Half Fretless?

[Bass_masta16]

So, I was thinking..


What if you took, say.. A MIM Jazz, and from the 12th fret up, you defretted it, so you would have a fretted bass up to 12, then from 12 to whatever it was fretless (or vise-versa).

Has anyone ever done this? Can anyone think of any problems it may cause?

I don't know.. I'm just brain storming..

EDIT: Wow, I'm sorry..

I thought I checked well, but I guess not.. Found what I was looking for..

My bad

[Mike Shevlin]

The frets do sit off the fingerboard, so the action above the 12th would have to be higher - that may screw up intonation.

[JustDavid]

Intonation can be solved on-the-fly; fretless.

[JTE]

Yeah, it's been done. I think it was a Kramer bass in the early '80s that was half-fretless, up to the 8th or 10th fret or so. Problem I see is that most people's intonation is better at the low frets (parallax and less room for error at the higher end of the fingerboard) than the high notes. But it would work.

jte

[john m]

I've seen it done with the addition of leave fret 22 (or 24) to allow for fretted slapping.

john m

[JustDavid]

Anyone seen one done 'side-to-side'? A 6 string strung EADfretless+EADfretted?

[Eric Moesle]

You wouldn't get the desired fretless "mwah" sound, since the strings would sit too high off the neck in order to have proper action for the fretted part.

[Mike Shevlin]

Originally Posted by Eric Moesle

You wouldn't get the desired fretless "mwah" sound, since the strings would sit too high off the neck in order to have proper action for the fretted part.

That's kind of what I was getting at - I referred to it as intonation. I kind of meant MWAH!

[deaf pea]

Originally Posted by Eric Moesle

You wouldn't get the desired fretless "mwah" sound, since the strings would sit too high off the neck in order to have proper action for the fretted part.

That's why the fingerboard would need to be lowered for the fretted section of the neck . . . the tops of the frets need to be at the same height as the fretless fingerbord section . . . see the attached picture . . .
That mod was done in 1996 (IIRC) by Carlos Carbajal in Mexico City.

[deaf pea]

There's more info at
Twelve Frets...Twelve No Frets. Have You Seen This Bass?
FS/FT Fender Squire MB-5 fretted/lined-fretless

[JustDavid]

If that's referring to my EADEAD thought, taking the fretless side of the nut down would resolve that issue.

[millsbass5]

It's been done,here's a link:http://www.brownsguitarfactory.com

[Johnny Mack]

my contribution:

[b4nny]

Originally Posted by Johnny Mack

my contribution: