I want the following BASS made, maybe a add on construction to any bass, that combines two already existing techniques apart from each other, I think I viewed this at Whizmoons threads, about a sustainer bass, some years ago:
1. The Paul Vo Moog Guitar has not only polyphonic infinite sustain, but a reverse phase setting that kills the decay and makes the shortest notes you can imagine. The actual string mechanically oscillates way shorter than its natural oscillation. Immedieately got that banjo feel, while trying it... and then came the eureka idea with me, like "put this on a bass instead", that would really make it a blockbuster killer... but now read on.
2. The Fishman Aura pedal for acoustic guitarists. It contains samples of well recorded and high end acoustic bodies to give it a flair that is above and beyond the dreaded piezo quacks of most amplified acoustic guitars. Now, these samples from guitar bodies could be done just as well, with and from high quality upright acoustic basses instead.
Now this gadget put onto bass, a fretless with flats on, should skip the endless sustain, and polyphonic thing, but concentrate just on the part that kills the sustain, and actually makes the strings oscillation much shorter, it will sound immediately like playing up the neck on an upright bass. It would then follow accordingly and turn itself off gradually as you go down the fretboard and resort to "natural" long sustain again when playing open strings, or the first few frets.
Now on electric bass, magnetic pickups just have this limited range, but when combined with the "pedal" or box that has sampled "ambience" from upright basses bodies, it will provide just the right air to it, and vibe. Of course it shouldn't be sampled in a static way, it can be modelled, or convolution too. It's just a reverb, within a tiny space. You should be able to form the sound with your fingers, and react immediately to different attacks and angles of your fingers.
So, the two ideas above into one electric fretless bass. Or as a kit that you built into any bass.
That's basically the only thing I am longing for in bass at the moment. Of course the price is a thing too. It can''t be expensive like the Moog guitar. Or a high quality ancient Italian upright...
