John Hamlett
www.hamlettinstruments.com
No
In this case I suspect the unfretted section is for aesthetic reasons only. My guess is they looked at other instruments with "scooped" extensions and tried to recreate the look without actually lowering the level of the fretboard after the frets stop. At least that's how they look in photos. Since there are no frets there, it would be very simple to lower the top of the fretboard extension if you were so inclined.
That's where I play my ghost notes.
Of late I have been going up the unmodified florida, just to do it. Finding tunes that could be enhanced by a super nosebleed high note, and then practicing getting that note till it feels like second nature.
I have rarely, if ever, "needed" to get up there, but hey, in that kind of thinking there be monsters. If we are talking need, I am not sure I even need the mandolin.
It is a tribute to a good maker that up there in the nosebleed frets there be good intonation and good tone and sound a part of the same family as the rest of the notes. If a luthier has gone to that trouble, least I can do is take advantage. It is kind of like using all the gadgets on your jeep, because they are there and you can.
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