Okay this one is a little different. I once asked myself; “Has anyone out there made a fretless bass/ electric guitar hybrid?”
I couldn’t find one like the design I had in my head. So I decided to challenge myself to build one.
Unfortunately I can’t find the hand drawn technical drawing of the concept. So here is the earliest state of the actual build.
The design consisted of 5 strings, tuned to EEADG. First E being the G string from an electric bass guitar, and the rest from a standard set. I chose this tuning to be useful for droning E over open chords and for adding simple 1 string bass lines inside of compositions without a bass guitar.
Because of the difference in scales between a bass and guitar, I would have to defret the top portion of the fretboard in order to play properly harmonizing notes that would exist in between the frets.
I would also have to design a pick-guard, attach a bass bridge to extend the scale length of the bass, reform the nut indents, and increase the tuning peg diameter for the new E string.
In concept, the special order pickups would be; 2 single coil 4-pole, and 1 1-pole for the bass. 2 outputs; Bass string and Guitar strings, for separate amp inputs.
After building the hardware from spare parts, I then designed and cut the pick guard from a piece of wood.
And then we have the (almost complete) prototype. The only part that I haven’t gotten to is wiring the thing. It takes a while to service anything because the pick guard is woven between the 2 string sets.
It plays the way its supposed to; correct intonation, keeping tuning while playing, and the bass string is able to find notes.
Maybe someday I’ll finish the wiring.
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