Thoughts on removing some frets, but not all

[jayridge]

I am one of those old-time banjo players as well as a fretless bassist. It would totally work and be awesome. The comments about intonation are accurate. Simply set it up for the fretted section. Fretless is played by ear - you will adjust to the positions with practice. I would consider going fretless at 9th fret.

 

[DavC]

maybe grind down the frets under the D, G strings ..??

half/half ...

 

[GIBrat51]

I know that some aluminum-necked Kramers could be had half-fretted. I've always kinda wanted one - just to have, really - but, they're pretty scarce. And pretty pricey when you can find one. And, as usual, I've never seen a lefty... still looking, though.

 

[The Rage]

The bassist for a really famous band in Italy did it. He has defretted his bass but leaved the first seven half frets on E and A strings for rhytmic work.

 

[Jay2U]

How about removing fret halves, so the D and G string will become fretless? Of course there's a lot of work involved in rounding the fret ends and filling the defretted board. Those two strings have to be set up lower, plus the nut has to be adjusted. There's a six string Ibanez like this. it has two sets of D and G strings.

 

[Andrew Post]

So I built a bass from a kit a while ago, it's a j-style body with a mudbucker close to the neck and a regular J bridge pickup. I'm very happy with the bass, looks, playability, and sound, but I find that I can really get all the sounds I want out of my Fender J bass and tend to prefer it, so the kit bass mostly stays in its case. So I started considering removing the frets to have a bit more variety, having done a successful job on a cheap SX short-scale some years ago. But then I started thinking about a lot of the old-time banjo players around here who only have frets on the nut end of the board, stopping in different places from the 7th to the 12th fret. Thought maybe I could get the precision and sustain of a fretted board for supportive basslines, but then have some fretless area for solos. Any players on here who have done such a thing?

Would make more sense to have two separate basses: one fretted and one fretless.

 

[gjohnson441496]

Here you go... [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Diagram... Invalid Link Removed

 

[MIMike]

Alphonso Johnson did this years ago, maybe back in his WeatherReport days.
Ibanez even did a signature version of their Musician series in his name:

 

[Toptube]

So I built a bass from a kit a while ago, it's a j-style body with a mudbucker close to the neck and a regular J bridge pickup. I'm very happy with the bass, looks, playability, and sound, but I find that I can really get all the sounds I want out of my Fender J bass and tend to prefer it, so the kit bass mostly stays in its case. So I started considering removing the frets to have a bit more variety, having done a successful job on a cheap SX short-scale some years ago. But then I started thinking about a lot of the old-time banjo players around here who only have frets on the nut end of the board, stopping in different places from the 7th to the 12th fret. Thought maybe I could get the precision and sustain of a fretted board for supportive basslines, but then have some fretless area for solos. Any players on here who have done such a thing?

Check out the Ibanez Ashula bass.

 

[unbrokenchain]

The Hybrid Fretted/Fretless Electric Bass | Premier Guitar

Found this article, thought the bass at the bottom was especially interesting.. rotating frets so that the bass can be fretless OR fretted.. what'll they think of next.

Aside, another issue I have come to realize in considering removing the frets is that the humbucker pickup actually sits pretty high, close to the level of the fretboard. Not sure I want the strings any closer to it. Probably just leave it alone, maybe pick up a used fretless or do another cheapie conversion.

 

[kodiakblair]

English Luthier Doug Wilkes built half & half fretted/fretless back in the 80's. Both methods if I remember right,
D&G or after 12th. Knows his stuff does Doug,chosen to build the Synthaxe and came up with percussive pickups
fitted in the neck for fretless slapping.

Down to earth fella but I don't know if he'd have time to offer the OP any tips.No harm in asking.

Doug Wilkes - Fine handmade electric and acoustic instruments

 

[Ffreddy]

The banjos that have this are for frailing, the lack of frets are for playing over the neck with the right hand not for fretting. It's a hold over from fret less banjo days. Regardless I think it's a cool idea. Didn't les Claypoolso rainbow bass have some removed frets?

 

[SteveCS]

English Luthier Doug Wilkes built half & half fretted/fretless back in the 80's. Both methods if I remember right,
D&G or after 12th. Knows his stuff does Doug,chosen to build the Synthaxe and came up with percussive pickups
fitted in the neck for fretless slapping.

Down to earth fella but I don't know if he'd have time to offer the OP any tips.No harm in asking.

Doug Wilkes - Fine handmade electric and acoustic instruments

I thought of this when I saw the thread title. IIRC, it was fretted up to 7 with gradually shrinking fret wire, and got mixed reviews in magazines of the time. If I were to do it I would have two levels on the fingerboard, ie the fretless part raised to just below the level of the frets, to simpliy setting of relief.

 

[Polfuste]

A french luthier named Xavier Petit devellopped a bass with this idea with his "bibasse"

 

[itsalljustaride]

I started thinking about a lot of the old-time banjo players around here who only have frets on the nut end of the board, stopping in different places from the 7th to the 12th fret.

Are you thinking of the "scoop" at the end of the fretboard of some banjos? That's generally for clawhammer style where you are fingering over that area of the fretboard (almost like slap bass, but not quite). The staggered frets are, as some have eluded to, I think also basically just limiting the instrument to certain intervals. I don't think they're like a fretless section really. A friend of mine has what is called a "dulcister", which is a fun instrument to play because it's all basically in one scale/mode/whatever, so playing a wrong note is basically impossible:



These aren't really methods of making a fretless instrument.

 

[unbrokenchain]

Naw I'm talking about a completely fretless area of the board that's meant for the left hand to stop notes, not the scooped out part for clawhammer. Jayridge at the top of the page knows what I'm talking about. My friend Owen who plays in the Pretty Little Goat stringband has partially fretless banjos, if I'm not mistaken one has the lower frets removed and a brass plate to raise the fingerboard to fret level, and another with the higher notes fretless.

I have a mountain dulcimer (hanging on my wall...) and I'm not considering leaving just a few frets gapped apart like so, I'd simply remove all the frets higher than, say 9 or 12.

 

[HiEnd Basses]

This is crazy talk!

 

[Plutonium244]

Intriguing idea. It'd be great to have a bass you could live with destroying if it didn't go well, to try out the concept.

If it were me-- and it never will be, due to lack the skills needed for this mod-- I'd say maybe remove the frets above the 7th (most people are saying 12th) and build up the board surface from there up so you have low enough action for the fretless portion. You'd have a good fundamental section allowing you to play E A and D strings with the octave available 7th fret next string over. That gives you your solid rockin' area for general use.

There's a lot of good mwah IMO between 7th and 12th frets -- in fact, ideal mwah territory IMO. And it's low enough on the board that the intonation is more forgiving in that 7-12 region. Above the 12th, it's not so forgiving for intonation and not so ideal for tonal benefits of a fretless, again IMO. You can still play fretlessly up there beyond 12 with my de-fret concept of above the 7th, but you'd be able to play/solo fretlessly 8-12 as well, unlike a bass defretted only at 13+.

For selfish reasons, I hope you do this and report your findings.

 

[GIBrat51]

Here's a half-fretted '79 Kramer DMZ 4000 that Reverb.com had for sale recently. I think it's a 4001, but it can be hard to tell. Pretty decent asking price, too; had it been a lefty, it would be mine, now...