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[tauzero]

Hi. My name's Mike and I'm a bass player. I can stop any time I like, you know.

Have been playing guitar since my early teens and bass since my late teens (I'm now 52). I play in assorted bands - rock covers, rock originals, blues, and a ceilidh band. I mainly use 5-string fretted and fretless, also play electric upright (4 and 5 string). I have a 7-string for when I'm feeling ambitious. I bought an Ashbory a little while ago from curiousity and now use it with the ceilidh band (along with a fretless 5-string and one or other of the electric uprights). It's great fun.

My ambition is to build one - I have some ideas in mind. I may be some time.

[redstriper]

Hi Mike and welcome to the wonderful and slightly strange world of Ashbory.
I look forward to your home build - I've always fancied a fretted slightly longer scale Ash, but I'm no good at DIY.
Where are you located?
Steve.

[tauzero]

You may be waiting some time...

I'm in Tamworth, 15 miles NE of Birmingham. IIRC you're somewhere in Wales, aren't you?

While I think a slightly longer scale would be a good thing, I suspect that frets wouldn't - you'd probably need to place the frets by trial and error rather than by simple mathematical means.

[redstriper]

You may be waiting some time...

I'm in Tamworth, 15 miles NE of Birmingham. IIRC you're somewhere in Wales, aren't you?

While I think a slightly longer scale would be a good thing, I suspect that frets wouldn't - you'd probably need to place the frets by trial and error rather than by simple mathematical means.

I'm on Anglesey just off the north Wales coast.
Why do you think frets would be difficult ?
I'm thinking of ordering these -
http://www.frettedfiddle.com
He makes them to fit the Ashbory.

[tauzero]

I could well be wrong, but it seems to me that the string displacement needed to fret a string, given the high action on the Ashbory, makes a significant change to the tension in the string, hence the right note is when you fret behind the fretline, not on it. I'd be interested in knowing how it turns out if you do it.

[redstriper]

I know what you mean and it is a bit of a gamble, he has made them for Ashborys before with good results and I reckon it's worth £20 to find out.
It may be that they will only intonate correctly with the open strings slightly out of tune, meaning that only fretted notes are really useable, but I could live with that.

Have you seen the Kala U-Bass ?
I tried a fretted one recently in London and it seemed to intonate fine using the same pahoehoe strings I have on my Ashbory.