Hi Sly and PJ,
I'm addressing you both as you both seem to be eminently interested and or involved in this discussion. I would like to present, for your viewing and listening pleasure (assuming you haven't seen it before) Alain Caron playing Ink Illusion with his band and utilizing his F Bass AC 6 fretless with a 13 pin plug taking a feed off his piezo equipped bridge and I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) going into a Roland V Bass system. Not sure if it's a VB99 or not.
It appears that the estimable Mr. Caron is VERY capable (as evidenced here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITQd2NtbOKA ) of achieving quite musical results with his setup.
Not being one to throw the proverbial monkey wrench into the discussion of the Industrial Radio MIDI Bass, but, and just for the sake of thinking what the ultimate synth bass guitar might be, what do you guys think about the F Bass/V Bass combo?
Just so you know where I stand, I'm leaning heavily towards the exceedingly cool aspect of having one of the best (if not THE best) fretless basses on the planet, which stands on its own phenomenally well without the synth side (not to say that's not the case with the bass we're talking about in this thread) and not having to worry about fret wear down the road. Just a fingerboard re-surfacing like a regular fretless.
Granted, it's about $1000 more for an AC5 than it is for the Industrial Radio bass, plus I don't know what the MIDI/13 pin option costs, plus the Roland VB99 at about $1300, but hey, it's only money right? What's $7000 or so in these tough economic times?
Food for thought? Or at least opinions? Sly, you probably know Alain, don't you? Isn't he from your part of the country? I've seen him play live several times over the years. From Uzeb in Vancouver in the mid 80's to Roland seminars, etc., etc. He's definitely one of my heroes. Always creative, always stretching the boundaries. He's been dabbling in synth bass guitar for decades now.