steinberger spirit fretless 5

[wrinkleygit]

still looking for the holy grail fretless 5 & considering de fretting my spare bass which is described above, however the presence of a zero fret close to the headless string retainer may prevent getting a decent action/ set up, anyone ever come across a factory produced fretless version of one of these or anyone else gone down the same route, mike b.

[glefty]

There were quite a few factory fretless 4s n 5s in spirits n original steinys n they all had zero frets. Had my '92 Steiny XL2A defretted (filed down actually)15 yrs ago, action is so stupid low you'd swear the strings were in the fingerboard n plays like butta!

[EMG456]

[quote name='glefty' timestamp='1403095560' post='2479684']
There were quite a few factory fretless 4s n 5s in spirits n original steinys n they all had zero frets. Had my '92 Steiny XL2A defretted (filed down actually)15 yrs ago, action is so stupid low you'd swear the strings were in the fingerboard n plays like butta!
[/quote]

I can't comment on the Spirit basses but USA made graphite necked models only had zero frets if they were fretted basses. All factory fretless basses had no zero fret- the end of the fingerboard is ramped and the strings lie tight against it.

Cheers

Ed

[glefty]

Oops, sorry, guess I was mistaken then. I'm pretty sure my defretted Steiny xl2 still has the zero fret as a nut but it's on the other side of the world so I can't check it. I'd guess the spirits would need to have the zero fret as it would be pretty costly to ramp a wood neck/fingerboard, even that small amount, no? The graphites were all moulded so it was easier I suppose. Of course, the luthier could file the zero fret down to compensate as a nut also. Good luck with it.