Fretless Bass Conversion - Almost Finished!Music

[91hondawagon]

After neglecting it for a long time, I have decided to de-fret my old Precision bass. I've done a fair amount of research into fretless conversions, and I have already successfully taken all of the frets out.

Now, though, I'm unsure. I've read that wood filler and epoxy are used to fill the holes where the frets were, but I've also found that inserting thin pieces of wood is higher-quality albeit more difficult and time-consuming.

Which shall I do, wood filler or actual wood? Is there another option?

If wood filler is the way to go, what types and brands should I use? Or if actual wood is better, what size and type of wood should I use? Also, how do I go about getting them into the fretboard?

Also, I slightly damaged the fretboard when I took out the first couple of frets; there are some small dents near the bottom of the fretboard. Is there any way to fix this? The dents aren't as deep as they look; it's just an effect of the camera flash.

If you have any experience with fretless conversions or building fretless basses from scratch, I would love to hear how you did it. I'm willing to put a lot of effort into this project and want to make the end result as high-quality as possible. I welcome any advice you may have. Thanks!

EDIT: I will post pictures very soon.

 

[niky]

Wood filler would look kind of crude unless you're painting it afterwards... it would be nice to craft ebony or ivory inserts to fit where the frets used to be if you can do that.

After that, smooth the whole thing down with sandpaper to get everything flush and to eliminate the dents you caused. Normally, this would affect pitch accuracy by making the fretboard too deep, but you can probably adjust the bridge to account for that, and... hey... it's a fretless, so that doesn't matter, right?

I envy you... I really miss playing, and fretless basses kick butt!

Of course, a six-string fretless is the ultimate... but you'd probably need to buy a whole new neck and bridge to do that...

 

[91hondawagon]

Ivory is illegal in the US, my friend . I was thinking thin slices of maple or phenolic (a type of hard plastic) that I could cut to size and glue into the holes.

I already did sand it down. The problem is that sanding too much would mess up the curve of the fretboard, which would really ruin the sound of the strings. Plus, there is one really deep dent, and I would have to sand the entire fretboard down 1/16 inches just to make it even. Not gonna happen. Could I just fill the dents with wood filler or glue and sand off the excess? That seems to me like a better solution. But, I don't know how to do that, and I don't want to damage the fretboard cutting down the pieces of wood.

Pssh, six-string basses. Classic four-stringers are the way to go . But thanks for the suggestions. Go find a bass and start playing again; you'll be glad you did!

 

[Joey D]

Ivory is illegal in the US, my friend .

No it's not, our store has a ton of it for sale. It's illegal to import certain types of ivory under a certain age limit into the US without a CITES permit. If you want ivory look on eBay and buy from a US seller, you won't have an issue.

With bass conversions I suggest PM Pako as he is the resident bassist around here and knows a lot about them. Also, www.talkbass.com will have information for you as well.

 

[niky]

Well... synthetic ivory... whatever... I just think the contrast would look good, and would help you with your fingering while you learn how to play fretless.

Only problem I see with filler is getting the color close... it'd work... just fill it in, wait for it to cure and sand it down. Might want to roughen up the dents a little to add surface area for the filler to stick to.

Yeah... four-stringers are faster and fun... but I dunno... I have a fetish for instruments with too many strings...

 

[91hondawagon]

No it's not, our store has a ton of it for sale. It's illegal to import certain types of ivory under a certain age limit into the US without a CITES permit. If you want ivory look on eBay and buy from a US seller, you won't have an issue.

With bass conversions I suggest PM Pako as he is the resident bassist around here and knows a lot about them. Also, www.talkbass.com will have information for you as well.

I stand corrected. But I don't know how expensive it is, and I'm not really looking to make my bass that nice. But thanks for the site link. I'll check it out.

I just think the contrast would look good, and would help you with your fingering while you learn how to play fretless.

I agree with you about the contrast; that's why I was thinking about maple strips, as they would contrast with the rosewood neck. Also, it would be a good deal cheaper and easier to work with than ivory.

And as for your so-called fetish, I have a present for you here.

 

[Pako]

*snip*

And as for your so-called fetish, I have a present for you here.

That's Jean's Pac Man bass... You should see his Joust and Lava Conklin's also.

I little wood filler should do ya just nice. 👍

 

[91hondawagon]

That's Jean's Pac Man bass... You should see his Joust and Lava Conklin's also.

I little wood filler should do ya just nice. 👍

I just did, and... wow. Beautiful, but massive.

I'll try water-based wood filler, then. But I'm looking for Jaco's sound, and he used roundwound strings instead of flatwound, so I'll need to coat the fretboard with epoxy once I'm finished filling in the holes. After my research, it should take me about a week to do, so I'll post pics when I'm finished. Wish me luck.

By the way, nice Skjold. I don't know how it sounds, but it looks quite good 👍.

 

[Pako]

I just did, and... wow. Beautiful, but massive.

I'll try water-based wood filler, then. But I'm looking for Jaco's sound, and he used roundwound strings instead of flatwound, so I'll need to coat the fretboard with epoxy once I'm finished filling in the holes. After my research, it should take me about a week to do, so I'll post pics when I'm finished. Wish me luck.

By the way, nice Skjold. I don't know how it sounds, but it looks quite good 👍.

Let us know how it works out. You are going where few have dared to go.

Thanks on the Skjold, I've been loving it's tone for sure.

 

[TB]

I don't know how it sounds

But now you can.

 

[stumpydino]

my mate made a fretless guitar, tho he just replaced the board with a plain bit of wood

making bits of wood to put in would be very fiddly, personally id use a decent and similar shade filler should be fine

 

[Pako]

Black wood filler would give it a cool stealth fret line look, although a lighter color would be easier to see.

 

[91hondawagon]

Yes, I'm thinking of a darker filler instead of a lighter one; a filler that would be very close to the color of the rosewood neck would be perfect, to make the whole neck look smooth and evenly-colored.

But now you can.

And now I do .

I'll check back when I'm finished. If all goes well, then great. If not, at least I'll still have my trusty Jazz bass .

 

[niky]

RE: Pacman... damn... [bassgasm]w00t![/bassgasm]

Good luck on your project!

 

[91hondawagon]

Alright, the wood filler is in! All that remains is the wood finish and new strings:

There's no finish left where the frets were because of the sanding, but that shouldn't be a problem once I apply a new coat. And the weird-looking places at the highest part of the neck add character to my bass, at least in my opinion.

It's by no means a masterpiece, but it's been a fun project so far. I'm glad I did it on my old P-Bass instead of my Jazz. Anyway, it's turned out really well for a first-time project. What do you think?