Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ
If you want to have a non-Western sound they can be good, but they sound muted (the sound is coming off of your finger instead of off the fret). For some reason the fretless base is more popular.
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I think the reason fretless bass guitars are more popular is becasue many bass players start on uprights and so are comfortable with it and becasue you can slide into walking lines a little bit, cheating towards a pitch if you will, on a fretless that gives it a bit of a bite. You can also slide and noodle around coninuously, although that is sort of gimmicky.
Very few guitar players (I don't know if any) start on a fretless guitar and so are not very comfortable with the idea. I have never seen a fretless guitar (not a bass) in person. It would require very refined techinque.