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While some may claim that fretless basses are the pinnacle of the player's craft, realistically, there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Fretted basses move up the chromatic scale in semi-tones, just like a piano. The frets make it easier to visualise scales and mean that it's a lot harder to hit a bung note. Fretless basses allow dynamic slides and violin-style vibrato techniques that are more difficult on a fretted bass. These techniques won't suit every musical style, however, and playing in a loud environment with poor monitoring will make a fretless bass feel like a sports car bobbing in the pacific ocean.

From an educational perspective, having no frets will force you to understand the positions on fretboard and train your ear to pick up micro-tonality. It will be harder, but the benefits might be worth it if you intend to play more expressive music. Having frets will simplify your learning process, and there is nothing stopping you from learning about fretboard positions and micro-tonality at you own pace anyway. There is no instrument that is going to magically 'unlock your potential' on the bass, your hard work and dedication are going to do that. Unless you have a specific use case and you're certain a fretless is for you, it's probably best to stick with fretted.

All basses will have at least a single volume knob for your overall volume. Others may include a knob for each pickup, allowing you to blend to taste. Some may even have a switch for selecting each pickup individually. Generally, active pickups will have more options.

Similarly, basses will have at least one tone knob to adjust the bass and treble frequencies. With passive pickups, this will likely be a 'roll off' for the treble to control high frequencies. Active pickups will generally have both a bass and treble tone knob which will allow you to boost as well as cut due to the battery-powered preamp.

Lastly, some basses might have controls for your midrange as well, but describing what all those possible permutations could be is beyond the scope of this article. Basically, if your bass has five or more control knobs, it's worth reading up on all the cool things they can do.

One thing to remember is that the tone controls on your pedals, amp, audio interface, or even in your recording suite are most likely going to have more and better options for sculpting your tone. The controls on your bass are handy, but they're only the beginning of your tone's journey to your ears.

This could be entire article to itself, but we'll give a brief rundown to get you started. Remember, anything we can't cover here, the bass experts in our retail and online sales teams will be more than happy to elaborate on.

Gauge - This is the thickness of the highest string followed by the lowest. Typical gauges range from 45-100 (100s) to 65-130 (130s) for 4-string basses. 100s, 105s, and 110s are great for most players.

Scale Length - Most basses are long scale, some are short scale, and fewer still are medium or extra-long scale. Choose the strings that match your bass. Scale length is usually clearly labelled on the packaging.

Core - This is a single strand of metal at the centre of your strings. Round cores are generally warmer, while hexagonal cores are brighter. Most are made from steel but manufacturers often experiment with different alloys.

Windings - Most strings are roundwound, indicating a round wire is wrapped around the core. These are bright and versatile, while flatwound strings are warmer and have reduced finger noise when sliding along the strings.

Winding Materials - Most windings are made from a nickel/steel alloy, which has a bright tone when new. Some strings may be pure steel (brighter), pure nickel (darker) or another alloy entirely.

Coating - Some strings may have a coating applied to stave off dirt, sweat, grime and the inevitable corrosion that comes with them. They last longer but also typically cost more. Coated strings are great for infrequently-used basses.

For more info, check out our extensive range of Bass strings online here.