Anyway, I think I should start saving next month for something quarter-fretless and in deep baritone melody...

Whoa, hadn't seen this before!
Nothing like making a tough decision more difficult, lol!
And...1/4 fretless?! I would never had thought of that! Bravo!

OK, so I want a Bass-centric Stick, and I really need that low B.
Will the 34" scale preclude that, or can I still get there?
I was looking at an SB8 (36") with Interior Matched Reciprocal,
which would get me there.
Can that be accomplished with this?

Oh, and I forgot, "hard anodizing"...Are we eventually going to wear this off where we bend the strings on it and need refinishing?
Maybe all the anodized stuff I've had was cheap, but I always end up scraping off the finish.

Thanks! And Subscribing for more info, demos, etc.

~M

Sorry I misspoke about heights of fretted and fretless sides of a half fretless "Railboard" model. My regular procedure for half fretless Sticks has always been to glue a 1/16" stainless steel plate onto the bass side with specially tough epoxy. The stainless steel Rail tips are about .060" high and the fretless plate's 1/8" thickness equals .062". Then, after polishing with fine-grit sandpaper, they run together as a single flat plane of playing surface (except unfortunately in Francesco's case).

When we produced the NS/Stick with graphite bolt-on necks, the few fretless ones were a "split level" job because the graphite fingerboard itself was an ideal fretless surface ("lubricious" as they say).

Because the Railboard's fretless bass side will be at the same height as the integral Rail tips on the melody side (for those who might order this version), another possibility presents itself. Half the length of the bass fingerboard could be fretless, with the Rails located at either the high or the low region. (I can see and hear it both ways.) Even the melody side could be partially fretless along its length, and here I'd favor a fretless lower pitched region (nice for Dual Bass Reciprocal tuning too).

BTW, we're in final stages of pickup prototyping for the Railboard but until they are assembled and play tested, I can't demo the sound settings. I hope soon to have everything production ready and with a video performance of the final prototype.

All the Best, Emmett.

Exciting news! This changes the whole game. Or simply put: wow.

Wow, that does present a lot of potentially new setups.
Potentially you could do something like only fretting the upper 1/2 of the Bass side (1/4 fretless) but only fretting the upper range of that portion, making it...3/8 fretless? The mind wobbles.

I do have a serious question. Since this is in 34" Scale, will "Matched Reciprocal" give you a low "B" in the space behind the X-Fret on the lowest string? I do believe I'm in the "10-String debate" now with TheStick vs. 10-String Grand vs. the Railboard.

Thanks for the update Emmett, I know that many of us are seriously looking forward to that demo

August 26th?

That would be most fortuitous. And symmetrical.
AND, it's in only 2 days!
I like it.
~M

That is very cool!

If I can afford the 12 string version when it comes out, count me in!

I'd like to get one 12 str too, but only if the sound of the new Villex PU is as good as the PASV-4. If not I think I'll go for a replica of the Bamboo I already have, since I will need a Grand backup in the future for gigging. Hoping I won't have to sell off the SG-12 for that, because the SG offers some useful flavor when recording.