Planning to make my jaguar half fretless. am i crazy?

andybass23 · #1 05-10-2009, 12:27 PM

well i got this idea from watch les claypool and his crazy basses. anyway my idea is to make my neck defretted from the 12/13th fret onwards this way my solos will be abit more slippery and flowing. has this been done before? if so why dont people do it?

snyderz · #2 05-10-2009, 12:34 PM

If this is a RI Jaguar, sounds cool. If it is a vintage, please step away from the bass.

pilotjones · #3 05-10-2009, 12:36 PM

Yes, it's been done.

andybass23 · #4 05-10-2009, 12:42 PM

cool. got any pics of how they look? and yeah its RI so i might just do it ill post pics if i do

andybass23 · #5 05-10-2009, 12:43 PM

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2131/...b594461925.jpg got a pic

tdogg · #6 05-10-2009, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andybass23

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2131/...b594461925.jpg got a pic

wierd

138BASS · #7 05-10-2009, 06:22 PM

Yeah it's definitely been done before. I remember seeing a steinberger on ebay awhile back that was only fretted to the 5th fret, if I remember right according to the listing supposedly it was a prototype for John Taylor from duran duran. Antother way I've seen this done is to only fret half of the board like this . . .

Trey Gunn plays a custom Warr/Touch guitar that is setup like this, you can see it on their Eyes Wide Open DVD or here. . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8xLsZh2v2g
to get a good look at it you gotta watch the whole video or fast forward to 3:26

pilotjones · #8 05-10-2009, 06:31 PM

pics in both these threads, one from 2002(!)

First bass in planning... I have a few questions.

Double function bass necks.

JulienJeff · #9 05-13-2009, 01:59 PM

funny, because I dreamed about the exact same thing last night...

ehque · #10 05-13-2009, 03:26 PM

Bad idea, only because your 12th fret becomes your nut for the rest of the fingerboard, a nut that will be high and hard to play on. Probably not as doable with heavy strings.

bassteban · #11 05-13-2009, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ehque

Bad idea, only because your 12th fret becomes your nut for the rest of the fingerboard, a nut that will be high and hard to play on. Probably not as doable with heavy strings.

Good point, but you just need to raise the finerboard level to the same as the fret tops. Veneer it, then plane it nice & smooth.

pilotjones · #12 05-13-2009, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassteban

Good point, but you just need to raise the finerboard level to the same as the fret tops.

Which would then make it an implementation of Brown's patent.

bassteban · #13 05-13-2009, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotjones

Which would then make it an implementation of Brown's patent.

Well, are we talking one dude's bass on TB, or actually producing a bunch for sale?

J. Crawford · #14 05-13-2009, 04:33 PM

I posted a thread about this a while ago.

We determined that he fretless part of a bass like this, say Johnny Brownes bass, has a raised 12th and up fret. If you were to defret the octave and above, the action would be very high.

This was just a problem I ran into, though I never built the bass I planned on.

EDIT: D'oh, didnt see this had been posted. I didnt know Johnny patented the idea.

Rickett Customs · #15 05-13-2009, 04:43 PM

You so crazy.....

troyus · #16 05-16-2009, 09:36 AM

I would say do not do it, the jaguar neck is worth a lot of money, buy yourself an 89 dollar sx jazz bass, try it on that.

tdogg · #17 05-16-2009, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troyus

I would say do not do it, the jaguar neck is worth a lot of money, buy yourself an 89 dollar sx jazz bass, try it on that.

+ a bajillion!

stflbn · #18 05-16-2009, 08:13 PM

Just buy a cheap fretless. It inevitably will be better than anything you half-arsed do to your Jaguar.