Idea for multi-scale fretless

[monsterthompson]

If he hadn't discussed this on here first, he would have had a shot at a patent - the other criteria are not that hard to satisfy in this case (I have a bunch of patents, so I know the criteria fairly well). The toughest thing in those criteria in this case is that multi scale patents may have been written broadly enough that this is already covered (a smart patent lawyer has probably already patented multi scales in general, not just the ones where the lower tuned strings are longer). if that's the case, you've lost "novel" so you're dead in the water. Either way, discussing your invention in public - even just once (an online forum is definitely public) means the idea is no longer patentable, as it's in the public domain. So, next idea you have that you think might be patentable, don't tell us until after you've filed for a patent. One of my patents (the coolest idea I ever had during my career), the idea was rolling around in my head for 15 or 20 years before we started working on it - there was a problem that I couldn't resolve, but when we started making the first prototype, the solution erupted in my brain in the wee hours one morning. As I didn't talk about it with anyone outside my company before we filed, we were able to patent that idea. Now, if only my company (I have since retired) were to make that product.....

Appreciate the feedback from someone who has been there and done that. My amateur/layman read would be that it isn’t new/novel or “not obvious” in that this sounds like flipping the orientation of the neck & strings based what is already being used for fanned fret designs. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the OP, and/or don’t know enough about how new/novel/obvious are defined in this area. Thanks.

Editing to add this Shaw quote. It doesn’t mean that all unreasonable thoughts result in progress, but that you might have to be somewhat unreasonable change the world.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

I'm having a hard time following this - or at least the thought process.

Unless this is a physical limitation you have, it sounds more like a technique issue.

Even if you were to find a reverse-fan fretless instrument, it likely won't align perfectly with your "natural" hand position throughout the length of the fingerboard.
You will still need to adapt and make fine adjustments, just as people playing unlined/unmarked "fretless" instruments have been doing for centuries .

how hard can relearning be, right?

Possibly harder than learning conventional techniques would be.
Or it might be entirely possible that you're the guy that invents the next evolution in (fretless) bass guitar. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I mean all of this in only the best possible sense...

 

[ardgedee]

The toughest thing in those criteria in this case is that multi scale patents may have been written broadly enough that this is already covered (a smart patent lawyer has probably already patented multi scales in general, not just the ones where the lower tuned strings are longer).

Ralph Novak's patent is pretty broad. It doesn't specify handedness, only that the high strings are shorter than the low strings, so flipping a Dingwall over and playing it Mononeon-style is not going to be the one cool trick that evades the existing (expired!) patent. It does repeatedly specify frets though...

Last I heard, Dingwall still pays Ralph Novak royalties for his patent. They don't legally have to, they're being good folks helping out a colleague because Novak has medical problems.

Apparently 20 years ago (while the Novak patent was still active) a Brit also patented multiscales (old TalkBass thread about it), his awarded largely on grounds of having a more accurate way of calculating fret positions, but also might suffer from excessive specificity because it also gets into details about construction methods.

 

[logdrum]

Just train your ear or learn to modulate your fingers raise the action a bit and just play a regular 35 scale fretless. You canake the B sound as incredible with setup and most importantly with technique.

Your suggestion defeats the purpose of a multiscale

 

[Gino t]

this guy, who makes phenomenal instruments, made a multiscale fretless, with conventional tuning, not a great pic but COntrol-F for it

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[Ricky Rioli]

So here we are (sort of)

A lefty neck, with the nut left as it is, the bridge and pickups angled as for the lefty neck.

A righty body, but routed for the different bridge and pickups.

The fat long B string nearest to the floor, the short thin G string nearest to the players face.

I reckon that would be no more of a problem for the brain than learning D Standard was