Yes pretty well what happens to this SR300PWF, first two "fret" positions become unplayable. You can hear the strings damping out at various other notes across all strings. Going to persevere with this bass as my instinct tells me the truss is not doing its job as intended ie no real "pre load" against the string tension. What i also noticed was that in front of a gas convection heater, the Ebonol very quickly expanded from front heating while the rear layer remained cooler.
This had the effect of making the bass unplayable within a minute or less. The expanding front layer would arc the finger board backwards towards the neck wood and you could hear the notes damping out as it heated. Let cool down the notes returned.
Another "issue", the fretlines and dot markers are not uniform in height across the Ebonol finger board, dots are sunken and lines are ever so slightly raised. Like the idea of a lineless finger board, though what really is a nice trick for the audience ( other bass players... ) is having what looks like a fretted bass that sounds like a fretless! You need to get very close to the Ibby SR300F to see its a fretless.
Actualy smitten by fretless bass after 34 years of fretted, going to make some myself. One of the reasons the SR300 does not fuss me too much, can replace the bolt on neck worst case. Factored in just such a situation if i did not like the fretless ie turn it into a freted.
Thank you Bill** for the information and experience you had. Regards John
