Anyone remember the interchangable 'magnetic' fretboard?

[AphekGreg]

I never played one, but remember reading about them. Always seemed like a good idea, but wondered how well it would work in practice. Now I know..... not well.

There was a prototype Steinberger on eBay a while ago, with a big knob beyond the first fret, what retracted the frets so it could be fretless. Would have had incredibly high action when fretless.

 

[mr sprocket]

The reason the Novatone system failed is because they had to plane a flat surface on the top of the neck to mount the stainless steel plate that the fingerboards would stick to. On Fenders, due to the thin curved fingerboard, this resulted in removing too much wood above the truss rod. When you went to tighten the rod, the rod would push up through the top of the neck!!!

Very poorly conceived idea.

I still have 3 of their fingerboards!!!

Roger

This is correct. They did this mod to one of my guitars at cost on the agreement I would play it out and let other people in the area come check out the guitar. It was a big chunk of the neck gone. The stainless fretless fretboard was really cool for playing with an ebow. I ended up replacing the neck and selling the guitar later.

 

[davidjbass]

One of my teachers at BIT had one back in 87 on his jazz bass. I thought is was really cool when he changed the fretboard from fretted to fretless in a matter of minutes.

 

[spade2you]

One of my teachers at BIT had one back in 87 on his jazz bass. I thought is was really cool when he changed the fretboard from fretted to fretless in a matter of minutes.

LOL, all the effort and it still takes a few minutes.

The idea of a fretted and fretless bass in one is neato, but the effort to do so is a bit much. So far, the only "guarantee" is a double neck, which obviously presents other problems.

 

[bkbirge]

My opinion on why these went nowhere besides the tech issues is that if you've played fretless for any length of time you can make it sound like a fretted so there kind of isn't really the need for the quick change action. The market just probably wasn't as big as they were hoping.

 

[ex-tension]

not interchangable, not fretless but also 'magnetic' and removable:
Invalid Link Removed

 

[Brother Goose]

I owned one of these for years and it has finally found a home in a very strange and funky bass my friend owns. Stainless steel fretless- what a mean sound!

 

[bassbones2]

had a schecter bass in the 80's with this. Had intonation issues with the fretted board and it was fragile. Sold it to a kid then I moved away….visited several years later and went to a high school football game and the marching band guy was using the very same bass with the mirror fretless board…..surprise!!

Don't miss it

JB

 

[BuckeyeBassman]

I am fortunate to have two of Randy's 4 string convertible fretted/fretless basses. The build quality is beyond any other bass I have played and these are absolutely the best basses I own.

After years of trial and experimentation, Randy's system has been awarded a patent. Many cool features but not easy to make these basses. For example, to go from fretted to fretless mode with a compound radius neck, every fret has to be individually machined to a different height.

I am not a good fretless player and IMO these instruments are awesome learning tools. I can switch instantly back and forth between fretted and fretless modes to check intonation. Also if I find myself drifting off pitch in the middle of a performance in fretless mode, no problem, push the lever and the frets rise - bang, back in tune. I have had occasions to switch modes in the middle of a tune because of the changes in an arrangement or can easily switch modes anytime during a set.

Since the convertible bass is essentially the same (strings, woods, electronics, etc.) regardless of mode, the differences when switching are be more subtle than with separate fretted and fretless basses.

However, I have some very nice fretless basses that sit in the corner because I don't have the chops. With the convertible basses - I can have some fretless chops instantly!

 

[Wade Craver]

Just in case anyone follows this thread.
Here's an odd one. 77 precision novatone, mim jazz body with a claw bridge.

 

[Jaime Poole]

I was in a band years ago playing guitar and the bass player had, if I remember correctly, a G&L or Musicman w/ the option of using a fretted board or fretless board. The fretless board was marked. Funky for sure. Anyone remember or have one of these?

 

[Jaime Poole]

I worked for Novatone in Fairfield Iowa. I had my own G&L L2000 retrofitted with a glow in the dark fretless fingerboard as well as a stainless steel one and several others. I did final setup work on them before they left the shop. I was 18 years old at the time. I had one of the white glow in the dark ones. Remember doing one of the mods on the bass player’s basses in Foghat. It came in with some extra “party favors” in the case!

 

[Sadowsky]

Repeat of my original post......I still have two fretless fingerboard from the early 80's. The problem with Novatone was this...by planing off the fingerboard to mount the flat steel plate, the neck lost all of the resistance for the truss rod that the wood fingerboard provided. As a result, the truss rods were pushing up and out of the neck. Pretty surprising they did not realize this would happen from the get-go.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I was in a band years ago playing guitar and the bass player had, if I remember correctly, a G&L or Musicman w/ the option of using a fretted board or fretless board. The fretless board was marked. Funky for sure. Anyone remember or have one of these?

There was a band I saw at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the mid '00s; the bassist had such a system on whatever boutique bass it was he was sporting.