GOING FRETLESS, THE GANESHA WAY
The concept here is choice. There are no rules: criticism is its corollary, but the choice is absolutely Your’s. It’s simple, complex and/or beautiful… It’s all custom, makes or doesn’t make sense, but quintessentially Your choice.
Body, top, rear-top, neck, fret board (with or without a thin coating of epoxy), preamp, pickups, hardware (black or gold)… going fretless is such a huge responsability 😉 but remains a deeply personal choice, so do not hesitate to question and talk with us.
Custom Line
Pickup(s)
We still favour the “one pickup” approach. But we now have the choice between 3 setups (always at the bridge):
1. the Delano MC series (splittable) in diverse options,
2. the Delano PC series in diverse options, in its normal setup
3. the Delano PC series in diverse options, in its inverted setup,
4. both PC (neck) and MC (bridge) together.
Preamplification
The 2 band preamp by Glockenklang, with the active/passive push/pull switch our classic choice for fretless.
Another German alternative, still 2 band and with the active/passive feature by Noll Electronic.
We also use a 3 way switch with the Delano MC Series, giving optimum versatility to your fretless bass. The switch allows you to choose single coil, double with parallel or series wiring.
The Usual Options
EPOXY COATING
Allows you to play with all types of bass strings, including roundwounds. Often players refer to it as the “Jaco sound”, but we need to point out that our fretless are “naturally” fretless and not defretted basses. The epoxy coating of the fretboard is a deeply personal choice, there is no accounting for taste.
FRETBOARD MARKERS
Basically it is all about dots and lines (full or partial). The big debate is how and where to place them…! Here are our suggestions:
- Basic: dots on the side, on the fret.
- Octave: dots on the side, on the fret; dots on the right of the fretboard, second octave.
- Partial lines: dots on the side, in the middle of two frets; Fret lines visible on the side and 2mm on the left of the fretboard.
- Lined: lines instead of frets, dots on the fretboard.
WOOD
We generally offer to make the body and neck either with mahogany, for a rounder, warmer tone or with walnut, for a faster attack and wreckless precison. Again, it is a simple matter of taste, and if you contact us , we will build a fretless to your specifications.