I’ve purchased this inexpensive bass just to learn to play fretless. I didn’t expect too much, but I got perfect bass for this money. The overall condition of new bass was about 8 from 10. Of course it wasn’t built perfectly, but I can live with this. A little gaps between pickguard and neck and between neck and body. Neck pickup volume pots is a little bit scratchy. A little chip at the neck near 5th fret fretline at the top. Tuners are not perfect but good, bridge looks cheap. The whole setup needs some tweaks – I’ve adjusted trussrod and put pickups and strings a little bit lower.

Now good stuff. Finish is great – I got 3-tone Sunburst and it is feels great and looks great. Sound is awesome for this price. Level of hum is very low. This bass has that J-bass fretless sound. I’m not sound expert and English is not my primary language, but believe me – I’ve got exactly what I need. If you description of its sound – just google it. There are plenty of info on Harmony Central and ever on “Bass Player” magazine website.

Now I’m gigging with this bass regularly. Not as primary instrument, but once I played half of gig on it and I was happy. Just some of the songs sounded weird.

The only thing I missed in this SX bass – version without fret marks. IMO it looks cooler and can speedup fretless experience.

SX basses are avaliable at Rondo Music. This is my second bass from them and I’m happy again.

Popularity: 77% [?]

My 6-stringer is great, but preamp is not so powerful and noisy. Last gig I played through borrowed SWR and decide that I really need a little treble, but I cannot afford it because of noise.

I already tune myself to spend 110-150 bucks for Bartolini preamp, but I’ve found Artec preamps. I didn’t find much about them, but nothing bad at all. I tried to ask on talkbass.com. And mcracer gave me best price and free shipping for Artec SE3P-A and black metallic knobs (including concentric ones). The price for the preamp and knobs is about the same you can get on ebay for only preamp.

He promised to ship it today or Monday. I’ll post results here.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Very weird and nice shape and looks like they are very rare. But after some googling I’ve found some info about Matrix M-401, and then site of Spalt Instruments. Site looks very old, but with plenty of information, like gallery of hybrids and description of them. Prices on those guitars varies from $1250 to $3000.

As I mentioned above, more pictures you can see at Spalt Hybryd Guitars and Basses Gallery.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Weird-designed bass guitars. They looks more like piece of art than playable instruments. Have fun =)

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Popularity: 100% [?]

What you’ll get if you mix surfing board with bass – Jerzy Drozd Legend X. Custom 10 strings beauty for Yves Carbonne. My 6-stringer looks now like something small and very easy-playable.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Here is one video of Longbow Bass in action. Looks not so comfortable…

Popularity: 7% [?]

Here is what we are waiting for – convertible bass from Mikey Guitar. Just one move of hand and it converts from fretted to fretless and vice versa.

The main idea is rotating fret. Manufacturer promises that bass is reliable and durable including conversion mechanism.

… stress test was setup. The mechanism was hooked up between two solenoids and driven back and forth. A counter kept track of the cycles. The “clack clack” sound of the solenoids drove everyone nuts but, over the course of 8 weeks, the mechanism was cycled 1,000,581 times. That’s the equivalent of 20 back and forth switches a day for about 137 years. The result…
NO SIGNS OF WEAR. Needless to say, we’re happy.

Unfortunately it is available to “test drive” in Toronto, Canada only.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Recently I bought my first 6-stringer – Brice HXB-406 with bubinga finish. First of all – this is very decent bass for $310 (with S&H). Two-trussrod neck is very nice and comfortable, electronics is not too loud, but sounds great. Hardware is perfect and guitar stays in tune all the time. Well, you have to expect bass for this price. I mean – stock strings are crap and setup wasn’t perfect. But I think this is all complaints. New Labella strings are on the way, and 1/4 turn for both trussrods solved all my complaints about setup.

The sound… Great sustain and whole-range sound – this is what HXB-406 is. B-string sounds great and not floppy, thanks to 35″ scale. The only one sound I cannot get – P-bass one. But I solve this problem with Korg PX4B or Hartke Bass Attack. I didn’t try to tweak it on amp yet, because I don’t have one – I’m using PA or amp on rehearsal studio – still looking for great one.

About scale and transition. Well, I used to play Yamaha RXB170 (great inexpensive bass too) 4-string with 34″ scale. One week is almost passed and I feel that transition is over (about 12 hours of practice total). Well, some stretches are still not perfect, but at all – I’m ready for today rehearsal with my new toy The weight of Brice is a little bit more than my Yamaha, but I cannot complaint about it with my 5″ wide leather strap (I wrote already about them) and my 6’8″ and 300lb

Also be careful with strings selection. You need “Super Long” or “Extra Long” one. 35″ scale plus strings-thru-body makes all “Long” 6-strings sets unusable, but you can found wide selection of strings on JustStrings.com. I didn’t received my LaBella one, but I can confirm that DAddario “Long” doesn’t fit.

So, it sounds great, it plays great and it looks great. Here is myself with just unpacked Brice.

You can purchase Brice and SX basses on RondoMusic.net. Click on “Bass Guitars” and select “6 string” on the top. Handling was less than 24 hours. Shipping was lighting fast. UPS estimated 7 days, but I’ve got my bass 4 days earlier . Bass was double-boxed, had tuning wrenches and was carefully packed. Great seller.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Do you want to own original 2-string fretless for only $295 – check LongBow Bass. It looks like stick with two strings, but solid piece of nice wood cannot sounds bad. Detailed specifications you can find on manufacturer’s site. I didn’t find neither video of LongBow player nor good review of it. I remember that Brian Richey from “Violent Femmes” owns one of it. To be honest – it looks like bass player toy

Popularity: 6% [?]