First bass kit (fretless P)

My girlfriend's brother is a classically trained violinist/music teacher and mentioned that he wanted a 5 string fretless with no markers. I proposed that if I assembled one, he could pay by buying me the kit I had been eyeing for months. He agreed and I ordered the kits from the internet. My intent for my payment bass was a 50's style P bass (with a humbucker) with maple fingerboard. I ordered the "PBG-BN4MF FRETLESS MAPLE NECK W/MAPLE FRETBOARD FOR JB AND PB STYLE KITS" from Pitbull. I also ordered some black Gotoh Lollipop tuners and a black Gotoh bridge, they should arrive soon. I might put an additional humbucker at the neck position, as that was my original plan, but I haven't yet decided. I have dyed the body with a black/blue burst and coated with poly. I now have to wait 30 days for the poly to cure to finish sand and polish the body. This is my plan:

This is what I have so far.

Looks good! Very cool headstock. I don't think I have ever seen a maple fretless before. Was that a special order?

Erm, am I the only one who's noticed it seems to be a string short? I count 4 tuner holes, not 5:rolleyes:.....

I'm sorry if I was unclear. The 5 string is a jazz bass I will be doing for my girlfriend's brother-in-law. This blue P-bass was my payment for doing the 5 for him. I'll post pics of his jazz when I start working on it. I have only seen a few maple fretless fingerboards and they were stunning. I don't know how well it will wear over time but that's part of the experiment! I am still unsure whether I will use CA glue, epoxy or oil on the fingerboard. Yes, it was essentially a special order. The kit came with a fretted maple neck and it was from another website. I ordered the fretless neck by itself from Pitbull. It says on their website that if you order a kit from them (Pitbull), you can get a different neck if you contact them and give them some extra time to match it to the kit. Thanks, my headstock idea was an homage to Leo Fender's original Tele headstock. It was fun getting out the old carving tools and whittlin' in the sunshine!

I imagine it will need something to harden and protect the neck. Hard as maple is, it is not as hard as rosewood or ebony. I have never used CA or epoxy, but I understand that CA at least needs periodic re-application. I don't think the oil would be durable enough.

I am working on making a fretless with a rosewood board. Will be using round-wounds to try to minimize wear.

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Almost any neck finish will require some re-application at some point in time. I can't think of any finish that will be quite as hard as steel, so the strings will always win.

At least with a fretless, you've got no frets in the way, so its easy enough to take the neck off, sand it down smooth, reapply your finish, sand that back smooth and fine sand and polish to your requirements.


The Pitbull necks all come with a 12" radius as standard, so unless the Pit Bull fretless neck is any different, getting hold of a 12" radius sanding block will help ensure that you keep an even radius across the neck when sanding down your finish.

IIRC, there are no fret position markers on the neck, but there are side dots where they'd normally go on a fretted neck i.e. midway-between some of the fret positions. So you might want to consider removing those if you find them off-putting, or even then adding your own where the frets would normally go.

Yes, the Pitbull necks have a 12' radius. I ordered the block along with the neck. It does have the fret markers in the fretted positions. I had considered replacing them to the correct positions for fretless, but haven't yet decided if I will or not. I was thinking of adding a light dye stain to bring out the natural grain of the maple, then adding the CA glue but am hesitant as I don't want it too yellow or orange. Does anyone know if CA glue will work if I treat the fingerboard with boiled linseed oil first? I asked at my local Woodcraft store, but they weren't entirely sure. I know that BLO will create a good look, but don't know if the glue will hold. I will apply the scientific method in the meantime: experiment, observe, take notes and learn.

I have a feeling that CA will work best if applied straight to the fretboard. It will probably stick to the BLO at first, but might peel away with age. You'd probably need the BLO to be very well cured before doing so, which could take at least a month or more.

I'd apply a very light water or spirit stain to the fretboard first. You can always dilute it significantly so that you get very little tint on each application.

I was thinking it probably wouldn't work. I will probably lightly stain it. Luckily, I was able to get some maple scraps to ruin until I figure out my process. Thank you all for your input and feedback!

Be careful with the rounds, they wear much more than flats or tape-wounds. The other 5 string that I am working on has an unfinished rosewood fingerboard and the round-wounds it came with have already left marks. I haven't even played it much since assembling it and it was brand new.

I stained and lacquered both necks over the past week. I went with Simon’s recommendation and mixed up an amber dye out of my premixed Transfast primary colors: 30mL yellow and then adding red drop by drop until it was slightly orange and then doing the same with blue until I had a rich amber. I was really pleased with the result. I did the 5 string neck with the a darker amber mix, then sanded back and recoated with the lighter amber. I added 6 coats of Minwax spray lacquer (my local Woodcraft store looked it up and said it is 3% nitrocellulose) and it turned the ugly spots on the neck into beauty marks! It is quite iridescent. I stained the maple fingerboard on my 4 string with the darker amber but I am not ready to unmask it yet, you’ll have to wait for that reveal! Would it be better to do the CA glue/epoxy fingerboard coat straight to raw wood or can I hit it with lacquer first?

Straight to raw wood would be my choice so the epoxy really grips the wood. I know the lacquer will grip the wood, but I'm less sure of how well the epoxy will grip the lacquer. Epoxy straight on to dyed wood will be fine (provided the wood's fully dried off afterwards). So unless you really must add a lacquer coat to the fingerboard for extra colour, it would probably be best to avoid it if you can. I'm no expert on this, but as the lacquer won't be providing any of the actual board protection, as that will be done by the epoxy, if it were me, I'd leave it off.

The Minwax looks to be a simple clear nitro lacquer spray. From the safety sheet, all the contents apart from the nitrocellulose are solvents or propellants: https://www.minwax.com/document/SDS/en/US/027426152007

If you do spray the lacquer, then I'd wait a good month for it to cure hard and for all the solvents to evaporate before applying the epoxy. Otherwise you could get solvents trapped beneath the epoxy, and that may well loosen its hold on the lacquer.

I was thinking it might be better on raw wood. The nitro is softer than the CA and I know you want the substrate to be less flexible than the top coat. I'm just trying to get as much shimmer and chatoyance from the wood and wasn't sure whether CA would enhance the grain as well as nitro. I love what it did for both necks! Wish I had done my 4 string body with it instead of poly.

Whoops! I got a little careless removing the tape. Oh well, took a little extra time this morning to remove the "blemishes" and level the fingerboard but it's fixed now. I had to mix up more dye so the color is darker, but I think it will look better than what I had. Lesson learned!

Glad I ordered a 12" radius sanding block with my fretless neck, or that could've been a difficult mess!

That color is very cool. This is fun build to watch.

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Originally Posted by Toolman76

I'm just trying to get as much shimmer and chatoyance from the wood...

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You may be asking a lot. My old string bass had steel, flatwound strings and an ebony board, and it held up pretty well. That said, ebony is about twice as hard as maple and about a third harder than rosewood. I'd want the finish to be as hard as possible, to avoid having to refinish too often. Of course, it would come as no surprise to my wife that laziness tends to trump aesthetics on my projects...

Thanks Fender3x, it is definitely a fun build! I have been reading about epoxy and West Systems 105/207 would be my choice, but knowing that all epoxies yellow/darken over time makes me hesitant. It’s also north of $100 USD. I have CA and activator. Though CA has a lower shear strength than epoxy, I agree sometimes laziness/thrift/practicality is the smarter option. Hmm, I’ll CA coat the other bass fingerboard in the meantime. It is rosewood, so I am not as timid and can get a feel for the process.

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Originally Posted by Toolman76

Thanks Fender3x, it is definitely a fun build! I have been reading about epoxy and West Systems 105/207 would be my choice, but knowing that all epoxies yellow/darken over time makes me hesitant.

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When I was building my canoe, I used the Aussie epoxy Bote Cote. Specifically I used the one with a non yellowing hardener.

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Originally Posted by Toolman76

...It’s also north of $100 USD...

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Ouch! you can buy a lot of sandpaper and CA for $100 USD! Hope that Rabbit's idea is cheaper.

Alright, so where was I? That's right, the fingerboard. So I worked, I think 8 coats of CA glue onto the maple with the back of sandpaper as a squeegie to spread it. The first 4 coats were with thin glue, then the final 4 were with medium body Titebond CA. I learned several valuable lessons doing this. First was not to do it without shoes on! I stepped in a drop and didn't know until I felt my toe burning. By the time I got to it, it was cured and I had to cut off the sock. Had a piece of sock stuck to me for several hours! Doh! My other lesson, and one I feel the need to share, as I had to learn the hard way, is that each layer HAS to be sanded flat before the application of the next coat. If you are impatient (like me), you'll think that the glue should fill the voids in the previous coat cleanly. Instead, it leaves little white, cloudy spots that can only be removed by sanding them out, back to the layer they were originally on. One other lesson I will share is that using the CA activator always left it white and crusty and created more sanding. I decided to let it air dry which took a while. I ended up sanding through to bare wood at the nut that I then had to restain. I had used up all my original amber color mix and had to reformulate to touch up. It wasn't 100% matched but close enough. I made extra this time! Finally decided to drop fill CA on my bare wood spots and use Dan Erlewine's razor blade technique before final sanding. I then worked through the sanding grits; 400, 600, 800, 1200, 1500, 2000. Then used the Stewmac sanding pad set and worked up to 4000 grit. Looks like glass! Back to the body: after waiting for my spray poly finish to cure for 30 days, I noticed it had yellowed turning the body a bit green. I wasn't satisfied and liked my neck finish so much that I decided to sand the body back and in doing so, had to sand back to wood. Doh! Then the rain started... and continued... for another month. I waited for the humidity to drop below 60%. It didn't, so I shifted gears. I was internet buying black hardware and bought a black three hole control plate without measuring because (doh!) and it was too large for the body. Finding a black pickguard was proving difficult/expensive so I bought a piece of birch plywood and cut out a pickguard and control plate. I ordered some black lacquer. Figured while I was at it, I'd order some blush eraser. This was a game changer! The blush eraser allowed me to finish the finish without having to wait for this place to dry out (Virginia, USA). I would highly recommend the stuff if you are in a humid area, just go with light a mist/fog and let it dry somewhere away from humidity. I dried mine in a small bathroom with the AC running and took the dogs outside to avoid the fumes. I stained the pickguard like I had done the body and neck and then sprayed a black lacquer burst around the edges. Finally got several coats of lacquer on the body, pickguard and control plate and sanded all up to 1200 grit. I then finished everything but the fingerboard with colortone buffing compounds (medium, fine) and brought it to a shiny hand polish. Then used a buffing pad on my orbital sander with the Colortone swirl remover. Finally got it put together and it is already louder than my other basses without the electronics! Now I need to wire it up and it should be done. I'll get some pics uploaded soon.

Some body shots after spraying on poly, that I later had to undo. Also, the fingerboard before CA. Another lesson of note: My first application, I used a paint stick wrapped in plastic as a nut slot dam. Yeah, didn't work. Had to file out the slot and was looking around for fret dam material. In reading, I learned that cyanoacrylate won't adhere to HDPE. I got a milk jug from my recycle bin and cut out a rectangle and folded it lengthwise. Stuck it in the slot and it worked like a charm!

So much sanding! Also, low tack masking tape removed the nitro on the headstock! Mockup with the pickup

Since this started as a fretted kit, it turned out the fretless neck I ordered from Pitbull was a couple inches shorter than the kit neck. I had to move the bridge back to compensate, exposing the bridge ground hole. I guess I'm going to eventually put in a bridge pickup to get rid of the holes. That will be a future mod. Maybe a soapbar? Jazz? Another MM style? Haven't yet decided. I just got the 12" 1/8 bit to drill for the new position, just haven't drilled it yet.

I hand sprayed a black burst on the back of the neck to clean up the division between neck and fingerboard. I masked the maple, then laid the neck on my trash can lid and sprayed diagonally down and horizontally. This resulted in a pretty good burst. I then sprayed from the heel to blend it.

I think I put too many lacquer coats, it's a little puffy looking. It's ok, she has flaws but I love that shine!

Coming together...

I made the rookie mistake of carving my headstock before receiving the tuners. So I decided to angle them slightly. I just liked the look of them lined up in the back. This thing sounds good already!

And this is where I am now. The black neck plate I bought had smaller screws than the original chrome neck screws. I filled the neck holes with skewers and glue and re drilled. I think I might go back and re plug with maple. The neck now shifts position under pressure. I have to line it up visually against the strings (LaBella Tapewounds, by the way). I have heard it is better to have the holes in the body larger than the screws so they don't bind and you get a flush fit, but it seems it allows a bit of play, even with the screws tightened. I am debating making a 45° drill jig to countersink the neck/body joint with 2 screws (a la Billy Sheehan's Yamaha Attitude bass), or trying to hunt down the larger sized screws in black. Other than that, I just need to solder. My friend is going to show me how, just need to coordinate a time. My final upgrade (for now): a Bartolini classic MM4CBC! Thanks to all on this forum for your help! Even if you didn't directly contribute, I have learned a lot reading the posts and I plan to post more. Now if you'll excuse me, I've been on the computer too long. I have a new bass to practice!

After staring at it on the wall for a while, I noticed I had not leveled the nitro properly and had low spots. I had to disassemble it to drill the bridge ground wire hole anyway and so I decided to knock everything down and re polish. Sanded the puffiness out of the pick guard and worked on the getting the body level. Started w/ 800 grit and went to 1200. Got the body looking good and was getting ready for final buffing and polishing. I set it down on the couch for about 20 minutes while I buffed the pick guard. There was a towel under it and for some reason I can't figure, the towel left a texture pattern on the back. Nothing was on the towel and the finish was cured, or so I thought. Tried sanding more, but looks like it was down to bare wood! @#$%^&*!!! two more coats of lacquer on the back (not doing the front and sides, they're done) and now I wait for the finish to cure again before sanding and buffing.

My friend that I jam with (drummer) is hounding me to make this thing active. He says since it's disassembled, I might as well rout for a battery. Thing is, I'm not really ready for that. I have active basses, and while louder I don't like the fact that I have to keep buying 9 volt batteries. I prefer to plug and play. Besides, I am not good enough a player yet to want to hear myself playing louder. I also have spent enough money on this thing for the time being. He's been a drummer for 35 years, so I figure he knows more than I do but I'm just not sold on the idea. My plan was to wire it passive and learn to play it until I feel I need to make it active, then upgrade (probably when I add another pickup). He thinks I'm wasting the Bartolini by not boosting it. Also, it's a 50's style P bass with a small cavity (2 pots) and I doubt a preamp would fit without extra routing. Any thoughts? I just want to learn to play the thing!

Is it your bass or his? ;)

Point taken

Hopefully in the light-hearted way it was intended. Sorry if it came across a bit curt.

No worries, it was.:) I most likely will not take his advice. I was just not sure if I was missing something about the active thing.

I've got a passive Lakland P-bass with a Bartolini and it's just fine. It's ex-Neil Murray (Whitesnake, Gary Moore) and he used it for playing 500 We Will Rock You shows in London. So if a passive P-Bass with Bartolinis is good enough for him, it should be good enough for you.

And if you want to play louder, just get a bigger amp.

Looking back you were still spraying poly on 27th June, or is that just when you posted the pics and wrote the words? If so it's been a maximum of seven days since the last coats went on, maybe less if you sprayed after that. You'd normally wait 2 weeks minimum before polishing (though I often do my first sand level sooner as the rougher surface gives a greater surface drying area). And if you've put a lot of coats on, it's gong to take longer than two weeks.

How long was the poly drying for?

I left the poly on for 30 days to cure, but wasn't happy with the yellowing, so I sanded back, re stained and did the body in nitro. You are probably right, Simon. I thought I let the nitro cure sufficiently but thinking back, I may have gotten impatient and done it too soon. I thought it cured in a week, but now I know it is at least two. I have read that if sanded/polished before total curing, nitro can shrink back revealing orange peel and low spots. Guess what the front looked like! That also might explain why my lacquered pick guard removed finish from the body at the screw holes after being on for a bit of time. My June 27th posts were catch up. I haven't been keeping up the diary as I go, so I did one large update. I am going to let these coats dry for 2-3 weeks before polishing again. I am reading a few books on finishing in the meantime, and already understand some of my mistakes. Glad to hear your take on the passive bass, I think my friend just has a stiffy for active basses!

I think the whole active thing is just a perceived difference. any circuit you can crowbar into the instrument can be stuffed into the amp or a pedal. A bass is already heavy, why add extra weight? There are plenty of louder passive pups. Just as Simon mentioned with the Barts. I put Bartolini soapbars into Dora, and it's way louder than my other basses.As for tone, My amp gives me a wide range without me needing to clutter my instruments with extra complication. It's just one more thing to go wrong and one more thing to die in the middle of playing when the battery dies.

As for the finish, very few finishes are actually fully cured in a week, except maybe the UV cured ones. So far I've learnt that everything in this caper takes time and patience.

Indeed it does. It seems I was getting impatient. Time to dial it back!

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Originally Posted by Rabbit

It's just one more thing to go wrong and one more thing to die in the middle of playing when the battery dies.
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My thoughts exactly! I've got enough things to remember to grab when going to practice or perform.