The Novax fanned-frets are a bit of a tough sell due to the conservative nature of musicians. Oddly if you close your eyes and play (especially in the 1-12 fret area) you won't feel anything different. Above the 12th fret it's a different story, but not overly difficult to adapt to. The real difference you'll notice is that the string to string tension is nearly perfectly even. On a parallel fret bass string to string tension can vary by as much as 20 lbs. The other thing you'll notice is that the string to string tone is much more even, the tone up and down the neck is much more even, the B-string is playable/audible/pitch-steady past the 12th fret. Most B-strings on parallel fret basses don't see a lot of play above the 5th fret. Lastly there are huge gains in clarity when you go longer on the bass strings.

Great bass! I am curious how does the fanned frets (Novax?) compare to a traditional fret system?

Fantastic instrument, Sheldon.
I appreciate your use of "Angelwing" maple.
I'm building an acoutsic now of the same stuff. The supplier called it "Stairstep Maple" once, then "Angelstep Maple" another time, then "Stairway to Heaven" maple yet again. Those names are fun, if not entirely accurate.
Can you share your source for the material...whatever one calls it?

Steve

...but I'm building a fanned fret headless guitar...). Better late than never.