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Fret(less) bass - the heck is this?

Its been posted before. Very cool bass. The frets are simply hooked up to a lever underneath the fretboard, and when the switch is flipped, the lever releases the frets.

Awesome idea, and a pretty good bassist playing it to boot.
 
It's been done before.I forget which company.But,it was a fairly big guitar company that made them(I don't even recall if it even went past the proto-type stage).It didn't have the lever deal going on,though.You had to twist a knob.This seems a lot quicker.I wonder how it sounds up against traditionally fretted basses?What I mean is:When the frets are engaged,does it have as much sustain as a regularly-fretted bass?
 
This bass hasn't been posted in a while. For a while it was a once a per week or more type of thing. Anyway, decent concept, although you're really left with a fretless with high action. It's also pretty darn expensive, to the point where you could easily get a nice fretless and nice fretted bass for about the same money.