Sorry if it has been discussed before, I searched but couldn't find it…
Anyone have seen this before?
Magic Fret
Anyone have seen this before?
Magic Fret
Last edited:
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
If not this take specifically I'm pretty sure a similar idea has been posted about before.
Can it also automatically correct the action height? The strings need to drop, when fretless, by the height of the frets.
That's a good point.
The other day I was "thinking about impossible dream gear" like I often do before sleeping, and I was thinking "how could a bass could be both fretless ans fretted?". The first thing that came to my mind spontaneously was the fretboard going up rather than the frets rotating down.
That would be a nightmare to maintain. The strings will eat away at the wood, but not at the frets, creating buzz galore.
That must have been the name of the guy that originally wired this old house...
Seems a bit like another shot at the impossible dream of the airplane-car.
It drove like a car.
It flew like a plane.
But… it really didn’t do either one particularly well.
It drove like a car.
It flew like a plane.
But… it really didn’t do either one particularly well.
As long as you don't re-open the PJ discussion all is well
I haven't seen this one before, but there was at least one other system from probably at least 10 years ago that did something similar (except the frets didn't rotate — they just dropped). Aside from the questions about uneven fingerboard/fret wear, I wonder how these systems to with changes in weather and wood expansion contraction. This system in particular looks very complicated (I'd love to see how the mechanism works), and seems like a little bit of wood expansion ould make it non-functional. It also costs $3000, and the neck can't have a radius.
This kind of seems like a solution looking for a problem. The number of times people are going to NEED a fretless and fretted bass is pretty low, and switching basses between songs really isn't a big deal. And at $3000 (plus the cost of the instrument), it's not saving anyone any money.
This kind of seems like a solution looking for a problem. The number of times people are going to NEED a fretless and fretted bass is pretty low, and switching basses between songs really isn't a big deal. And at $3000 (plus the cost of the instrument), it's not saving anyone any money.
For $3K you can get two Marcus Miller Sire basses (one with frets and one without...neither with a flat finger board) and still have enough money left over for FOUR MORE BASSES
1. What everyone else said 2. How easy it is it to replace the frets? 3. Its an Over engineered fix to non existent problem
I don't remember who had it but there was a bass with different fingerboards that were held on magnetically.
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/anyone-remember-the-interchangable-magnetic-fretboard.806658/
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/anyone-remember-the-interchangable-magnetic-fretboard.806658/
An expensive solution looking for a real problem.
Yea. Even if you never played it at all, the wood would expand and contract but the frets would not. It even happens on fretless basses with plastic inlay fretlines. You end up with a little speedbump that needs to be periodically filed down. I've had to do it on my Pedulla many times.
Not to mention adjusting the nut height as well.
My Gary Willis bass has plastic lines. When I bought it, it had been stored in a dry environment for about a year. After a couple of months in my house the wood expanded again and it's free of bumps. But every winter I pray it doesn't become a dry winter.
