks, pitch is your only guide, so memorize where each note is located. It’s easy to get too cautious, but if you’re off, just slide your finger to adjust. Once you get a little more comfortable, listen to as many recordings as you can by the great pioneers of fretless bass playing and incorporate their techniques into your own repertoire.
Differences in Materials
Rosewood, maple, and ebony are commonly used for fingerboards, but resin materials like Phenowood are also available.
The tone varies depending on the hardness of the material, but the nuances are similar to those of fretted Bass neck materials, so please refer to that section as well. Some models are equipped with piezo pickups and are designed to produce sound through the vibration of a bridge, similar to a double bass.
●Rosewood Fingerboard
Fender Japan JB62-65FL
While hard, it possesses a warm tone characterized by a crisp attack without harsh high frequencies. Among artists who favored rosewood fingerboards, Jaco Pastorius’s sound is still talked about today; a classic example of this combination is the Fender ’60s-style sound with an alder body, which features strong mid-to-low frequencies.
●Maple Fingerboard
FERNANDES BO-60 / FL
Characterized by a hard, well-defined attack. It features crisp highs and distinct tonal definition. Typical combinations include pairing it with an alder body—known for its strong mid-to-low frequencies, as seen in late ’50s Fender models—or with an ash body—known for its reduced midrange, as seen in ’70s Fender models.
●Ebony Fingerboard
PGM JB-Type 5st / FL
Characterized by its hardness, it shares the bright high-end resonance of a maple fingerboard while also offering low-end resonance, resulting in a well-balanced tone.
It produces a clear resonance from string vibration; even the low B string sounds beautifully defined. When paired with an active circuit, this fingerboard clearly reproduces the resonance and sustain of the sound.
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◯Electric basses can also be equipped with
and are designed to produce sound through the vibration of the bridge, similar to a double bass.
Godin LR Baggs Model Semi-Acoustic Fretless Bass
◯As it turns out, there was also a fretless Bass like this!
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| Aria Pro II Super Twin ST1504FL |
| Rickenbacker 1980 4001 Fretless |
◯As a side note, I wonder when fretless Basses first came into existence.
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| 1971 Precision Bass Fretless | |
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| AMPEG AUB-1 | Fender Jaco Pastorius Model |
I believe the AUB-1, announced by AMPEG at the 1966 NAMM show, is widely recognized as the first fretless electric bass.
Even before that, around 1962, the company had already commercialized the “Baby Bass,” which is now commonly known as the upright bass.
In response to the demands of the times, Fender released the Precision Bass Fretless in the early 1970s.
While the double bass has never had frets, the Fender Precision Bass—which originally incorporated frets to ensure accurate pitch—established a new status for the electric fretless bass by removing those frets.
It is also well known that “Jaco Pastorius,” best known as a fretless bass player, removed the frets from his own bass in the early 1970s to establish the fretless style, which led to the subsequent popularity of the fretless bass.