Fleedle: One theory has it, as you’ll know if you’re even slightly informed of bass guitar history, that this frankly eccentric instrument was the invention of bass pioneer Jaco Pastorius. Always an experimental innovator, Jaco had honed his chops to impressive levels when he purchased a 1962 Fender Jazz to use in South Florida club gigs and teaching sessions. As the story goes, in 1969 or 1970 he decided to try for a new sound and removed the frets, probably with a pair of pliers, before painting the grooves and the fretboard with a layer (or more likely, multiple layers) of marine epoxy, the super-tough varnish used to coat the hulls of boats. Using the hard surface to produce his trademark ‘singing’ fretless sound, Jaco slapped and popped his way to the top and the rest is history.

snippy: john paul jones (led zep) musta got the idea from jaco.