Top 10 Fretless Bass Players

Metal_Treasure They may play both fretless and fretted bass, but here we are interested only in their fretless bass playing.

The Top Ten

1 Les Claypool Les Claypool Leslie Edward "Les" Claypool is an American musician, singer, songwriter, composer, author and actor best known as the bassist and lead vocalist of the band Primus.

Master of bass players. Playing guitar/bass with frets isn't very easy. And its much harder playing bass/guitar without frets. Really great! - zxm

Best One - WoopaBoopaHoopa7

2 Jeroen Paul Thesseling Jeroen Paul Thesseling

He is a Dutch bass player, who usually plays metal, especially fast and (or) technical/progressive subgenres of metal.
I've seen him playing a 7-string fretless bass (see the image).
He played for Obscura, Pestilence, and a studio project Ensemble Salazhar.
For example, he played fretless bass on 2 Obscura albums: Cosmogenesis, Omnivium. - Metal_Treasure

3 Steve Di Giorgio Steve Di Giorgio

He plays metal and jazz.
He's played for these metal bands: Death, Testament, Iced Earth, Obituary, Quo Vadis, Sadus, Charred Walls Of The Damned.
For example, he played fretless bass on the albums 'Individual Thought Patterns' by Death, 'Horror Show' by Iced Earth, and 'Defiant Imagination' by Quo Vadis. - Metal_Treasure

4 Jaco Pastorius Jaco Pastorius John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, professionally known as Jaco Pastorius is a multi-instrumentalist and influential bassist.
5 Alain Caron
6 Steve Lawson
7 Percy Jones
8 Mick Karn
9 Mark Egan
10 Tony Franklin

The Contenders

11 Jack Bruce Jack Bruce John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce was a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter known primarily for his contributions to the British supergroup Cream, which also included guitarist-singer Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker.
12 Pino Palladino
13 John Patitucci

No, it's not John Petrucci of Dream Theater! Their names only look similar. - Metal_Treasure

14 Sting Sting Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE, known professionally by his stage name Sting, is an English musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor, and philanthropist. He is best known as the lead singer for the English band The Police

Yes, he plays upright bass. - zxm

Yes, he sometimes plays frettless bass but he shouldn't be very high on this list because he can't be called a "master" of fretless playing. - Metal_Treasure

15 Jeff Ament Jeff Ament

He plays for a famous band (Pearl Jam) but I didn't put him very high because he plays the frettless bass like a fretted one and he rarely employs specific fretless techniques.
I guess he uses frettless bass for its different sound and not so much for its potential in terms of different techniques. - Metal_Treasure

16 Jimmy Haslip

He's a left-handed player. - Metal_Treasure

17 Alphonso Johnson
18 Gary Willis
19 Bathiki Kumalo
20 Sean Malone Sean Malone
21 Richard Bona
22 Bunny Brunel
23 Tony Levin Tony Levin
24 Fernando Saunders
25 Jean-Marc Jafet
26 Robin Zielhorst

Dutch bassist who plays both fretless and fretted bass (progressive, technical metal - Synic, Ne Obliviscaris, and more). - Metal_Treasure

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