Well, I Thought I'd Seen It All

[stewblack]

[Doctor J]

Toastocaster?

[TheGreek]

Seen worse...

Sunburnt???

Edited November 16, 2020 by TheGreek

[stewblack]

Not the finish so much, I like that, it's the fretboard. 

[Newfoundfreedom]

3 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Not the finish so much, I like that, it's the fretboard. 

Would be fine for me. I rarely venture above the 7th fret anyway. 😂

[Doctor J]

That used to be not quite popular, but not totally unheard of in the late 80's/early 90's. I saw a couple of bands who had that fretted/fretless setup.

[paul_5]

I like it, and I’m kind of curious about the half-and-half fingerboard too....

[LeftyJ]

I've seen more attempts at this, but the problem is usually getting the action high enough so the few frets it has don't buzz, and low enough so fretless playing is still comfortable. Ibanez made a signature bass for Alphonso Johnson in the early 1980s based on the Musician MC924 but with only 12 frets, called the AJ10. Not a huge success... 

Fun gimmick for people who genuinely don't venture above the 7th fret and like to show that off.

Edited November 16, 2020 by LeftyJ

[stewblack]

5 minutes ago, paul_5 said:

I like it, and I’m kind of curious about the half-and-half fingerboard too....

Guy who made it advertises on FB 

[Doctor J]

Cronos went fretless from the 12th fret on many of his basses in the 80's

[Ricky 4000]

I have a general dislike of combination items.

[Reggaebass]

You could take 2 frets off and I’d still be ok 😄

[Doctor J]

56 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Seen worse...

Sunburnt???

Flametop?

[paul_5]

55 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Guy who made it advertises on FB 

This particular example is only 300€.

[3below]

I also rather like the finish  

[stewblack]

1 minute ago, 3below said:

I also rather like the finish  

I'm having a tele bass made (not yet, fundraising still) and the only thing I specifically asked for was at least some part of the body to have been burned. Preferably quite badly! 

[OliverBlackman]

So, is no one going to mention the scratch plate?

[3below]

1 minute ago, OliverBlackman said:

So, is no one going to mention the scratch plate?

My replacement scratch plate was in the shopping cart from the off

 

[Drax]

14 minutes ago, OliverBlackman said:

So, is no one going to mention the scratch plate?

That was my first thought. It's the most immediate 'wrong'  when you see it 

[TheLowDown]

What I'd like to know is, are the side dots on the fretless end where the frets should be? I think that bass would work much better if it was the other way around, and the fretted part was after the 12th fret where it's really difficult to intonate.

On YouTube a few months ago, I saw a demo of a bass that can switch between fretted and fretless at the click of a switch. Quite funky!

Edited November 16, 2020 by TheLowDown

[Baloney Balderdash]

That fretboard is indeed quite an oddity.

Not sure how I feel about the pickguard either, but I absolutely love the burned natural finish of it.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[Doctor J]

20 minutes ago, TheLowDown said:

 I think that bass would work much better if it was the other way around, and the fretted part was after the 12th fret where it's really difficult to intonate.

The action would have to be insanely high for the strings not to make contact with the frets when you were playing fretless.

[TheLowDown]

1 hour ago, Doctor J said:

The action would have to be insanely high for the strings not to make contact with the frets when you were playing fretless.

With frets, the action is going to be high no matter what.

[Doctor J]

To a point, but nowhere near what it would be like with the fretless section at the nut. With the frets towards the dusty end of the neck, the fretless part would be mostly useless as there would effectively be a large step between where your finger holds the string down and the witness point of the bridge. The closer to the frets you would play, the higher the action would need to be to clear the fret. If you can't visualise it, try put a coin lying on your 12th fret and try hold the string down at the 7th fret and see if the string clears it 😉

[Baloney Balderdash]

5 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

With frets, the action is going to be high no matter what.

At this point I have hard time believing you are not joking.... 

Seriously?.... 

It's all most on the same level as in don't understanding why a time machine would be so complicated to build when you can just turn the time on your watch backwards.

Answer me this, how does frets work, how come a tone is produced when you press a finger behind one of them, and what happens if your string action is too low?

It's really really basic physics to the point where it's really more of just being common sense.  

Edited November 16, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash