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When is a fretless not a fretless?


Happy Jack
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I bought an Ovation Magnum III last year, the first I've ever played or owned, and I loved it so much that I decided to go looking for an Ovation Magnum II - that's the one with the strange body shape and the 3-band EQ for a tone control.

I found one in a pawn shop in Louisiana and, astonishingly, it appeared to be a factory fretless with a macassar fingerboard. So I bought it.

I've just finished cleaning it up (it needed it, it really needed it) and re-stringing it, tuned it up, tried to play it, and my intonation was all over the shop.

It didn't take me long to realise that the dots on the neck were in the fretted positions so - crudely - about a quarter tone out for a fretless. Ah, so it's a de-fretted bass then? 

Well, no. There's not a blemish on the fingerboard, absolutely no evidence that frets have been removed at some point or that any work has been done to it. OK, it's been shaved then?

Well, no. Not unless someone managed to source exactly the right dot markers for the newly-shaved fingerboard, and then installed them in the wrong (i.e. fretted) positions!

I have to say that I am completely baffled. The only theory that seems to fit would be that someone abducted a neck from the Ovation production line after it had received its dots but before it had the frets installed (Was that the production sequence? Damfino.) and used that to create an unofficial fretless.

That makes no sense to me at all, and I wouldn't have taken the trouble to type it out if I could think of any other explanation.

The bass works well, plays beautifully, and sounds magnificent. I've used permanent Sharpie to black out the misleading side dots and I can't see the fingerboard dots when I'm playing, so there's no actual 'problem' here.

But I'm curious. What on earth has gone on here?

Any ideas?
 
 
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According to my friend Christophe Leduc (THE French luthier), dots in the fretted position on early fretless basses is very common. The only non arguable explanation is that putting dots in the fretted position didn't need to interfere in the "automated" process of manufacturers. So if there were dots on the neck they would be in wrong position. That said, I owned a very early Fender Precision bass that had this issue. After all, if you play fretless, you play with your ears, not your eyes is what everybody was thinking at the time, so no dots or in the wrong position doesn't matter.

Now, you've got the answer.

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Easy solution, just don't look at your fingerboard or fingers!  

Incidentally, many years ago when I had our local guitar makers (Northworthy) make me a fretless neck, they asked if I wanted the dots "as normal" or "on the note" and I had them "on the note"; apparently some people who look at the side dots on a fretted find shifted dots on a fretless confusing.  After all, fretted or fretless you are supposed to put your fingers very nearly in the same place. 

I think if I had a fretted bass made I'd have the side dots on the frets rather than between frets - whereas on my fretted Warwick (which started life as a fretless) the dots have been very carefully, and neatly, moved to between frets.  Hey ho.

PS: lovely photos (as usual) Sylvia :¬)

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Guessing at a factory prototype? 

Having said that, my Yamaha TRB 5 II has much the same problem - side dots in the wrong place.  I may have to do something with Tippex (carefully masked) in the right places, it would make it a lot easier to play.

Edited by alyctes
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