LeftyBassist.com

Yesterday i caught this lefty fellow player with one of the strangest bass i've ever seen.

Half fretboard maple fretted
The other half rosewood (or some other dark wood) fretless

oh and strung upside down

Wow! That's crazy! And interesting at the same time!

I read an article in the UK Bass Player magazine with Cronos - the bassist/singer in Venom - where he mentioned that the first thing he does with all his basses is remove all the frets past the 12th fret. It looks like Fernandes even did a Cronos signature version that way as well. (See pic below...)

jayceofbass wrote:I read an article in the UK Bass Player magazine with Cronos - the bassist/singer in Venom - where he mentioned that the first thing he does with all his basses is remove all the frets past the 12th fret. It looks like Fernandes even did a Cronos signature version that way as well. (See pic below...)

That way around makes sense to me.... It's like the fretboard equivalent of a mullet- business up front and party at the back...

Anthony Jackson once had a signature Ibanez Musician with a half-fretted fingerboard like Cronos' bass (the Ibanez AJ-10).

Speaking of Ibanez, a few years ago they had the Ashula: a 6-string Soundgear with 4 regular strings tuner EADG and an extra D and G without frets. Pretty cool concept!

Jeroen wrote:Speaking of Ibanez, a few years ago they had the Ashula: a 6-string Soundgear with 4 regular strings tuner EADG and an extra D and G without frets. Pretty cool concept!

That is interesting. I think it'd be cool to have a 6 string that's tuned E-A-D twice, once fretted, once fretless.

Years ago I played an aluminum-neck Kramer(right-handed) in a store that was fretless above the 12-fret. What I remember most, other than the weight, was the frets were very small & purposely filed almost flat - probably about 1/8" tall at most.

1/8" sounds huge!