Fretless bass

A fretless bass is an electric bass guitar whose neck lacks frets and thus is smooth like traditional string instruments, and like the neck of an acoustic double bass. While the fretless bass is played in all styles of music, it is most common in pop, rock, and jazz. It first saw widespread use during the 1970s, although some players used them before then. The Fender Precision Bass was introduced in 1951, with frets to help performers find the proper note (i.e. to provide precision). This concept of the fretted bass guitar has since become the standard, as other companies followed with similar electric fretted basses, like the Höfner 500/1 of the Beatle Paul McCartney, which resembled a viol but with frets. The first fretless electric bass guitars appeared around 1961, from modifications made by players. Historically the most significant, while not likely the first, example of this is the Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, who wanted to change the frets of his inexpensive bass guitar in 1961 to fix a buzzing sound caused by frets, but never replaced the faulty frets. The first fretless horizontal bass to be produced by a designated company, after several electrified upright basses, is the Ampeg AUB1, first released in 1965, as the unfretted version of the AEB1.