For those who follow Fender as the standard for what a bass guitar should be, the number of frets they use is 20. The number of frets is easy to spot on necks that have fret markers. After the 12th fret, there are 3 single-dot markers that mark where the 15th, 17th and 19th frets are. If there were a fourth dot, that would be fret 21. After that would be another double-dot marker indicating where fret 24 is.<\/p>\n
For example, a really easy way to spot a 24-fret bass is just to look at the heel side of the neck. If it’s an adult-size bass with a double-dot inlay at the heel, that’s almost always a 24-fret bass guitar. I say “almost always” because some builders do wacky things with fret inlays. But the general rule of thumb is that if you see the double-dot at the heel, that bass has 24 frets on it.<\/p>\n
Do builders of basses that use more than 24 frets mark them on the fretboard? Not usually, and there are two main reasons for this. First, most builders who go beyond 24 frets usually build a 26-fret. Being that is only 2 semitones higher than 24, there is no need to mark those frets as they wouldn’t have to be marked anyway. Second is the issue of space. The more frets there are, the less room there is between frets to put inlays into the fretboard. Some builders get around this by using block-style inlays since they can be “thinned out” easily as you go up the fretboard.<\/p>\n
If one wanted to mark frets on many-fret boards, you would treat the 24th fret position as if it were the start of a new neck, meaning single dots would go at the 27th, 29th, 31st positions and so on.<\/p>\n
That is The Big Question concerning many-fret instruments classified as bass guitars.<\/p>\n
Bass purists state loudly that no electric bass guitar needs more than 20 frets on it – especially since if you play up high on the fretboard, you’re not playing bass notes anymore.<\/p>\n
Bass modernists will take as many frets as you can throw at them. And yes, they will use them. If a high fret cannot be reached when the fret hand is behind the neck, the hand goes over the neck and they will play using tapping. One way or another, that modernist will find a way to use all those high frets, if for no other reason than “just because they’re there.”<\/p>\n
So the real Big Question is this:<\/p>\n
Do you follow the “Fender 20” rule? Or would you rather have a 26-fret? Or would you just want a long, fretless board so worrying about frets is a non-issue?<\/p>\n
Let everyone know what you think by posting a comment below.<\/p>\n
Image credit: Conklin Custom Shop 4 String Bass (36 frets!)<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For those who follow Fender as the standard for what a bass guitar should be, the number of frets they use is 20. The number of frets is easy to spot on necks that have fret markers. After the 12th fret, there are 3 single-dot markers that mark where the 15th, 17th and 19th frets … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}