“I was infatuated with slide guitar. I’d use a comparable motion on my fretless by sliding up to the note”: Manning the world’s first production fretless bass, Rick Danko had to be laser-sharp in the Band

Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson of The Band perform on stage at Madison Square Garden in New York on 29th January 1974. Danko plays an Ampeg AUB-1 fretless bass guitar.

“I don’t play bass,” claimed Rick Danko in his December 1976 Guitar Player interview. “I just fill space.”

While Danko’s declaration is puzzling at the surface, he went on to clarify: “It's not really what you play, but what you leave out, that counts. When you leave space, it’s easier to hear everybody; if everyone is just up there churning, it's going to sound like buttermilk.”