Top 10 Best Fretless Bass Players

You've heard the slides. You've felt the growl. That smooth, vocal-like tone that seems to breathe underneath the music? Yeah, that's fretless bass magic. And not just any player can pull it off. There's no safety net here. No frets to guide your fingers. Just muscle memory, pitch-perfect intuition, and soul.

This list is for those who've mastered that slippery beast. They may play both fretless and fretted bass, but here we are interested only in their fretless bass playing. The ones who make the instrument sing, bend, wail, and whisper in ways that make even seasoned musicians sit up straight and go, "Wait, what was that?"

So which players deserve the spotlight for their fretless wizardry? That's your call. Vote for the ones who blow your mind, your ears, or your tuning fork. And if someone's missing? Add them. This list is built by fans who know the difference between sliding in tune and sliding into chaos.

The Top Ten

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. He is recognized for his distinctive playing style, often incorporating tapping, slapping, and other unconventional techniques. Outside... read more

Master of bass players. Playing guitar/bass with frets isn't very easy, and it's much harder playing bass/guitar without frets. Really great!

The best fretless player. He didn't invent it, but damn, does he master it.

He even sings while playing difficult basslines. That takes some real talent.
Jeroen Paul Thesseling

Jeroen Paul Thesseling is one of the most virtuoso fretless bassists.
He is an anomaly among bass players and has become a trailblazer in technical, progressive, and death metal. His roots and inspiration come from jazz fusion and world music.

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 called Ensemble Salazhar. For example, he played fretless bass on two Obscura albums: Cosmogenesis and Omnivium.
Jaco Pastorius

John Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III was an American jazz bassist who was a member of Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He collaborated with artists including Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell, and he also recorded albums as both a solo artist and a bandleader. Pastorius is widely regarded as one of... read more

He invented the modern way of playing fretless.

He was the pioneer of the fretless bass.
Steve Di Giorgio

Steve Di Giorgio is an American musician of Italian descent. He is best known for his work as a bass guitarist in many heavy metal and death metal bands. Di Giorgio has played with groups such as Death, Testament, Sadus, and Iced Earth, and he is recognized for his technical skill and use of fretless... read more

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.
Alain Caron
Mick Karn

Haunting and subtle with ease, the way he made his bass sound.

Inspired and inspiring. The man was a genius!
Percy Jones

Lyrical and expressive, Percy Jones was the bassist for the prog rock/fusion band Brand X. If you're into fretless, you need to give them a listen, particularly "Unorthodox Behaviour" and "Moroccan Roll."

Very inventive master of the art of fretless bass playing.
Steve Lawson
Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce, born May 14, 1943, and died October 25, 2014, was a Scottish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the bassist and lead vocalist of the British supergroup Cream. The band also included guitarist and singer Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker, and it played... read more
Gary Willis

The Newcomers

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Juan Alderete
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Jonas Hellborg

The Contenders

Jeff Ament

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

Simply amazing. Saw him perform live once with the Chick Corea Akoustic Band in a movie theater in Richmond, VA, and was totally blown away.

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

Yes! His work on "You Can Call Me Al" is sublime.
Dominic Forest Lapointe

Insane skills (Augury, Beyond Creation).
Jimmy Haslip

He's a left-handed player.
Alphonso Johnson
Mark Egan
Pino Palladino

A great Welsh fretless bassist. A real pro...
Tony Franklin
Tony Levin

Anthony Frederick Levin is an American musician and composer who specializes in electric bass, the Chapman Stick, and upright bass. He also contributes vocals and plays the synthesizer. Levin is most widely recognized for his work with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel.
Sean Malone
Linus Klausenitzer
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 and bassist for the band The Police. Sting has also enjoyed a successful solo career... read more

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

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

I'm amazed this maestro hasn't made this list yet!