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Half-fretted basses

#21
Calaverasgrande said:
I'd think the opposite woudl make more sense. After all the higher on the neck you go the closer togehter the notes are, so a tiny amount of difference is more out of intonation. I spend more time on the sub-12th fret zone, and never ahd a problem keeping those in tune anyway. But when you are playing high and fast, it would be nice to have them frets.
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the point would be to use those frets for a different sound since i dont use them otherwise. big warm sounding fretless on the same bass as sharp fretted sounds.
 
#22
I knew a local musician years ago who pulled all of the frets above the 12th on his P bass lyte. It worked very well for him. I would buy something dirt cheap and defret it rather than buy something custom just in case it turns out not to be your cup of tea.
 
#24
I'm not sure how you'd get the action set properly for a mixed fretted/fretless bass, except perhaps with frets on lower strings and no frets on upper. If you want mwah, which to me is why you want a fretless, the action needs to be low, the neck very straight with little relief, and lighter guage strings. With frets below the 12th you'll need enough relief and string height to clear the frets, and getting mwah above the 12th will be tough. I guess it's possible, but not likely to be a great playing fretless given all the tradeoffs.
 
#26
Denial said:
I'm not sure how you'd get the action set properly for a mixed fretted/fretless bass, except perhaps with frets on lower strings and no frets on upper. If you want mwah, which to me is why you want a fretless, the action needs to be low, the neck very straight with little relief, and lighter guage strings.
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Ask an upright player if that's true.

On electric bass, I use heavy gauge strings with relatively high action and I get plenty of mwah. There are two ways to get mwah:

1. Super low action that basically results in the string vibrating along a significant lenght of the fretless board; and
2. Dig in there and create it yourself rather than letting the bass create it for you.

For the most part, I belong to camp #2.
 
#27
queevil said:
I knew a local musician years ago who pulled all of the frets above the 12th on his P bass lyte. It worked very well for him. I would buy something dirt cheap and defret it rather than buy something custom just in case it turns out not to be your cup of tea.
Click to expand...

I saw this bass up for sale on cl Dallas.
 
#28
FretlessMainly,

I hear you. I've had one bass like that with higher action that did get great mwah, but it took a lot of work. I've found, for me at least, that the lower action/lighter strings lets me get mwah easily when I want it, and a quick right hand position change to the bridge lets me dial it out when I don't want it. For me at least, this was easier than working so hard to get that singing mwah tone. But as always, your mileage may vary.:)
 
#29
Yeah, just wanted to point that out. I went from fretted bass in 1980 to upright in 1992 and back to fretless electric in 2000, so I like to dig in. Actually, I always did; regardless of ever having played the upright, which I still do on a limited basis.

But to your point about the frets being in lower positions, it strikes me that you're correct about them being a problem. Wouldn't a fret at, say, the fifth or seventh fret position act as a zero fret when stopping a fretless note just above it, effectively reducing overall string length and changing the pitch of the note? I would think so.

I dunno; a half fretted and fretless isn't something I'd ever go for.
 
#31
FretlessMainly said:
Wouldn't a fret at, say, the fifth or seventh fret position act as a zero fret when stopping a fretless note just above it, effectively reducing overall string length and changing the pitch of the note? I would think so.

I dunno; a half fretted and fretless isn't something I'd ever go for.
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Exactly. I think it is tough enough to set up a fretless, let alone having some frets to worry about and their impact on the setup.
 
#32
FretlessMainly said:
Wouldn't a fret at, say, the fifth or seventh fret position act as a zero fret when stopping a fretless note just above it, effectively reducing overall string length and changing the pitch of the note? I would think so.
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Not if the fretless part of the fingerboard is flush with the top of the frets on the fretted part - which is the only thing that makes sense if you want to combine the two things :)
 
#33
I had custom made MM with bottom half fretless - jumbo frets, but the top half was lowered for couple of mms. Worked good, fretless really sang and slapping was good too.

You could do it without lowering top half - just use very low frets...
 
#34
Denial said:
FretlessMainly,

I hear you. I've had one bass like that with higher action that did get great mwah, but it took a lot of work. I've found, for me at least, that the lower action/lighter strings lets me get mwah easily when I want it, and a quick right hand position change to the bridge lets me dial it out when I don't want it. For me at least, this was easier than working so hard to get that singing mwah tone. But as always, your mileage may vary.:)
Click to expand...

I get the theory of what you are saying but my experience is that basses setup as you describe don't sing as much. Also too- light strings sound thin.

Possibly we are going for different ideas of mwahhh. I go for a midrange kind of sound and that brings my mwahhh out ok .

For me that alone kills the half fretless idea since i eq a fretless differently.
 
#36
here is a photo of a Sei bass 'custom' made to the owners specification. The photo shows everything, not quite fretted forst 12 frets and fretless the next 12, but a different take on the idea.

flamboyftfl-1.jpg


regards

Matthew
 
#37
Denial said:
Fingerbun,

I'm thinking Jaco or Mark Egan type mwah. Bridge pickup, lots of mids. The lighter strings do require a lighter touch. I use 35-95 on my fretless, and 40 or 45 G string on my 4 and 5 string fretted basses. Are you thinking a different type of mwah, more like an upright bass?
Click to expand...

Jaco / Pino Paladino. Upright is quite a different sound... lots more breath in it.

I am a heavy player...no way could I use 35 to 95. That alone probably explains the difference in our experience. All my basses have higher than normal action.
 

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