I'm assuming this will work like an upright bass? Your finger will produce the break point for the string, and not the fret wire that used to be there?
What effect does this have on tone etc? Anything at all?
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I'm assuming this will work like an upright bass? Your finger will produce the break point for the string, and not the fret wire that used to be there?
What effect does this have on tone etc? Anything at all?
Yes I think it will. The fret markers are to give a guitar playing bass hacker like me some guidance. To do it properly you'd replace the fretboard with no fret slots cut.
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looking good Ponch, looks like you have plenty of glue on the fingerboard will soak in nicely and give it the protection a fretless needs.
There is some nice lighter grain on that rosewood fingerboard. So you going to cut the headstock shape later Ponch ?
@ Zandit, a fretless is so cool to play, you can seamlessly slide into notes (like a slide guitar) and to get a vibrato sound instead of bending the strings up and down you can slide your finger up and down the fingerboard to get the same effect. They are the bees knees of bass guitars, I can see why DB hates speed bumps on basses !
DB used to use pot plant tags to fill the fret slots but these days he uses really thin binding works a treat. You can also get the binding in white, cream, red, black and probably other colours. That's what I used to fill the slots on my fretless IB-5 conversion, which I still need to drop the nut height and glue it in place
Cheers Woks. Yes headstock shaping to follow. This project was always about getting the fretboard right with everything else to follow although body is pretty much sanded. And have finally decided on a body colour, FW jarrah with ebony timbermate grain pop. Neck - DT colorless, I'll then wire wool the back of the neck back a bit.
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plans sound awesome Ponch. I will use ebony timbermate on every ash build in the future, brings out the grain the best.
FW Jarrah is a beautiful colour, I've used it on a few ash builds. What headstock shape will it be a typical F type shape ? I'd keep the maple offcuts in case you need to do a test stain or to plug misaligned tuner holes.
I'll probably go for a cross between a Tele bass & p-bass headstock, or p-bass like this
http://s456.photobucket.com/user/Jos...M1582.jpg.html
Good idea with the offcuts, I keep them all in a biscuit tin along with zip seal bags of saw dust!
sounds good Ponch, don't offer to anyone the maple in a biscuit tin in bad lighting - they may think they are shortbread sticks hahah
Wet sanding the fretboard has begun. 600 to 2000 grit plus automotive polishing compound is in order.
This is what it looks like up to the 12th fret on 600 grit. All shiny spots to be removed at this stage then finer levels of paper thereafter should be just a scratch removal job. The white stuff is just excess dust.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...53d084af12.jpg
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good stuff Ponch, looks like you smeared it well in glue but that's a good thing, just a bit more elbow grease to get it shiny !!
looking good mate !
Aching arm but done. Very glassy and should help the fretboard to withstand the strings
Piccies a bit hard at night but check out the colours in the rosewood
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http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...4449df49f5.jpg
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Niiiiice!
cheers,
Gav.
Cheers Gav. And a better of the fretboard grain in the sunlight. Headstock half cut.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...2c9ff50098.jpg
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looks great Ponch, never seen a rosewood fingerboard with such light colours in it
Cheers Woks. I reckon the factory may stain the wood black during their build process
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you may be right there Ponch, I've seen some really nice light grain in some kits
So you any closer to putting stain on the body ? was it FW jarrah you are using ?
Not just yet Woks. I will be using FW jarrah. I've just cut the headstock and attached neck. And some careful measuring for the bridge.
I picked up a goto bridge, goto machine heads, bone nut and tonerider jazz pups from the post office today for upgrades. Electronics the usual upgrades.
Once I've drilled bridge holes I'll finish the neck (sanding and DT clear). Then ebony timbermate and jarrah body effort!
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Looking good ponch. Upgrades sounds tasty too!
Can't wait to see some stain on the body
Yeah it's about time I've had this kit knocking around for months!
And what a pity, it looks like the bridge needs recessing so I'll need to pick up a router ☺
Any recommendations?
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Andrew suggest you get a router that needs you to hold with two hands. I have a triton which is great. I recently bought thishttp://www.bunnings.com.au/ryobi-400...router_p621060 No customers where harmed in my visit to Bunnings other than my pride. as I needed something to use on a small section. I'm not happy with the fact it's quite slippery and can spin out your hand easily. DB did recommend that I use it with a clamp so I could at least hold with two hands. If it's not deep use a Dremel with router base the Stewmac one is great and solid. Also handy for inlay work. I bought the Dremel router base first it's cheap plastic and not very strong. Then went on to purchase the Stewmac version.
Hope it helps.
Best wishes
Kimball
Cheers Kimball thanks for the advice. I may investigate the stewmac dremel router base option as I have a dremel laying around and it's only a few mm I need to recess
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good tips KB and also TO THE NAUGHTY WAREHOUSE for posting a BGSFOS link and shopping there !! bwhahaha
what refreshments would you like buddy ?
Kimball should know better, so no beer and straight to the cupboard under the stairs in the NW.
The Dremel will be perfect Andrew
No I just posted the ad under protest from Wokka lol . Jeez banned to the northwest tower again. You could at least install running water. Woks any beer would be great checking fridge. I'll pull some Peroni out fridge goes well with Pizza lol.
Close of play last night. Tuners and bridge installed. Tested with plastic nut. Sounds nice and loud acoustically which I take as a good sign. You can even here the Fretless phwang sound as you pluck each note.
The pickup routes need a bit of tweaking now to fit the Toneriders.
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So for decal I'll be dremelling out something to inlay with black timbermate then superglueing. And as the body grain is too good to hide I'm thinking transparent red, brown or orange pickguard over the grain popped jarrah. I'll sleep on that idea.
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looks excellent Ponch, so how was your first fretless experience ? feels pretty cool hey. So are they Gotoh tuners and bridge ?
Your bloody Swannys let me down in the footy tipping lastnight, what a thriller Richmond winning after the siren by a point !
Awesome Woks it's unreal. I cannot believe I hadn't seen the light with a fretless earlier. Gotoh bridge but kit tuners. The gotoh tuners were a bit cramped looking on the back so they are reserved for my next bass build where I will fill and redrill holes if necessary to accommodate them
Ah the Swans game, a classic thriller and cannot believe you were relying on them lol
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good stuff Ponch, fretless is a little like a slide guitar but a unique sound, I love the note sliding. I bet your next bass build won't have any speed bumps !
I thought the tuners looked stock
Spot on Woks. I'm already planning the next one in my head.. I may go for a fretless Hofner style. ..
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Looking amazing andrew! Looking forward to seeing all the wiring in and the scratchplate on. If the neck feels half as good as it looks then it must be a dream to play.
cheers,
Gav.
Hi Andrew, I really wanted to run with no scratch plate on my non PBG J Bass but the neck PUP route was just so big and ugly that I had to hide it along with lots of grainy goodness too.
Also contemplated a clear or mirror finished one and Pabs provided me with a quote that was quite reasonable for less than $30 bucks from memory.
Yes its a shame about the under pick guard route. Two things that would be awesome from the factory side - under pick guard pup routes correct size and machine head holes lined up correctly (although most kits I've had are more than passable and not noticeable).
This maybe a pickguard job for Pabs!
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How about a one piece mini aluminium plate pickguard, just big enough to cover the pickup rout that extends down covering the wire rout and becomes the control plate. A bit of effort to make, but may work. I'd try a few different style and colour pickguard mockups in Photoshop/Gimp and see what works.
It blows me away that the factory creates such big unnecessary routes for neck pickups on some models such as Telecaster and J Bass, both of which I would have preferred to go naked rather than cover up with a scratch plate due to the big ugly gaping holes underneath.
Thanks for the inspiration - this idea transcended me for a few seconds out of my conventional minds eye, I could see this working!Quote:
Originally Posted by WeirdBits
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Finalising neck finish after a week of sanding to 400 grit. Not much going on on with the grain but it's lovely and smooth!
One coat of DT clear neck applied and happily curing...
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...624dbc4e7a.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...b357bf2d38.jpg
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looking sweet as Ponch. I was lucky enough to have a quick play of DB's seafoam green tele bass Friday night, it was so nice to play !
Looking very nice Andrew, and with the hardware upgrades should sound great as well.
I can't believe that for many, many, many years I have played speed-bump basses, now I have seen the light. No going back now. lol.
Thanks guys. Slow progress I'm being exceedingly pedantic with this one to see how good I can get it finished. Speed bumpless basses are the way to go!
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