Can luthiers make fret markings on a fretless bass without any?

[angus]

Yes they are. Otherwise a fretted one would be false as hell. Remember, you can still intonate the bridge of your fretless.

No, he's correct. Frets are an approximation, so they're aren't perfectly in tune by any stretch of the imagination, particularly when far from the intonation point. Setting bridge intonation gets you closer, but it's still an approximation. The idea with his statement was that on a fretted bass, you set the intonation and that's it, and you live with it; with a fretless, you can hit the note exactly in tune, which will not always correspond with the placement of the line. This is absolutely true.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

No, he's correct. Frets are an approximation, so they're aren't perfectly in tune by any stretch of the imagination, particularly when far from the intonation point. Setting bridge intonation gets you closer, but it's still an approximation. The idea with his statement was that on a fretted bass, you set the intonation and that's it, and you live with it; with a fretless, you can hit the note exactly in tune, which will not always correspond with the placement of the line. This is absolutely true.

Yep.

 

[deevit]

I know, if you look at it the exact way, a fretted neck is one big compromise. But to our ears, it doesn't sound false, that is what I'm pointing at. If you want to make the approach that precise, every player, fretted or fretless, will not play in tune.

 

[nephilymbass]

honestly, the lines aren't that big of a help. On a fretless bass, the "frets" aren't in the same place exactly for each string, and it's far more beneficial to play without lines and develop a feel for each string's fret placement and intonation quirks.

Yeah I disagree as well, as far as them not being the same from string to string sounds like intonation at your bridge needs to be adjusted.

 

[angus]

It's not from string to string- it's down the string. It gets increasingly less accurate as you move away from the point you intonated around.