Playing fretless bass is at least a little more difficult than playing fretted bass. If you are buying your first bass, you probably don’t want a fretless bass unless you know for sure that’s the sound you’re after. It takes a good bit of extra practice to accurately play the notes on a fretless bass. When you miss the notes or play sloppily you can sound pretty bad. This can frustrate many students.

If you do want to play fretless bass, consider that playing a fretted bass first can help you eventually play fretless bass better. By practicing for a while on fretted bass, you will learn to hear notes played accurately in-tune. Then, when you switch to fretless, you will be able to mentally hear the notes better before you play them. That is what is required to play the fretless bass in-tune—hearing what you want to play in your head first and then matching it.