I know you guys don't mind people modding their Stingrays, so .....

[Moose308]

Looking at the picture, I would suspect two ways to do this.

1. Remove all the frets, saving just the two little ones there, and laminate a thin veneer onto the defretted fretboard, cutting out a notch to skirt around the remaing fretwire.

2. take a chisel to a fretless fingerboard, and notch out the L shaped chunk of wood. Obtain a POS fretted neck from pretty much any manufacturer that has a similar fretboard radius and trim it to a similar L shape. Careful sanding/filing of the L shaped insert and you should have a perfect fitting plug in about 30 minutes.

Given the amount of work for option 1, compared to option 2, I am going to guess they used option 2.

 

[cyoungnashville]

so where exactly is the "money" on that neck? its making me dizzy.

 

[DTG]

Pretty cool idea, I wonder if it works ?

 

[strummer]

This must be from Germany? I mean, there are thumb rings for slap there...

 

[drTStingray]

I'm with Oli - slapping a fretless Ray requires the treble to be cut so it doesn't sound too bright so I don't totally see the point. It is by no means the best slap sound for 70s funk though.

I guess whoever did this wanted to be able to sound fretless most of the time but needed a v good slap sound as well.

Btw the fretboard looks v similar to my stock 93 SR fretless - which is pao ferro.

 

[JayDawg]

I wonder if it is photoshopped?

 

[laneline]

To me it seems like a new fingerboard over the old, when I look down at the E string it seems the shadow at the end of the fretless board is higher than the fretted section.

 

[zuma]

Seems like a cool idea. I would sure like to try it. I imagine it would contribute to a more traditional slap feel as well as sounding more like fretted bass.

 

[bassguy411]

bizzare, seems like it would retain the click when you thumb slap, but I bet the pluck sounds wierd without the frets to add highs.