Why do guitars have frets while violins and related instruments do not?

Question:It seems that unless you want smooth slurs and slides frets would be an advantage.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: It seems that unless you want smooth slurs and slides frets would be an advantage.

Every instrument is a combination of tradition and technology.

In general, violinists play only one note at a time (tho double-stopping is possible and even frequent in bluegrass and Dave Matthews Band). Guitars frequently play six notes at once. It's not too hard to hit the precise point on a fretless fingerboard if you're only hitting one note, but if you're playing a chord it's tough.

Note that electric basses come in both fretted and fretless versions--originally fretted because they were conceived as "electric bass guitars", many players found they liked the greater freedom of no frets.

Historically, there have been violin-type instruments, called viols, that had frets--they were used in western music up to the 18th century, but were displaced when the Cremonese violin-makers improved their instruments and made them sound so much better than the viols. And the ancestor of the guitar, the Arabic oud, has more strings but no frets.

So there's no absolute reason why one is fretted and the other isn't. I have heard of guitarists experimenting with non-fretted instruments, and I personally have had frets installed on my 'cello (I'm a multi-instrumentalist and the frets were necessary because I just couldn't get my head around learning the 'cello properly--altho' my Ashbory bass is fretless and I have no trouble playing it.) BTW, I can get smooth slurs and slides on either instrument--the frets just act as guides for my fingers and they tighten up my intonation when I'm playing higher on the neck.

Some early violins like the Viols and some Viola De Gambas actually did have frets, but they were not the frets we know today. They simply had a thick cord of sinew or intestine tied across the fingerboard. Some period instruments, as well as the modern Vihuella (A Mexican Mariachi instrument, with a thick round back, tuned the same as a guitar, but with the bottom two string tuned an octave above - and with five strings instead of six) still have these corded frets. Guitars have frets to facilitate chording. It is hard enough to play a single note in tune, but to play a series of notes all together and get each one exactly in place is cumbersome and problematic. I have played a fretless guitar and can attest to the fact that while it was nice for solo work, I would not want to play rhythm guitar on one for any length of time. If you want truly smooth slurs and slides by the way, all you have to do is raise the action and use a piece of glass or metal. The bottleneck style of playing with a dobro or slide guitar is also fretless, and quite haunting if done right!

You can have a fretless guitar. Why not? My bass player plays a fretless electric bass . The problem is that you have to be very precise to play in any positions.

With fretless, you even get 1/4 tones... Mindblowing. Frets on guitar makes it easier to finger anywhere inside a fret and it will sound good.
But fretless guitar? You would need precision not in soloing as much as PLAYING CHORDS. That would bne practically impossible.