Emperador 4 String Fretless

4 String formerly fretted bass made in Japan sometime in the last 25 years, best guess would probably be early to mid 80's. Neck has be defretted, formerly 21 frets in length, and it feels short or medium (32") scale. Body shape is something like a cross between a Rick and a Jazz Bass, made out of a nice solid wood. Neck is some sort of maple from the looks, with rosewood fretboard, oversized Fenderesque headstock, and vintage knockoff tuners. Body color is 'roseburst' for want of a better way to put it, two-piece black/white pickguard. Two chrome P90ish pickups, each with a toggle switch for on/off, 1 volume and 1 tone. Bridge is an adomination, basically a piece of metal with 4 slots cut into the back and bent up to anchor the strings, which pass over barrel-style saddles.

The sound is best described as metallic, with an odd high-frequency buzz reminisicent of a tin can. Oddly enough, I find this a good thing, as it gives the bass a truly unique sound that isn't irritating; rather, to my ears it sounds more vintage than anything else. There's a distinct difference in the pickups tone, with the neck pickup being a brighter lead pickup, and the mid being somewhat darker, more mellow. I play tuned down a full step, and the pickups have trouble picking up the darker notes. Tone control is more or less meaningless on this bass, I just leave it cranked open. It has an excellent jazzy sound, and can also handle metal surprisingly well (think early Anthrax). The only signicant complaints can be the quietness on the low notes, and the lack of sustain, but the last might just be me having gotten spoiled by my neck-through 8-string.

Frankly, action doesn't worry me so much after playing an 8-string with the action set to almost 1/4 inch off the fretboard for a year; after that, nothing seems too far up! This bass is very, very used; the lower piece of the pickguard (around the volume and tone knobs) is broken off at the botom and cracked through above the input jack, the pickguard itself has far to many holes drilled into it (including two seperate sets for a thumbrest), and it appears that a bridge cover was removed in the past. The body is marked with numerous dings and scratches that don't affect the playability in the least.

I have no fear whatsoever about this bass lasting. It's made it for as long as it has, and through what looks like some pretty serious abuse, and it still shines. I haven't played live with it, but given the chanc,e I wouldn't hesitate.

For the price, it can't be beat. Fretless basses don't come cheap, and this one gave me the double advantage of having a fretless bass with markers (the fill-lines frmo the frets, and the pearloid inlays which remained). The unexpectedly unique sound was just a nice bonus for taking a chance.