Part fretted. Part fretless. Why not?
I've always loved the sound of a fretless bass. Not only do you get those unmistakable smooth tones, a fretless is a lot of fun to play. It can also open up your playing to new ideas and ways of approaching music. However, being mostly a metal player, and a bit of an old school metal player at that, I don't exactly have a huge need for a traditional fretless most of the time. Yet, I still wanted the flexibility of getting those fretless tones without giving up the hard-driving sound of a fretted instrument.
My solution was to turn a standard 4-string fretted bass into a hybrid fretted/fretless. I looked around and found the least expensive, new Ibanez I could find; an Ibanez SR300E-SMB. I paid around $250USD for it, probably due to the fact it was a previous model year and the color is pretty odd. I think the color was listed as "sea foam" or something like that.
Now Ibanez has offered hybrid fretted/fretless basses in the past. In fact, I could have sworn they offered a 5-string with 4 fretted strings and a fretless G, but I can't find any pics of one. They definitely had a 6 string with the top four fretted and the bottom two fretless. Then they came out with the monster 7-string Ashula: 3 fretless strings on top and 4 fretted strings on bottom. YouTube Franck Hermanny to see an impressive bass player play this beast!
I'm sure these Ibanez-made hybrid basses are top quality and the bassists who play them have produced some cool tunes, but they're not for me. For one, these basses are HUGE. The 7-string Ashula is a monster! And they're also expensive. They definitely serve a specific type of player, but these basses seem to be trying to cover too much ground with a single instrument. You practically have two full-range basses in one. Anyway...
After I got the bass I brought it to my local luthier, Rick Mullen. We chatted about it, I told him what I wanted, and he set to work. Soon, I had the modified bass below. I paid around $300 USD for the work. I planned on putting in higher-end pickups, too, but never did. The pickups that came with the bass are pretty decent (actually, fantastic for the price). I'll leave them in for now. A hybrid fretted/fretless bass for under $600? Not bad.
Check out how it sounds on "The Invisible Enemy" and "H2."
One thing I do want to mention. When I first started playing this bass, my fretting fingers would often fall off the fret when playing the A string, especially when doing something fast. I call this "fret falling." After practicing a bit, you get used to the missing bottom frets and compensate.
So if you're interested in getting your own hybrid bass, do what I did. Purchase an inexpensive bass you like to play and bring it down to your local luthier and discuss your ideas. Or contact Rick. He's already done (at least) two of these bad boys. It's a fairly inexpensive way to get a cool bass that will get your creative juices flowing!
- DD Bass
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