The Best Fretless Bass Guitars: 5 Ways to Glide and Slide
Getting that classic mwah sound
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The Best Fretless Guitars: 5 Ways to Glide and Slide · Source: Alex Holder / Alamy Stock Photo
These fretless bass guitars will help you find the perfect groove. Exploring tone and feel for a dynamic performance.
5 Fretless Bass Guitars:
Why Should You Own a Fretless Bass?
Are you really a bass player if you don’t have too many basses? What’s one more? We all have various axes in our respective collections for plenty of reasons. The motives are simple: impressive finishes, powerful pickups, wonderful woods, or just because we like it.
Sometimes, there doesn’t have to be any justification behind it. But what about a fretless bass guitar? Well, these electric basses lack the physical frets that you’d find on a regular bass. Making them more akin to a traditional double bass, or even a cello.
They require a degree of precision and accuracy that the regular bass doesn’t demand. However, you can get some great sounds out of one of them. Just listen to the fretless work on Sledgehammer or even Even Flow, and you’ll be hooked right away.
Harley Benton B-450FL BK Progressive Series
As ever, we’re going to start with the most affordable instrument in our look at fretless bass guitars. No surprise, it comes from Harley Benton. The *£166 / €189 price tag looks appealing, but what about the rest of it?
Importantly, we’ve got a bolt-on Canadian maple neck, which has a modern D profile. Nice and chunky. You can dial this neck in as you please with a double-action truss rod. Naturally, no frets.
Looking sharp, we’ve got black hardware comprising of diecast tuners and four pots for balance, bass, treble and your overall volume knob with push/pull function.
Marcus Miller U5 NT MN Short FL
Moving along, we’re looking at one of the most respected names in the bass guitar game. Unlike before, this is a short-scale fretless bass guitar, which could be a great place to start if you’re just getting into fretless playing.
Although an all black unit is menacing, I love the look of this flamed maple top, which sits upon an alder body. A somewhat thinner C-profile works with the maple neck.
Don’t be fooled, this is still a fretless bass, but there are some handy fret markers to help you whilst playing. A passive bass, we’ve got a Marcus Super Jazz in the bridge, along with a precision neck pickup.
It is a little bit more expensive than before, but I’d argue that this *Marcus Miller is the best way to start learning the fretless bass guitar.
ESP LTD B204SM FL Natural Stain
Back to a full-scale model again now. This is a satisfying *£555 over at Thomann, but sadly won’t be in stock for a few weeks. However, it does have enough welcome appointments to make it worth the wait.
I like the natural stain finish on the ash body. We’ve also got a pair of ESP SB-4 set humbuckers for chunky fretless tones.
A narrower 40mm nut width will keep things tight, but we’re safe in the knowledge that the neck is a five-piece unit made from maple and rosewood. Likewise, there are fret marking lines which do look nice and cool. Along with a single inlay on the 12th fret.
Warwick RB Corvette B4 FL NBTS
Next up, we’re back in black! I’ve played a few Warwick basses, and have yet to be disappointed. This fretless bass guitar, in particular, features a bolt-on 3-piece laminated maple neck with veneer stripes.
Visually, I’m in love with the Tigerstripe ebony fingerboard, which is such a bizarre thing to see, but it works really well with the Nirvana black alder body. Other tasty visuals include the hallmark *Warwick tailpiece and bridge, plus the Warwick tuners at the other end.
An active fretless pass with MEC J/J single coil pickups, we get active 2-band electronics with controls for overall balance, bass, and treble. Nothing too complex, but enough to work with.
Music Man Pino Palladino Fretless StingR
Concluding our look at fretless bass guitars, we’ve got the most pricey. It’s nice to look at one of the cheapest, and also one of the most expensive too. Specifically, this *Music Man is £3,759 / €4,199.
· Source: Thomann
What makes this so special, then? Like the rest of our picks, we have a fretless neck; this time it’s maple with a rosewood fingerboard. Arguably, the nicest materials to work with. Unusually, the neck is asymmetrical! Being a C profile on the high string side, but a V at the low end. All helping with those fretless style slides.
For amplification, there is a 9V preamp with a 2-band EQ. These sit beside a 3-ply black pickguard with white binding. The finish is a ’79 burst.
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One response to “The Best Fretless Bass Guitars: 5 Ways to Glide and Slide”
How could you do an article on Fretless Basses and not include the Fender Jazz??
Seriously that’s pretty week.