H's JBA-4 Fretless

[UpperCaseH]

I'm starting my second kit before I've finished my first. Guess the bug has really bitten...

I've wanted a fretless bass for a while (bass is my main thing), but I've never felt justified in buying one because I don't know if I'll be as into it as I am into my P-Bass. I restrung the P with flats, and while I love them, it's kind of impossible to get a good rock or punk sound out of it now, so the plan is to build this kit fretless, move the flats over to it, and go back to rounds on the P.

I started a thread in the "how to" forum about converting a bass to fretless, and thanks to the advice there I feel pretty confident that I can make it happen.

Kit arrived today. Quick mock build showed that all the parts were present and no major issues. Neck fits pretty well with a little bit of play.



A couple of things suprised me about this kit.

The pickguard's black, not white as depicted. That's good, because I was going to buy a black one anyway.

It came with ashtray style pickup covers. Not sure the bridge one actually fits over the bridge, but since I'm not going to use them it doesn't matter. Maybe they'll be useful on a future project.

The pickguard and pickups were already installed. Not sure why, since I've obviously had to pull them off anyway. Not a problem, just a surprise.

The neck inlays are rectangular, not dots. I was probably going to remove the dots, but I might leave the rectangles. Only problem with the neck is that the inlays and frets look really nice - nice enough that I'm almost questioning whether or not to go fretless at all (...I'm gonna though).

The body has a... crack I guess... where two of the pieces join.



It's not all the way through, so I'm sure it'll fill easily with the timbermate I'm planning for this build anyway.



All disassembled, components bagged up to make them harder to lose, and back in the box until I get some free time.



Plan is a grain fill/pop with ebony timbermate, then a stain. I emailed DB about a custom colour, but he hasn't got back to me (I understand he's laid up with a back injury, and I know how much that sucks!), but what I'd like to do is something close to Wudtone Dark Tease. I'd like to use dingotone though because it's been so simple so far. Probably I'll do the neck in the same colour as the body this time round. Presumably I can use the DT neck final coat over the regular DT stain/intensifier?

De-fretting and finishing the fingerboard will obviously be the hard part. Plan is to pull the frets (I've ordered a nipper), fill with ebony timbermate, and then either CA or epoxy for the finish. I expect to swear a lot as I'm doing this, and I'll probably ask a million questions.

Also, why is the neck pickup hole not the same as the bridge? If it was, I'd probably ditch the pick guard, but there'd be a huge ugly gap around it then. Maybe I'll try to find a pickguard surround or something. Again, this isn't a complaint as the pickguard would cover that hole, I'm just wondering why it's like that.

Don't think I'll be able to get actually started until next week, but who knows?

[wokkaboy]

wow H thats a very cool looking kit, I LOVE block fret markers they are so rock n roll. My guess is this kit has come from another factory, seems strange you got a black pickguard and block fret markers.
AndrewO (Ponch) his JBA-4 had dot markers and I got a JBA-4 from about 2 years ago and it's same as Ponch's and like the photo's on the PBG shop.
With the neck pup route I don't know why the factory route an oversized rectangle shape - it would have looked much better to be the shape of the bridge pup route, especially as Ponch used a frosted clear pickguard.
Rip those frets out ! I was playing my Jazz fretless lastnight (DB built it was a xmas present 2014 or 2015), can't beat the sound dude !

[pablopepper]

Heck yes, block markers on a j bass look great!

[UpperCaseH]

Potential change of plan here (already)...

This body doesn't have the open rout from the control cavity to the neck pickup that heard that previous JBA kits had, which means I might be able to get away with no pickguard, which would be sweet.

That means that I'd need a pickup surround/ring/whatever from somewhere (something like this: http://www.fretsonthenet.com/Pickups...32Trim:32Rings) and leave the pickguard off entirely. I can even use the funds I had set aside for a black pickguard. Or maybe just cut the pickguard down to the right shape!

How to best fill the factory pickguard holes though?

Edit: I haven't used timbermate before. Do I sand the body at 180 first, then timbermate, then sand again? Or just go straight to the timbermate?

[Dedman]

you MAY be able to fill them with timber mate, then use a fine sharpy to draw a series of dots then smudge it thus disguising them as part of the grain. I used that system to hide a couple of small glue spots recently. It will depend on if you intend popping the grain and how dark your final stain is going to be

[UpperCaseH]

you MAY be able to fill them with timber mate, then use a fine sharpy to draw a series of dots then smudge it thus disguising them as part of the grain. I used that system to hide a couple of small glue spots recently. It will depend on if you intend popping the grain and how dark your final stain is going to be

I do intend on popping the grain, and I want the final stain to be quite dark, maybe just a shade lighter than your GD-1 might look like if it looked "new" instead of "dug up" (that is one awesome guitar, by the way).

[Dedman]

it might work, the idea of the smudged sharpy dots is to break up the perfectly round shape so it looks more like grain, I did it on the top of the hollowbody I'm doing now and the glue marks are hard to find now even when I know where they are.
and thanks on the GD compliment.

[UpperCaseH]

Awesome, I'll give it a try. If it looks terrible I can always put the pick guard back on.

[stan]

i think the neck route was done quick and dirty because they expected the pickguard to cover it anyway...

isn't one of those metal covers for going over the bridge?

block marker looks awesome on that bass, you got lucky there i think

[UpperCaseH]

isn't one of those metal covers for going over the bridge?

I assume so, yeah. I kinda like the oldschool look of them, but it'd be a pain having to pull it off every time I wanted mess with the bridge (and forget about covering the neck pickup, that's exactly where I usually play).

Also, I thought the Fender jazz basses that came with them had longer ones that covered both the bridge and the bridge pickup. This one's shorter like you'd see on a p-bass and wouldn't cover the bridge pickup.

Edit: The bridge cover I have looks like the top one, not the bottom one