Fretless bass

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Fretless bass

Replica of the fretless "Bass of Doom" of Jaco Pastorius, based on a '62 Fender Jazz Bass
Other names	Fretless bass guitar
Classification	String instrument
Inventor(s)	Paul Tutmarc Leo Fender (bass guitar)
Developed	Early 1960s
Related instruments
Fretless guitar Bass guitar Double bass Acoustic bass guitar Ukulele bass

A fretless bass is an electric bass guitar whose neck lacks frets and thus is smooth like traditional string instruments, and like the neck of an acoustic double bass. While the fretless bass 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.

The Fender Precision Bass was introduced in 1951, with frets to help performers find the proper note (i.e. to provide precision). This concept of the fretted bass guitar has since become the standard, as other companies followed with similar electric fretted basses, like the Höfner 500/1 of Beatle Paul McCartney, which resembled viol but with frets.

The first fretless electric bass guitars appeared in the 1961, from modifications made by players. One of the first, if not the first, examples of this is the Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, who wanted to change the frets of his bass guitar in 1961 to fix a buzzing sound caused by frets, but never replaced the faulty frets.^[1] The first fretless horizontal bass to be produced by a designated company, after several electrified upright basses, is the Ampeg AUB1, first released in 1965, as the unfretted version of the AEB1.