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Neuser Fretless System bridge?

adouglas

adouglas

Jun 23, 2003
555
3
Bridgeport, CT
www.recumbents.com
#1
Has anyone seen or tried this gadget?

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The website is not all that enlightening...the PDF that's available there is more informative.

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Apparently it's an individual-string type bridge (i.e. one bridge unit for each string...you install five of them for a five-string bass) that has some sort of mechanism inside it. You slide the cover and it alters the sound, simulating a fretless. The sound clip on the site is fairly convincing.

I'm guessing that what it does is allow the string to vibrate across the bridge fulcrum point when engaged, sort of sitar-like.

Allparts carries them.

No way will this ever sound like a real fretless, but it does sound pretty cool (at least the clip sounds cool). I do play fretless somewhat, but only on a few songs...the idea of not having to switch instruments (and carry an extra bass) is appealing.
 
#4
Rhythmalism said:
It runs cross-grain with my theory that more gear is better though :D.
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True, and a fake fretless will never sound as good as the real thing.

IMO, it sounds great if you're not sliding and really worried about intonation, but try being perfect on an upright bass, then complain ;)... Honestly, you can hear the frets, sliding up and down happens in perfect half steps. Can't do that on a fretless.

I'm not big on things that simulate other things. IMO it's all technique and gear, and some effects.
 
#5
Showdown said:
...Or vibrato. Only the tone itself.
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Sure you can do vibrato! Guitar style, pull the string up and down.

Heck, I think the concept is pretty cool. Only problem I find is that it might dampen harmonics pretty bad. That and it's not actually fretless. Neuser's advertisement is a bid of a farce, "Learn how to play fretless in one day!" Uh, no.
 
#10
tplyons said:
Why is the black so much cheaper than chrome and gold? Shouldn't it be much closer?
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Um....check the Allparts bridge page. The three versions have a spread of $10-20 between them.

I agree about the limitations vis a vis a real fretless, and about the lame advertising claim. But for certain requirements it could work well...There are two or maybe three songs in my band's gig list that I use fretless on...so I have to lug a second instrument that I only get to use for maybe ten minutes on a given night, plus I have to swap instruments in the middle of the set, etc. etc.

In a perfect world the fretless wins every time, of course. But it would be cool to get some of the vibe easily.

Note also that there are some interesting possibilities raised by the ability to switch any individual string to "fretless" on demand, even in the middle of a song.

I just wonder if it functions well as a bridge.
 
#11
There is a demonstration video of the NFS bridge available in YouTube. Check it out to hear the difference in sound and see how the thing works in practice. Here's the link:

Neuser Fretless System bass solo demonstration
 
#15
Interesting, the clip sounds pretty cool. If my main bass already had individual bridge pieces I would probably do a swap like that. Definatly not the real thing but better tone than I've heard on a lot fretless basses. I'm not a star fretless player by any means but I bet I could pull off a few tunes if I needed to with one of those.
 
#18
Either that or the Wayback Machine, though if the manual was stored as a PDF on the website rather than as a hosted image you may not be able to recover it. Good luck, the company has been defunct for over a decade now so any effort to keep their instruments working is to be commended.

I know the builder was Slovakian but Neuser basses were quite popular in Germany. I used to see them popping up from German sellers from time to time. If there are any good German basses resources or forums I'd suggest asking around there, you may find another owner who has the document you seek.
 
#19
India_Sierra said:
Either that or the Wayback Machine, though if the manual was stored as a PDF on the website rather than as a hosted image you may not be able to recover it. Good luck, the company has been defunct for over a decade now so any effort to keep their instruments working is to be commended.

I know the builder was Slovakian but Neuser basses were quite popular in Germany. I used to see them popping up from German sellers from time to time. If there are any good German basses resources or forums I'd suggest asking around there, you may find another owner who has the document you seek.
Click to expand...
Wayback Machine and Internet Archive are the same thing. Archive.org
 
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