Fretless

How hard is it to play a fretless banjo?

You would live longer and happier if you would only be quiet and fretless.

Will the fretless world be happy or will restless nature shout / For some old-time fret or worry just to rave and kick about?

Is it not worth while to try and approximate, if we cannot hope to attain, the ideal of fretless, fussless, and unworrying poise?

Read's creations have covered just about all of bass-dom, from vintage-style 4-strings to 32-position fretlesses to 25-fret 8-strings tuned F♯BEADGCF.

No other machine can produce sounds which are so often described as 'singing', 'purring', 'humming', and 'ringing'. But this array of mellifluous notes doesn't come cheaply: even those who have mastered the fretless to moderate levels of proficiency have been obliged to spend many hundreds of hours on techniques which fretted-bass players either take for granted or simply do not require.

Many fretlesses, especially less expensive models that mimic a fretted counterpart, have fretted-bass nut slots.