Sambrook Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 Been mulling over an idea: Six string bass, 2 octave board, fretted up to the 5th fret, fretless until the 17th/18th position, then fretted again. That way, the first 5 frets give you the root note, fundamental type anchor notes, the top end allows for chords and melody, and the fretless part has almost the full range of a 4 string. Don't know if it's actually possible to do this (if I've thought of it, and nobody's done it, that suggests it's not doable), but it's been a very pleasant daydream. What does the collective wisdom of the Basschat hive mind have to say? Quote
dmccombe7 Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 (edited) You would lose the fretless in the middle as you near the frets at the body end. The 17th or 18th fret would be the problem as it will act on the fretless part if that makes sense. Could you drop the fretboard height from the 17th or 18th fret so that fret from there are same height as the fretless part of the neck ? Just a thought ? There are basses out there with fretted up to maybe the 12th fret and fretless from there on but haven't seen many about recently. Dave Edited August 9, 2018 by dmccombe7 Quote
fleabag Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 The photo above is similar to how Brand X god Percy Jones started with fretless. I believe he had an old ( Gretsch ? ) and ripped out the frets from under the G string only. He can be heard on 1 or 2 tracks i believe, on the earliest album. The track Running On Three springs to mind Quote
Hellzero Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 Listen to these, it's a Leduc U-Basse 6 strings with the B, E and A strings being fretless and the D, G and C being fretted. Put some headphones ! Quote
TheGreek Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 I believe that there are a few Wals about with the higher strings being fretless.... Last one I saw for sale the seller was extracting urine in large amounts. Quote
Happy Jack Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 In my head, the lower (bass) strings should be fretted and the higher (treble) strings should be the fretless ones ... 2 Quote
ambient Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 21 minutes ago, Happy Jack said: In my head, the lower (bass) strings should be fretted and the higher (treble) strings should be the fretless ones ... That’s my opinion too, the Ibanez has never made sense to me for that reason. Quote
Dood Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 (edited) 27 minutes ago, Happy Jack said: In my head, the lower (bass) strings should be fretted and the higher (treble) strings should be the fretless ones ... 4 minutes ago, ambient said: That’s my opinion too, the Ibanez has never made sense to me for that reason. The original first Ashula from Ibanez did indeed have the top two strings fretless and the bottom strings fretted! Edited August 9, 2018 by dood Quote
ambient Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 Just now, dood said: The original first Ashula from Ibanez did indeed have the top two strings fretless and the bottom strings fretted! Why only top two though I wonder? I’d prefer half and half I think. Quote
Dood Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 10 minutes ago, ambient said: Why only top two though I wonder? I’d prefer half and half I think. For the average bassist it already has two too many strings.. ha ha ha!! Quote
dmccombe7 Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 1 hour ago, dood said: The original first Ashula from Ibanez did indeed have the top two strings fretless and the bottom strings fretted! That's the one i remember looking at before i went full Overwater fretless. Dave Quote
Hellzero Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 The Ibanez Ashula's are pure marketing object as they are a regular 4 strings fretted bass tuned from E to G coupled to a 2 (regular D and G) or 3 strings fretless bass tuned from A to G, so redudant and useless. Gilles Coquard needed a fretted high register because he plays lots of chords, hence the low end fretless. I tried a half fretless 5 strings Leduc a few weeks ago and didn't like the approach as the high register doesn't sing as much as the low one on a fretless. Quote
deepbass5 Posted August 9, 2018 Posted August 9, 2018 The above picture of the higher register notes fretless has been done successfully on other basses, but what you original suggestion of returning to frets higher up would just choke on the frets above the action would be very awkward, I have often considered a custom bass with just frets to 5th or 6th similar to above but wonder if it would be best to just get a fretless and done with it. There are bound to be others on here who have part de -fretted. Quote
EMG456 Posted August 10, 2018 Posted August 10, 2018 Never seen it but it could surely be done. Since you'd be spending a bit of money, to do it properly so the bass played well and consistently, the action would need to be the same over the transitions from fretted to fretless. so the fingerboard would have to be higher by almost the height of the chosen fretwire at the fretless section and lower at the two fretted areas. would pose an interesting luthiery challenge I suppose... I'd love to see and try it if you ever go ahead but on a practical note, anytime I've modded an instrument to fulfil some odd esoteric notion I had, it has always proved to be not as useful in the real world as I had imagined and ends up being sold off at a large financial loss. YMMV! 1 Quote
Sambrook Posted August 10, 2018 Author Posted August 10, 2018 7 hours ago, EMG456 said: Never seen it but it could surely be done. Since you'd be spending a bit of money, to do it properly so the bass played well and consistently, the action would need to be the same over the transitions from fretted to fretless. so the fingerboard would have to be higher by almost the height of the chosen fretwire at the fretless section and lower at the two fretted areas. would pose an interesting luthiery challenge I suppose... I'd love to see and try it if you ever go ahead but on a practical note, anytime I've modded an instrument to fulfil some odd esoteric notion I had, it has always proved to be not as useful in the real world as I had imagined and ends up being sold off at a large financial loss. YMMV! Unfortunately, you're bang on there. The Leduc with the lower half fretted looks good, though but Quote
Shaggy Posted August 10, 2018 Posted August 10, 2018 (edited) 23 hours ago, Happy Jack said: In my head, the lower (bass) strings should be fretted and the higher (treble) strings should be the fretless ones ... Yup, Kramer were doing this a while ago........ https://reverb.com/uk/item/3560547-kramer-dmz-4000-bass-guitar-metal-neck-half-fretted-half-fretless-from-1979-added-photos edit: oops sorry Happy Jack, mis-read strings as frets....... Edited August 10, 2018 by Shaggy Quote
fleabag Posted August 10, 2018 Posted August 10, 2018 Jones with a small mention of the Gretsch he filed the frets down on https://www.bassplayer.com/artists/percy-jones-on-the-return-of-brand-x Quote
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