fretless conversion

  • Thread starter Thread starter mshilarious
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mshilarious

mshilarious

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I am officially *done* with frets on a bass, ever. Of this I am sure.

So, for many years I've contemplated doing the fretless conversion on my Epi Viola, which is cheap so no worries if it isn't perfect . . . but . . .

I want to take a few extra inches of scale length post-conversion . . . floating bridge, just need a new, shorter tailpiece, maybe a shim under the bridge, and I'll have 32". Now, I like short-scale basses (with heavy gauge strings), but I think 32" will be a bit nicer than the stock 30".

Which of course means all of the dots will be wrong, and I don't want dots anyway, I want a fretless look. I am not real concerned with pitch anymore anyway.

The stock fingerboard is some rosewood-imitation, so the question is:

a) pull the frets, fill, drill out dots, fill, dye black? Somehow I feel like the evidence will still be visible :(

b) plane down the fingerboard and slap an ebony veneer on top (source?) Doesn't have to be ebony, actually I'd rather go with something domestic but I'm not sure what would be hard enough and also available in the size I'd need. I am not too worried about making the neck a little thicker in doing so. I'd like a tighter radius too, even though I never play arco (gonna stick an endpin on this bad boy someday maybe for an EUB)

I don't feel up to pulling the fingerboard . . . I've done it on a mandolin, but I get the feeling it won't go well with my tools on a bass . . .
 
Man, I've been contemplating the best way to convert a bass to fretless, for about a year, and I STILL haven't gotten past it.
 
I haven't done this (no need - I have fretless basses), but I would go about it by taking off the neck (if possible), removing the nut, pulling the frets, cleaning the slots with a saw of appropriate kerf and drilling out the position markers, then filling with a black epoxy like this: STEWMAC.COM : Stewart-MacDonald Epoxy

I'd probably paint a thick layer of it on the (cleaned or sanded) fingerboard at the same time. When cured, sand it with an appropriately radiused sanding block (or just a flat block would probably do if you're careful) of appropriate grades.
 
I'd pull the fretboard. It isn't that hard especially on a bass thats going to be fretless. If you want to use the existing fb pull the frets and fill with timber shims and sand a new raduis. The dots are going to be harder to hide/ Drilling them out aint easy unless they are paint on. If you do drill them out you are still going to see the mod. Do you have a router? If so have you considered routing off the fb past the dots and planting another blank on top?

What ever you do use a radius block. I can post a DIY radius block walk thru if needed.
 
I do have a router but I'm only used to gorilla-quality routing like speaker cabinets and control cavities; that is, stuff that gets covered up. The Epi has a set neck with a mild radius on the fingerboard so I'm worried about ending up flat post-routing . . . :(

If I go the fingerboard replacement route LMI will radius a fingerboard for $9, pretty good deal it seems, the board itself is $20, plus a new tailpiece maybe $30-$50, that would keep the whole job affordable.

So, removal, I just have a knife, not a steam rig . . . :confused:
 
mshilarious said:
I do have a router but I'm only used to gorilla-quality routing like speaker cabinets and control cavities; that is, stuff that gets covered up. The Epi has a set neck with a mild radius on the fingerboard so I'm worried about ending up flat post-routing . . . :(

If I go the fingerboard replacement route LMI will radius a fingerboard for $9, pretty good deal it seems, the board itself is $20, plus a new tailpiece maybe $30-$50, that would keep the whole job affordable.

So, removal, I just have a knife, not a steam rig . . . :confused:
Click to expand...

To route half the fingerboard off you would build a fairly simple jig and work off that. You'd want to finish with a flat surface to bond the new fb onto.
 
mshilarious said:
So, removal, I just have a knife, not a steam rig . . . :confused:
Click to expand...

Thats one way. It would depend on whether you wanted to keep the old fb. Is that neck bound?

Steam is not needed. The heat does the job. Steam is only used to transfer heat to hard to reach areas.
 
Neck is not bound, and I don't care about the old fingerboard. That tailpiece I linked is just a tailpiece, not a wraparound; I will definitely keep the existing floating bridge. I do know a guy that does pretty high-end welding though (like stainless rails on giant yachts), maybe he can chop the old tailpiece for me.

As for my knife, it's not a hot knife although I have a heat gun which I could use to heat the knife, or maybe just a pot of boiling water . . . probably I'd have to pull it several times to reheat, but if I pull the frets first I should be able to shim up the fingerboard as I go?
 
With all the cheap fretless basses available why neuter a perfectly decent bass?
 
bassbrad said:
With all the cheap fretless basses available why neuter a perfectly decent bass?
Click to expand...

My thoughts too... sounds like a huge amount of work - fretless's are not that popular, you could pick up one for small beans and keep the epi?
 
If you can find me a semihollow archtop short-scale fretless with good tone, good acoustic volume (usually I don't bother to plug in when I play), and no position markers/fret lines on the fingerboard, *and* would look reasonable if deployed as an EUB for $300, I'll take it!

The cheap fretlesses I know of are all P-bass shape knockoffs with fret lines . . . not what I want.

You should also be aware that I modify all of my instruments, so this is nothing new for me. The So-Cal has a whammy and a handwound underwound humbucker. The Airscreamer has windows (clear bobbin pickups) and working side marker lights (meter LEDs). The Rhythm Traveler kit has bottom heads. The kit ukulele was upgraded with green abalone rosette, dots, and bridge inlay. The Yamaha personal piano has lead-weighted keys. The pipe organ . . . eh, let's not go there, it still isn't done :(

And soon the Viola will be much closer to its inspiration . . . well, OK, maybe cello . . .
 
OK, those are $700. If I had $700, I'd pay my mortgage or something :p
 
Fair one :) sounds like a good project, hope youre gonna post some pics! I'd like to see that Airscreamer.
 
I used to have a Fender musicmaster and in the midst of my jazz fusion renaissance of 1990, I decided to see if I could have it converted to fretless. This guy did it for me and did a great job. But I didn't realize that with no frets, all the note positions change ! The first time I sat down to play it, I thought I'd lost it ! I had to learn to play a whole different way. It was worth it for the slides though.
My acoustic bass guitar that I have now is fretless but the fret markings are there. I need the fret marks even though they don't correspond to the actual notes. Even when I had a cello and double bass, I painted fret marks ! With those marks, it's alot easier to make choices about finger placement.
 
I want to be unburdened by any suggestion of pitch, complete freedom from tonality :) 90% of people that hear my music already don't like it, I am working on converting that last 10%. I am not too concerned with sliding either, just want to play very out of tune sounds plainly.

Also, I'm not going to post any pictures, I just wanted some free advice :p
 
My first bass, actually my first "instrument" outside of junior high band was a 3/4 scale bass, got it when I was about 17 I guess. Some cheap ass thing, I don't remember who made it but it was all I could afford at the time.

Anyway, after about a year or so I had picked up an Ensoniq EPS sampler and wasn't playing it much so I decided to make it fret-less. I just grabbed a pair of pliers and pulled out all the frets. Then I painted the neck purple and yellow checkerboards.

Good times :) - I might have a picture of it somewhere...
 
Today I pulled the frets and crammed the bridge right up against the tailpiece, so the midpoint is now the old 13th fret. I didn't sand down the board because I didn't pull the strings, so it is "fretting" out a bit. I'm going to leave it in this reversible stage for a week or so before proceeding :)

I'm thinking with the tailpiece it might work to go the traditional route of wrapping wire around the endpin with some cork to protect the top, that would get the tailpiece quite close to the edge. Of course nylon won't be strong enough, but I have some high-tensile steel wire that would do the trick, just have to figure out how to fasten it without looking vineyard-ghetto . . .
 
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