Half Fretted / Half Fretless bass

[cangaroo]

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

[cangaroo]

oh and strung upside down

[paulo]

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

[jayceofbass]

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...)

[NoXX]

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...

[andrew]

[Jeroen]

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!

[andrew]

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.

[Pete Gossett]

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.

[tim]

1/8" sounds huge!