LeftyBassist.com

Years ago, I had a gimmicky device called, "The Fretless Wizard" that simulated the sound of a fretless on a fretted bass. (I still have it lying around somewhere in storage). The principal consisted of a frame of thin tin? saddles that suspended above your bridge, which you lowered down to just :kiss" the top of each string via small thumbscrews. It also had a lever that you flipped up which allowed you to disengage the unit when you wanted to go back to fretted sounds. My recollection was that it sounded pretty convincing, though it was a somewhat cumbersome contraption. The same guy also made one for guitar called, "The Raga Master" which gave your guitar an electric sitar effect using the same principle.

Well, enter the Di Piazza bridge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8MEIR0IRoA

The sound is all in the bridge designed by Mike Sabre/Mr. Di Piazza, and the good news is lefties are available for both 4 and 5 strings! Yeah, it's pricey, but I think you'll agree it sounds pretty amazing. Supposedly fits most stock P and J style basses. I'm not sure if the fretless sound can be disengaged, however:

http://www.mike-sabre.com/dipiazza/dipiazza.html

Ok, a bit of confusion. The bridge listed on that link appears to be a different design than the NFS Neuser bridge that claims is currently being used by Di Piazza. The NFS bridge can be switched on or off, though I can't find any info on this site regarding how to go about ordering one:

http://www.neuserbasses.com/nfs.html
http://www.neuserbasses.com/nfs_2.html

I think the only way to find pricing is to contact the company through email address. Here is the Main page:

http://www.neuserbasses.com/home.html - clicking on the Dealers link doesn't show any in the US.

no, you have to go in and place an order and the prices are there

http://www.mike-sabre.com/buyzonec/buyzonec.html

blankrider wrote:no, you have to go in and place an order and the prices are there

http://www.mike-sabre.com/buyzonec/buyzonec.html

Don't know where on the website you found a parts/order page. I've clicked on every link on the website ( at least I think I did!) and never found the page you have posted here.

There is a reference to go to AllParts.com to find the Neuser Bridge, but AllParts doesn't have them listed, just ABM bridges.

i think the switchable bridge is a older design, and i know its currently not used by him but there are videos of him on youtube with using it, i belive one of the videos is "dinello" he takes a great solo on it but regardless, the mike saber is the current one that he endorses and i dont belive it is switchable

I found that at this link: http://www.mike-sabre.com/dipiazza/dipiazza.html

click the little shopping carts

blankrider wrote:click the little shopping carts

Yes, I should have mentioned this. That's how I knew they offered lefties...and that they were expensive!

I think a stationary fretless bridge with no ability to switch back would be a deal breaker for me. I'd rather have the NFS bridge. I e-mailed them regarding availability/lefties last week and, naturally, no response yet.