Odd Duck NBD

[red_rhino]

This one is unusual. An Ibanez MC924H - half fretted, half fretless. From the early 80’s I believe. My son-in-law gave it to me. He moved to short scale basses and hasn’t played this in a very long time. There’s another thread about these here on TB. This one needs a bit of TLC. Not sure what to do with it, but I can at least share some pics.

 

[eee]

Drop tuner on the G? Wacky! Still, what a cool bass

 

[Flamingo21]

Drop tuner on the G?

Dang! That's it. I was staring at the tuners, wondering what was up.

 

[C Stone]

Very cool bass and cool of your son-in-law to pass it your way. I have been thinking about making a fretted/fretless hybrid fir years.

 

[Thummel]

I remember those, very cool!

 

[henk5718]

Drop tuner on the G? Wacky! Still, what a cool bass

Its on the E btw.... ;-)

 

[Jeremy Crockett]

Its on the E btw.... ;-)

Check it again. It is on the "G". You can just see the de-tuner poking out from under the headstock in some of the longer shots.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

If one were given to me, I’d clean it up, try to find a correct replacement factory tuner to replace the whacky one, and rock it!

The bass player of a very not-so-well-known Seattle band that never broke through in the Grunge era used one on their first album, and it was pictured in the album sleeve.
I actually started a thread trying to figure out what bass it was:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/anyone-familiar-with-the-band-sage-from-seattle.1340121/

Also, an Estonian Bassist, Mai Leisz, uses a fully-Fretless one:
Mai Leisz – FretlessBass.com

 

[Green Knight]

I saw one of these a few years ago and really wanted it but could never find one for sale, so I had a Peavey T-40 modded almost just like it. I had it for a couple of years, an eternity for me. He used a downward slope from the double to the single fretboard planks to effect a seamless playing experience when transitioning to the twelfth fret. Beautiful bass you got there! Fun stuff! Except mine was reverse, fretted up top and fretless below.

 

[henk5718]

Check it again. It is on the "G". You can just see the de-tuner poking out from under the headstock in some of the longer shots.

Ach, you're absolutely right! Stupid me....

 

[Stylee Mousse]

Huh! I saw, and gigged with Sage often and don’t remember ever seeing that bass. Maybe he had already moved on from it. I do remember him rocking a kustom 315 cab at a gig we played with them at a catholic girl’s school (?!)

I think that would be a blast to play but I think I’d like it better with the sections reversed, is Fretless low section, fretted high.

 

[mtdkingstonheir]

This one is unusual. An Ibanez MC924H - half fretted, half fretless. From the early 80’s I believe. My son-in-law gave it to me. He moved to short scale basses and hasn’t played this in a very long time. There’s another thread about these here on TB. This one needs a bit of TLC. Not sure what to do with it, but I can at least share some pics.

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Really interesting Ibanez. I never seen anything like it. Congrats!

 

[red_rhino]

Huh! I saw, and gigged with Sage often and don’t remember ever seeing that bass. Maybe he had already moved on from it.

Possibly. Sage's bass player was/is Guy Davis. I did find a couple of videos from the early 90's in which he's playing it (or one like it). The video resolution and lighting is terrible, so there are no really good shots of the bass, but it appears there is no drop-tuner on the G at that time.

My son-in-law says he bought the bass on consignment from a music store in Louisville, KY around 1994. He's not sure who owned it prior. But there are so few of these in existence that it's possible the same bass somehow made its way there from Seattle (sold, resold, etc).