# Fretted/fretless hybrid



## sun_of_nothing (Feb 7, 2011)

A while back I was looking through some of Ibanez's basses and found this:

Ibanez.com | Basses | SR2010ASC

I thought "hey, thats cool", and went on my way.

Over the last weekend though, one of my friends came home from college and he brought his new fretless 5 string, and I immediately fell in love with thing.

While I don't think I could ever part ways with a fretted, I love the possibilities that a fretless offers, so then I thought back to the Ibanez Ashula...

Instead of dropping $1000 on a bass like that, is there anything else out there that is similar to the Ashula? Or alternatively, is there a way I could convert a 6 string bass to have the top 3 strings fretless?


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## deevit (Feb 8, 2011)

There have been a few 'hybrid' fretless basses, one of them was the Ibanez Musician AJ10. Different concept though. 







But really, just keep hold of your fretted bass and get a fretless one next to it. IMO 2 fretless strings is way short, and I don't think a six string neck with just 4 fretted strings will be that comfortable. Looks like a nice gimmick, but I wouldn't see myself using that with as many potential as I use my fretted and fretless instruments now.


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## sun_of_nothing (Feb 8, 2011)

deevit said:


> There have been a few 'hybrid' fretless basses, one of them was the Ibanez Musician AJ10. Different concept though.
> 
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> ...



I've also entertained the idea of a hybrid like that ^, ending at the 12th fret. but yeah, who knows if I'd actually go through with it, I still have years of college to go and no spare money around to pay for instruments anyways.


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## Varcolac (Feb 8, 2011)

I had thought of doing a hybrid that was a combination of the two above: imagine a diagonal line stating at around seventh fret on the top string and moving up the neck to about fifteenth fret on the low B. Frets on the low half, fretless on the top. This never got further than an idle speculation; I grew to enjoy playing fretless in metal too much to get any frets put on it. Besides, the compromise inherent in such a hybrid means that you lose out on things either way. Only way to get a full fretless and a full fretted sound out of one instrument is this, and it's a bit too heavy and expensive for my back and budget:


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## HaMMerHeD (Feb 8, 2011)

Rob Allen has been known to do something like that. I take no responsibility for 'damages'.


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## nephilymbass (Feb 9, 2011)

yeah I really like the concept of the double neck also I've been wanting one for a while. I just haven't found one that either wasn't extremely cheap or really stupid expensive. Plus a lot of the designs seem to be off from what I would consider logical. I personally would want the fretless on the top and the fretted on the bottom. Reason for this is I don't want the bass hitting me in the chin because I have to wear it so high because I think its hard to play fretless with good intonation when the fretless neck is to low. I don't understand why so many companies make double necks that are bass/guitar but not fretted/fretless. If Warmoth came out with a double neck body where I could put 2 bass necks on it I'd be all over it and I've never even tried thier stuff. I would prefer inline tuners and reversed headstock on the bottom neck also so its not such a pain to tune and restring, plus it looks cool (Billy Sheehan got that right on his Yamaha doubleneck). Lastly though the necks need to have a decent balance in spacing, some doubles have necks so close together the upper neck is virtually unplayable, some are so far apart it just adds more body wieght than necessary. 

Doubles aside I have played the Ashula and I honestly think it was the best Ibanez I've played. Its a pretty solid feeling instrument as opposed to most of their stuff which kinda feel like toys to me. the tuning is completely wierd though if your used to a 5 or a 6. I don't like the hybrids that have frets half way up the fingerboard because I prefer ultra low action on fretless but on fretted I'm used to not stupid high but just high enough to not sound like "Buzz Lightyear"


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