Bill Wyman - first fretless bass??

[FretlessBass.com]

We posted this on another topic, but wanted to see if anyone had any info on it specifically:

We read on Wikipedia, under Bass Guitars in the fretless section: "In How The Fender Bass Changed The World, Jim Roberts states that Bill Wyman made the first known fretless bass guitar in 1961 by converting an inexpensive Japanese fretted bass. This fretless bass can be heard on The Rolling Stones songs such as "Paint it Black"."

Link is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_guita ... ess_basses

We are continuing to try to get confrimation on this. Anyone have any info to help confirm if this is in fact true?

[Jason]

Well I've been searching around, nothing as yet apart from the introduction of the Ampeg Aubi bass which was fretless and surfaced around 1965, the other is Leo Fender introduced the Fretless P bass in 1970.

Keep hunting
Jase

[mick monger]

Yoo bet! I saw this in one of the Fender Bass books, he said he modified the body and removed the frets, found he could play pretty well by referencing the fretlines. Apparently he was unhappy with this cheaper-quality bass, and desired a change. Our old band did this one with our fretless bassist.....oh yeah, we rocked it. Somehow, it had the authentic tone. I didn't know the history of this at the time, I assumed the guitar player was making the song "come to life", but once again - it's the Bass!