When did Fender start making fretless basses?
Sometime in 1970, Fender introduced a fretless version of their iconic Precision Bass model. By all accounts, this bass was identical to any standard Precision bass, except all the frets and fret lines were removed.
Are fretless basses any good?
Some players swear by them though so there’s no hard and fast rules here. Typically, fretless bass guitars are strung with flatwound strings. They’re not as aggressive sounding and in the hands of a skilled player, they sound warm and silky smooth and almost dull compared to roundwound strings.
Why do fretless basses exist?
Well, with a fretless bass, you essentially have more freedom to move around the fingerboard. You can smoothly slide in between notes, which is considered as their main advantage over fretted basses and is key to their expressive, distinctive voice.
How old is my Fender Precision bass?
The general rule of thumb is that a bass guitar is as old as its newest part. Or, at least its most recently dated part. So, if you have a Fender with a neck date of 1964 and the pots are dated 1965, then you have a 1965 Fender bass guitar.
Did Fender make a fretless bass?
The first commercially available fretless bass was Ampeg’s AUB-1 which arrived in 1966, and Fender followed suit with their fretless Precision bass in 1970, but neither sold in huge quantities. It took a virtuoso to make the bass community consider the fretless bass as an instrument that was not just a novelty.
How do I date my Fender Precision Bass?
The only way to try to find the date is to remove the neck from the body. If the year is unreadable, it can also be written on the body under the pickguard or in the cavity in which the pickups are. With Fenders from before 1955 you cannot use the serial numbers to determine the exact year of construction.
Who plays fretless bass?
What Is A Fretless Bass Guitar? If you are a bass guitar player, you have probably watched videos on YouTube of Sting, Jaco Pastorious, Les Claypool (Primus), or Jack Bruce (Cream). All of them have one thing in common: they play a fretless bass.
Who was the first fretless bass player?
Bill Wyman
The first person to use a modern fretless is the Rolling Stones’ Bill Wyman. According to his coffee-table book, Bill Wyman’s Scrapbook, he converted a cheap Japanese bass to fretless as early as 1961 and used it with his first band, the Cliftons, and later on for several tunes with the Stones.
Is a fretless bass good for a beginner?
My first bass was a unlined fretless Fender Jazz. I learned more from playing that bass due to having to think about what I was playing and where the notes were. Playing fretless makes you more aware of position, touch, sound, dynamics the whole lot! I would highly recommend it for a begining player.
How do I check my fender serial number?
Where to Find the Serial Number on Your Fender Guitar?
- At the top of the neck plate.
- On the front or at the back of the headstock.
- On the cover plate of the vibrato (on Stratocasters)
- On the back of the vibrato cover plate (on early ’50s Stratocasters)
- At the end of the heel of the neck.
When was the Fender Precision Bass made?
1951
Leo Fender introduced the Precision bass (commonly known as the P-bass) in 1951. Named for the precise intonation enabled by its fretted neck, the P-bass was the first commercially successful electric bass guitar and set off a revolution in popular music.