About FretlessBass.com
Welcome to FretlessBass.com. This site is dedicated to fretless basses (acoustic and uprights welcome too!). Originally designed as a user submitted gallery of fretless basses, our site now includes much more, including exclusive interviews and articles, featured songs and videos, a shopping area, and community links for those who play or simply admire fretless basses.
What is a fretless bass? A fretless bass is a bass guitar with no frets on the neck. Having no frets allows the strings to rest directly against the fingerboard when notes are chosen, producing a beautiful and unique sound. The strings produce a growl or “mwah” sound against the fingerboard (made from a variety of woods, materials, and finishes), and slides and harmonics are taken to a place that cannot be achieved with frets. It is this sound and the beauty of the instrument that has inspired this site. And though a fretless bass is technically an electric or acoustic handheld bass, we include many examples of upright bass that deliver a similar sound and experience that we feel are important to acknowledge and display.
FretlessBass.com was launched in 2000, and within the first year became a top ten search engine result for fretless basses. The user submitted gallery has grown from one bass to over five hundred, and it is still growing. We have been very fortunate to speak with some of the greatest fretless bass players around, and hope to speak with many more in the future.
From players that only have a single, memorable fretless performance, to those who use the instrument exclusively as their voice, and even those who bring upright bass into the mainstream or cross over genres; we consider them all relevant, unique, and worthy of discovering.
We plan to continually add content related to fretless basses, to make this the ultimate resource for this beautiful and timeless instrument.
The success of this site is due largely in part to the fretless community, and we thank you for your support. Please send us your feedback to keep this the best site on the Internet for fretless basses.
No frets. No limits.
