There are a lot of terms thrown out there when it comes to the parts of a guitar be it a bass guitar or not.
For example, Fender calls the portion after the nut the pegboard, while in Gibson vernacular it’s called a headstock. Personally, I call it a headstock.
The distinction between fingerboard and fretboard however is a very easy one to make.
Fretboard: A bass guitar that has frets on it.
Fingerboard: A bass guitar that has no frets on it.
(Note: The above is a Fender Jaco Pastorious Jazz Bass, which has fretlines but not frets, so it is a fretless instrument.)
So there you go. If there are frets, it’s a fretboard. If there are no frets, it’s a fingerboard.
Case closed. 🙂
I’ve never encountered this question before… I’ve always just called it a fingerboard. 😉
Fingerboards applies for all of them cuz your play it with the fingers wether it has frets or not and fretboards applies only for fretted instruments as the name implies.
It’s called a fingerboard regardless of whether or not it has frets. It’s called a fretboard in the vernacular of the guitarded.