Advantages of fret less Ubass?

Kimosabe

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 10, 2007
Messages
906
Reaction score
127
What are the advantages of a fretless Ubass?

I would guess that one big advantage is sliding between notes but I don’t find the frets on a fretted Ubass interfere with sliding.

There are fretless basses with marked frets and without. Obviously for a beginner having marked frets on a fretless would be an advantage. One would have to learn where to place one’s fingers with regard to these painted on frets.

Is the advantage that you can use your ears to be slightly off true pitch and therefore get a kind of sliding or bending effect?

And if there are strong advantages where can one begin with a relatively inexpensive fretless and where does one move up from there? Is scale length an influential factor?
 
The main advantage of fretless is the differing tone and sustain from a fretted instrument. It's a very distinct, singing and endearing voice to me. And, of course, being able to retain your normal technique is an advantage to those accustomed to playing upright bass and fretless bass guitar. I haven't noticed string tension or finger pressure being less on fretless vs. fretted. I greatly prefer a longer scale for the clarity, tone and type of strings used. 30 inch scale is about the shortest I'd like to go.
 
Fretless is cool. Jaco didn't need frets

The big advantage is the sound - if that's the sound you want then you can't get it with frets. Several of the songs that made me fall in love with bass depend on fretless. I have Flight of the Cosmic Hippo running in the background right now. Need a low-B and more chops for that.

Overall it's harder to play. You have to be a lot more precise to get proper intonation. You need to train your ears well. I'm working on that. My wife has a good ear and either leaves the room when I pick up the fretless or I get a lot of "No!" remarks. The flip side is that you're not limited by the intonation of the instrument and its temperament. I'm not good enough to make use of that yet.

Slides are cool but easily overused. I'm not good enough to really include them in my repertoire yet. They're where I have the most problems with Thundergut stickiness. I think Pahoehoes will be better at this, and flats definitely are.

Longer scale lengths are easier to intonate than short ones - your target zone is larger. Strings matter though: I seem to do better with my 25" scale fretless Thundergut ABG than my 34" scale fretless P-bass with flats. Marked fret lines are a useful crutch - they give a map to the right general area, but aren't always exactly where I need them to be.

I think you need a bit more string pressure to get a clean note without frets, but that's low enough with flooby strings that it doesn't matter much.

I'd put fretless in the "If you have to ask then you don't need it" category. If fretless drives you then it's super cool. If not, then it's more work for little benefit.

There are some dirt cheap fretless uke basses available with all of the caveats of a cheap bass. I posted my review of the $100 Aklot here last fall. To summarize: pretty bass, busted electronics, I returned it. I’m now playing a GoldTone Microbass 25. Wasn’t dirt cheap, but wasn’t too expensive. About the same as the mid-range Kalas. I think list is about $450, but they’re readily discounted. It was back ordered and took a while to arrive. I absolutely love it. There’s enough acoustic sound that I don’t generally plug in at home. Not enough to be useful (or to annoy people with bad intonation) in a group setting.
 
Last edited:
Because bass ukes are extra short scale, getting good intonation can be difficult, fretless allows you to control the exact note up the fretboard, but as said, you need a really good ear. I had a fretless 22.5" scale bass uke custom made for me, but since it was the only one of 10 at that time, I couldn't get used to the change in finger position to the fretted ones. I ended up selling it. I'm very happy with fretted.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 39)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
Last edited:
Fretless is cool. Jaco didn't need frets

The big advantage is the sound - if that's the sound you want then you can't get it with frets. Several of the songs that made me fall in love with bass depend on fretless. I have Flight of the Cosmic Hippo running in the background right now. Need a low-B and more chops for that.

Overall it's harder to play. You have to be a lot more precise to get proper intonation. You need to train your ears well. I'm working on that. My wife has a good ear and either leaves the room when I pick up the fretless or I get a lot of "No!" remarks. The flip side is that you're not limited by the intonation of the instrument and its temperament. I'm not good enough to make use of that yet.

Slides are cool but easily overused. I'm not good enough to really include them in my repertoire yet. They're where I have the most problems with Thundergut stickiness. I think Pahoehoes will be better at this, and flats definitely are.

Longer scale lengths are easier to intonate than short ones - your target zone is larger. Strings matter though: I seem to do better with my 25" scale fretless Thundergut ABG than my 34" scale fretless P-bass with flats. Marked fret lines are a useful crutch - they give a map to the right general area, but aren't always exactly where I need them to be.

I think you need a bit more string pressure to get a clean note without frets, but that's low enough with flooby strings that it doesn't matter much.

I'd put fretless in the "If you have to ask then you don't need it" category. If fretless drives you then it's super cool. If not, then it's more work for little benefit.

There are some dirt cheap fretless uke basses available with all of the caveats of a cheap bass. I posted my review of the $100 Aklot here last fall. To summarize: pretty bass, busted electronics, I returned it. I’m now playing a GoldTone Microbass 25. Wasn’t dirt cheap, but wasn’t too expensive. About the same as the mid-range Kalas. I think list is about $450, but they’re readily discounted. It was back ordered and took a while to arrive. I absolutely love it. There’s enough acoustic sound that I don’t generally plug in at home. Not enough to be useful (or to annoy people with bad intonation) in a group setting.

You mentioned Jaco, I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, he was in a band with my brother. Played with him and my brother in a jam once. I was so totally outclassed musically could not wait to get out. He was very nice.
 
I have basal thumb arthritis (had to give up guitar after 30 years of playing). I need the lightest touch possible with my fretting hand. I was hoping Croaky Keith was on to something with fretless vs fretted requiring (demanding?) a lighter touch. Have you, or anyone else on this thread, had first hand experience with both? I'm in the Georgia mountains and can't find a fretless to try out the difference myself.
 
I have basal thumb arthritis (had to give up guitar after 30 years of playing). I need the lightest touch possible with my fretting hand. I was hoping Croaky Keith was on to something with fretless vs fretted requiring (demanding?) a lighter touch. Have you, or anyone else on this thread, had first hand experience with both? I'm in the Georgia mountains and can't find a fretless to try out the difference myself.

Fretless with Pahoehoes is very easy to play. I have/have had both, started out with 2 fretted Kalas, then got a fretless and sold the fretted I had. Then picked up an all solid Acacia fretted and although it has a full deep tone, I still like the fretless better.
 
Top Bottom