I was surfing the youtube when i came across a peculiar video, In the video the guy has a bass that goes from fretted to fretless with the flick of a switch. I was wondering where you would get a bass like this one, and or who makes it. Here's the link
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Holy crap I got to get one of these. Fretted to fretless content
- Thread starter JCorner
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ibanezcollector
Yoyo's Hurt When You Crank It Into Your Face
that is pretty cool but 5K no way... I keep hearing frets when he plays that means one thing to me.. Its going to buzz like a pack of wild bees when the frets are up.. Especially with time..
- Nov 29, 2007
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It is an amazing idea but to me, if it was giving up nothing to either instrument there would be many choices by many manufacturers available.
That is nuts... you know I've wondered from time to time if something like this were possible, I guess it is!
$3200 for the 4 string P/J... Really not that bad, considering.
Edit: also, no refret necessary... He uses stainless. I'm actually thinking about doing this...
Edit: also, no refret necessary... He uses stainless. I'm actually thinking about doing this...
I've seen these basses before and I like the idea but I wonder if this guy has a patent on the idea since he seems to be the only one with this option, plus I wonder if there would be any neck dive or if this would be a 15 lb. bass due to the added materials in the neck to raise and lower the frets.
ibanezcollector
Yoyo's Hurt When You Crank It Into Your Face
Never thought of that in order to have the strings high enough for the fretted aspect you would in return have high action for the fretless part..
Makes sense..
Guess its a trade off..
WHOS GOING TO BE THE GUINEA PIG?
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LOL, not I. Don't get me wrong, the idea is pretty wicked, just not feasible. For the price you can easily own a killer fretted and a killer fretless bass.
If you're looking for sustain and lots of mwahhh, it's in the action. Try a nice buzzy fretless and the distance from the fingerboard to the string is MUCH lower than the distance from the string to a fret on even the nicest of fretted basses. When ya do some math on how high the strings are off the fret and also factor in the height to the fingerboard, yup, fretless with high action.
I think these basses appeal to people because there's too much fear associated with fretless basses. In my last band, I never brought a fretted bass to a gig.
It would work if, while the frets were lowering, the bridge and nut would lower a bit too. I have an acoustic guitar that has an adjustable neck to where you can take an allen wrench and turn a screw in the back so that it lowers the entire neck up and down without moving the bridge or the nut. It just pivots where the neck connects to the body. The intonation stays the same but the action is lowered or raised right there on the spot without turning the truss rod or lowering the saddles. It's quite an innovative instrument. Maybe these basses can adopt a method kind of like that to where it would allow you to adjust the action on the fly.
If the action lowered from the nut and bridge, you'd also drop the pitch. By the time the parts could raise or lower and retune, still easier to grab a second bass.
LOL, physics just ain't in our favor for this one.Would the high nut on a bass like the one in question really make that much of a difference because honestly after listening to the sound quality in the video it seems pretty solid. I liked the fretless tone from it more.
I for one don't mind fretless with high action, but my taste is out of the norm on that one.
Would that be a Michael Kelly "Visionary" Guitar? Interesting. I was looking at one of those the other day. How's it sound?
No, it's actually a Babicz. He's a lesser known luthier but a very good one. He used to work for Steinberger and then went on to start his own company, I believe. His "Spyder" acoustic guitar was voted by Guitar World as the Guitar of the Year a few years back. He's getting more and more popular but his innovation and different ways of building the guitar aren't really taking off yet. In a few years I'm betting on his name being a a pretty big one. He's got some great designs. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Sorry about the guitar talk. Carry on bass brethren!!!
