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The Carruthers has a very simple side-bout
simulator that hits my lower ribs. I'd like to
devise some kinda lower bout simulator, so
I can use my leg to stabilize/steer the bass.
The side bout thing works in pretty much a
singular exact torso-to-bass position, just a
bit too stifling. It works pretty well only at
my lower ribcage, so my shoulders and my
reach for both hands is thus a fixed set up.
Steering it by left leg or knee would allow
me more freedom of position.

This ax has a simple thumb position guide:
It has a neck heel even tho structurally it
isn't needed. You can use it for a guide or
just ignore it since it's not huge or bulky. I
don't think a player is ever really ignoring
it. Even if, like me, one is not practiced at
classical URB thumb position playing, it's
still a "landmark" that informs your hand,
whether intentionally or otherwise.

`

`

Off in another thread somewhere I went out on
a tangent that really belongs in this thread. It
was about "FL-optimal" basses, as opposed to
basses that are essentially the standard fretted
model but with the frets left off ... and OK you
sometimes get an FL-optimal FB wood included
in the fretless version.

Anyway, it takes a whole lot more than just the
lack of frets and maybe an ebony or pau ferro
FB to optimize a design for FL. The ergonomics
and electronics will differ distinctly from what's
found on the typical fretted bass guitar.

So thaz where the "Bass-on-a-Stick" can shine
very bright. A stick-type EUB is definitely and
clearly *NOT* a doghouse or double bass viol,
but neither is it a bass guitar. And it's not just
the absence of frets that distinguish it from a
typical bass guitar. The paradigm of most stick
style EUB's is the creation of an *FL-optimal*
electric bass.

-------------------------------------

Compared to a fretless electric bass guitar, an
FL-optimal electric bass will, as mentioned, be
ergonomically and electronically different. Cuz
there is no "1951 Fender P-bass" equivalent in
the evolution of the EUB, designwise anything
goes. Ergonomicswise, no rule states whether
it will be designed for vertical or for horizontal
play, and some models can do both quite well.

The lack of a singular ancestor, such as the '51
P-bass for fretted electric basses, also means
that scale length is not a holy writ. Any scale
length already on the market is of course more
practical, so EUB's adopt the 41", 34", and 30"
scales for which strings already exist.

A stick style EUB, compared to a doghouse,
fulfills the same wishes as the electric bass
guitar set out to do. It offers easy portability,
reduced player effort, amplification without
feedback, and nearly hockey puck durability.
Yet unlike the 51-P [and most of its progeny]
the stick EUB was never derived from fretted
guitar paradigms.

If a doghouse URB is your paradigm, then the
stick EUB is a compromised bass with blatant
shortcomings. If you're sick of compromised
FL basses such as all the "factory defret jobs"
that are peddled as "fretless basses", then the
stick EUB is not a compromised ax, but is an
optimized one, an 'FL-optimal electric bass',
or at it least comes damnt close enuf !


`

`

I think I shoulda been extra clear about something:

Design for vertical play is NOT my ultimate standard
for an FL-optimal electric bass. It's just one version.
Some FL-optimal electric basses do look very much
like defretted regular electric bass guitars. They are
playable only in horizontal mode, have a generally
guitaresque body shape and headstock, etc.


-----------------------------------


But if such a "guitar" is really an FL-optimal bass, it
will feature subtle dimensional differences so it will
hang further to the right, and with its neck naturally
steeper in angle. It's electronics will be much closer
to those of "acoustic electric" instruments than to a
P-bass or Strat-type electric ax. Choice of woods will
likely differ from typical "electric" instruments. One
of my FL-optimal, guitarish, *solid body* basses has
a cedar solid body and mahogany neck ... and its top
horn is so long that the strap button is at the tenth
'fret', causing the whole ax to hang more to the right
than any typical electric bass guitar.

But the horizontal bass above is an exception to the
norm, the rare FL-optimal "bass guitar". OTOH, stick
style EUB's always have one or both feet solidly into
FL-optimal territory.


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