therealting

I think the fretless market is a lot smaller than the fretted one, so there’s less incentive for manufacturers to get involved. I had a Revolution which was unbelievably good for under £200 and unbeatable in my opinion. I think part of the issue is that most fretless beginners tend to be experienced fretted players, so they get a cheap secondhand one, and then upgrade to something more serious if they get more involved.

Those DO look nice. Hope they introduce a medium scale at some point...

Ideal for that last, set-closing number of your Chris Isaak tribute act...

Is it about body shape or pickups? What about this? Is it a P?

@Doctor J That’s fair. Metal is such a wide genre (like “rock” I guess), and I’m not familiar with the nomenclature, I was referring more to the sort of djenty, downtuned stuff where the guitarists have more than 6 strings and bassists play through Darkglass preamps or Kempers. That’s the sort of stuff that benefits most from longer scale instruments and hence fanned frets etc. I guess how progressive the music is will have an influence on how progressive the instruments are. If the music espouses the sound, look and ethos of the 60s, then it follows that what they hang on a strap onstage will too.

Scroll down on the main forum page to the Classifieds section. There are basses - and effects, amps etc - for sale, and there is also a wanted section.

But the P and J players of this world are generally a fairly conservative bunch, trying to replicate their favourite Ps and Js from their favourite music periods of the past. I mean, I have a Super P, as my perfect 5 string, but it competes for attention with my two pre-CBS Fenders... which quite a few of my more traditional clients would rather me take on stage. Whereas fanned frets and a more aggressive modern look are much more the uniform of modern metal, and Dingwall was smart to tap into that market and become identified with it.

Because their biggest market is for dropped and low tunings, hence the 37” scale for low F# etc. Overseas model Super-scale instruments are in the plans, but Dingwalls are actually quite a small company and they have a long list of projects they are looking at.

Headless paulownia basses would be amazing!

Fixed it for you

I agree, obviously.

I like the black and gold hardware / pickup scheme too!

In fairness, if I had a set of Thomastiks or Elixirs snap there, I’d probably do the same... they’re bloody expensive!