'De-fretting' my bass...

Tifstorey

Tifstorey

Guinea Pig
Hey all,

Basically ive had myself a bass for a while now and not being the performing kinda guy ive always used it for my own compositions/recordings.

I compose alot of music where the bass lines have to be nice and smooth, which is why someone suggested i take off the frets to get a nice sound and will be much smoother. I sometimes, when recording, get a little 'buzz' from not hitting the strings correctly which i assume is my bad playing, but would this still occur if i removed the frets?

Any advice would be highly appreciated,

Thanks in advance,
 
From what I can remember, I don't think you can remove the frets. You can, however, get a new fretboard, remove the old one and install it. For luthiers only though.
 
I removed the frets from a cheap Ibanez. See, a fretless neck would have cost me $200, which is what the Ibanez cost in the first place. So if I really screwed it up, it was gonna cost me 200 bucks to fix either way.

Anyway, yes, you CAN defret a fretted bass. Happens all the time. Do a google search on it. I know The Bottom Line mail list for bassists covered it many times. (BTW, the list changed its name a few weeks ago but I don't rrecall the new name.)

Basically you apply some heat to the frets to help loosen the glue, then carefully lift/tap them out. A luthier advised me to fill the lines with plastic strips and superglue. It worked well.

I would not advise a DIY approach on a high-end bass guitar though.
 
Great,

Thanks for the fast replies.

Its not a cheap bass but its not expensive either. Its a Peavey Fury IV which cost me around £250 ($400ish?).

So now knowing i can remove them, will this benefit me for what i want to use it for?
 
With a fretless, you won't get the fret rattle from a misplaced finger, you will just be out of tune. If you are having trouble due to accuracy issues, I'd just practice more/harder. If you want the sound of a fretless, fire up the pliers.
 
try using flatwound strings. They have a less edgey sound, if that's what you're after. Thanks EddieRay for clearing that up for me.
 
Sure, we have removed the frets from a number of basses. It costs almost exactly the same as a refret, so about $350, if it is an unbound rosewood or ebony fingerboard.

You have to fill the slots in someway. We usually use a contrasting wood (maple, most often), though the contrast is just because it makes it easier to see where your fingers are supposed to go.

The thing is, the fingerboard for a fretless has to be perfect, so it is not just removing the frets and filling the slots. You have to true up the fingerboard, adjust the nut, and set up the instrument for it's new condition.

Oh, and don't do it with a maple fingerboard. It doesn't work.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I agree with ermghoti,
I play a fretted bass & an, obviously, unfretted 'cello. micro intonation becomes crucial once the fret isn't there to do the work & on top of that there's the issue of actual note placement without the frets to guide eyes & fingers.
I have an old, old Yamaha FX500 effects unit that has a good, albiet very 80's, fretless effect that I tweak a little when I want a frettless sound without the hard work involved in the playing let alone the fretboard modification.
Borrow a bass fiddle, cello or fretless bass from someone & play around with them before committing your bass to a sea change.
Cheers
rayC
P.S.
erm, is that I fish I see?
 
Great thanks all,

I'm going to ask around to see if i can borrow anyones fretless bass to see what that sounds like first. Will also just keep on practicing bass, i guess deep down i was looking for the easy way out.

Thanks again all,
 
Thomann do a Harley Benton Fretless bass, i have the 5string version and prior to this i have never owned a bass although i have played on a fair few of my old bass players and keyboardists as well as a few friends ones.
This bass cost me £120 inc delivery from germany and i have to say, i love it. The sound is nice and once you get used to the finger placement you'll find it much easier to play. The also do a 4string fretless and 6string but here's the link for the 5string.

http://www.thomann.de/index.html?pa...500fltbk_5string_fretless_ebass_prodinfo.html

Ideal if your just lookin to try one out which has a good sound and looks the part, easily playable and easily adjustable if you know what ur doing.
 
A pal 'o mine in Tulsa many many years ago pulled the frets on his bass, a Fender Mustang, if memory serves...He filled the slots with 30 minute epoxy and spen a half hour a day for a month sanding and leveling the fretboard. He wound up having to knock the dot inlays out and epoxying the holes there as well...

...When it was done it played damm nicely, even for a short-scale instrument.

...I'd prefer a factory fretless...

Eric
 
mud said:
Thomann do a Harley Benton Fretless bass, i have the 5string version and prior to this i have never owned a bass although i have played on a fair few of my old bass players and keyboardists as well as a few friends ones.
This bass cost me £120 inc delivery from germany and i have to say, i love it. The sound is nice and once you get used to the finger placement you'll find it much easier to play. The also do a 4string fretless and 6string but here's the link for the 5string.

http://www.thomann.de/index.html?pa...500fltbk_5string_fretless_ebass_prodinfo.html

Ideal if your just lookin to try one out which has a good sound and looks the part, easily playable and easily adjustable if you know what ur doing.
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That looks great, I might try and get together £120 so i can buy that, Being a student has its flaws unfortunately :p

Cheers for that mate,

Thanks for your advice too Stetto, Dont think i could possibly rip the frets off my beloved bass :( No matter how little it cost.
 
This month's Guitar Player mag (Feb issue? the one w/ John Mayer on the cover) has an article on fretless guitars with a sidebar article on how to convert a guitar to a fretless. I assume it would work for a bass as well.

The downside to going fretless: you get blamed for every wrong note the band plays! :p At least we always blame the fretless bass players.
 
jfrog said:
The downside to going fretless: you get blamed for every wrong note the band plays! :p At least we always blame the fretless bass players.
Click to expand...

Ha, well i guess it's a good thing i dont play in a band! I just record little bass lines for my compositions. Alot of them i like to be smooth and slide up and down the neck alot which is why i got the suggestion.

Think i will just learn how to play bass properly :p
 
sure you can do it but why?

Just save up enough to buy a cheap fretless, that way you've still got the fretted version, which you will want again at some point. If you try the DYI thing, just be prepared to junk the bass when it doesn't work. Some guys just like to do stuff like this for fun, and that's cool, but they're not doing it to save money. The most famous case, of course, is Jaco Pastorious' defretting of his Jazz and glopping on multiple layers of epoxy. That, however, was as much luck as anything, not to mention the fact that Jaco could have probably played anything and made it sound good. I suspect that he was also pretty high when he made the decision to rip the frets out.

To Light - why won't it work on a maple? I've always wondered why you vitually never see maple fretless and would like to know the science behind it.

Good luck all.
 
didn't Jaco Pastorius do this to his bass when he was about 16? took all the frets off his bass, and played it for the rest of his life?

Andy
 
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