Does anyone know for certain if the NS/Stick is currently avaiable in 1/2 fretless? Looking at the newer ones with the new neck in Wenge w/rails.

Thanks!

~Michael

Disregard, I was able to get an answer back from SE.
In case anyone else is interested, I was told the new model (Railboard) has them pretty tied up right now and to check again around tax time (which is when I'll be ready to buy).

Thanks for ferreting this out for us, Michael. I'm also interested in such a beast but haven't wanted to even ask until I actually have some cash in hand for the purpose.

So have you thought about what neck you're going to get? Bamboo? Wenge? They're not the "usual" fretless woods but both rate pretty high on the hardness scale, FWIR.

Definitely Wenge. I have a Wenge 5-tstring fretless bass now and love it.
Hoping the NS/Stick will be a stepping stone to a full Stick someday, eventually filling the role of an extended-range bass/tapper.

I have an idea what I want for the finish on the body, but not sure which wood would be best suited, if Emmett can even do the color. Kind of a dark bluish grey. We'll see when the time comes I suppose.

zaubertuba, wanted to update, since you asked which neck I was looking at.
Was thinking Wenge, because I love my other bass so much, but the more I think about it, I believe I'll be going Bamboo.
I have an opportunity to buy an older NS in need of refinishing, so I'm considering having a local luthier either make a new body for it or just put a custom topwood on it before sending it to Emmett to have the rest refinished and the new-style neck put on (I'll be asking Emmett's permission first).
At that time I'll be inquiring once again about the 1/2-Fretless with Rails.
I'll update when we get there.

I have a half fretless NS with a bamboo neck, but it's something of a prototype and the fretless half is a steel plate - surprisingly (to me) the sound is a lovely organic growl, not at all harsh. The bamboo neck itself is great though, not a material I'd have thought would work for an instrument neck but it's excellent and the overall weight is very friendly on the back!

Tom

Awesome, Tom! I'd love to see pics of it!

In the meantime, I was told 1/2 Fretless wasn't available with Rails right now, so I went with a new Ash NS/Stick with Wenge neck.

Ah... that half fretless NS is such a lovely monster! That was the instrument that caught my interest four years ago. I had done a little tour of clinics for Apple and they were so slow to pay me that when they finally did the summed amount of money would allow me to buy a new quality instrument. However, when reading about all the Stick versions I thought that I might have more immediate use for a 12-str Grand and decided to start with that and save up for a half-f NS next. Then it was discontinued. Exciting news that it may become available again "by tax time". I have three fretless guitars but still no real fretless bass. I've been recording bass lines pizzicato with my electric cello so far. A fretless Jazz Bass would do fine in the studio for me but for live gigs the NS is great because you can do a little tapping on the side.

Would be interesting to hear how a half fretless NS/Stick or Stick sounds. I don´t think I´ve ever heard one. Now I´m a bass-player myself and play lots of fretless bass. I myself tend to opt for the bridge PU when playing fretless and I anchor the right hand thumb either on the neck PU or more often where the neck joins the body. This is where I get the best fretless "singing" sound. Bridge PU and hit the strings around where the neck joins the body. It´s easy to change the type of fretless sound you get depending on there you hit the strings. More snappy sound when hitting the strings closer to the bridge and more of the typical "singing" fretless sound when hitting the strings up where the neck joins the body. And more bridge PU to get more mid in the sound. Now a tapping instrument is a completely other ball game when it comes to fretless playing since you "hit" the string when tapping very far upp on the neck. I´ve done some tapping on my fretless basses but I´ve given it up completely basically cause I feel that I just can´t get a decent fretless tone from the instrument when tapping. At least not compared with a regular fine electric fretless bass played with the fingers. Guess my question is if it´s possible to get that typical "singing" fretless tone when tapping on a half fretless NS/Stick or a Stick? I am not very happy with the result I get when tapping a fretless bass. It just don´t sound "fretless" to me in the same way...... Any opinions regarding this about fretless tone/tapping?

//J

In this video Don Schiff plays fretless both by tapping and plucking:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taQKRgP--bA[/youtube]