Yeah, will be interested to see how the poxy staands up.
With flatties it should be ok.
Yeah, will be interested to see how the poxy staands up.
With flatties it should be ok.
There is always a workaround for glitches, mistakes and other Guitar building gremlins.....
The gloss all over is fantastic! But you're right, the frettless neck is the steal of the show!Originally Posted by robin
Into the home stretch now.
Finished coating and polishing the neck and body. All that’s left to do now is the shielding, wiring, assembly and the final setup. I will probably have to shape another nut as I didn’t do such a good job on this one. But as fretless is all new to me I thought I would wait till she was strung up to make the final decision.
The fingerboard turned out better than I had a right to hope for, but to be honest the body is not my best ever. Having spent over 90 hours so far on her I am struggling to maintain my enthusiasm. Maybe it’s because I have already started researching and assembling parts for my next project.
Hopefully, she will sound OK and play OK. I’ll let you know sometime next week. If all goes well all I will have to do then is learn how to play a fretless.
Cheers guys.
Photo #1 – After 21 coats of poo oil.
Photo #2 – After cutting back with Brasso (poo oil’s shiny brother)
Photo #3 – Yep, the fingerboard is definitely the hero with this build.
@DB
Hoping you're right Phil. Time will tell.
@Shazza
Thanks mate, but iPhone cameras can sometimes be very flattering.
Hey Westie07 you won't find out till you have played the bass for a few hours. Definitely put flatwounds on. If you aren't an aggressive player I think the epoxy should hold up
Current Builds and status
scratch end grain pine tele - first clear coat on !
JBA-4 - assembled - final tweaks
Telemonster double scale tele - finish tobacco burst on body and sand neck
Completed builds
scratch oak.rose gum Jazzmaster - assembled needs setup
MK-2 Mosrite - assembled - play in
Ash tele with Baritone neck - neck pup wiring tweaks and play in
Yeah Woks, I will be playing bass at church in a few weeks time, so I will need to get up to speed before then. Luckily the bass is the most forgiving of instruments, but I still expect everybody to be out of tune when I start.
I have already bought some D'Addario chrome flats, trying to give the epoxy the best chance.
Cheers mate
Nice choice of strings Robin, the Daddies will sound nice and crisp for quite a long time.
The great thing about Fretless is you can get so much more feeling into the sound, it wont matter if you are slightly off note as you can just slide into it and give it a vibrato sound.
Warning, you may get addicted to sliding into every note
There is always a workaround for glitches, mistakes and other Guitar building gremlins.....
My mate a bass player says, "fretless it like wearing no undies, total freedom"
I never thought going commando was going to help my guitar playing though
Looking great Robin and keen to hear how the hybrid finished fret board goes after a few sessions of playing.
Hope the strings don't 'flatten' that super rich lustre on the FB after a bit of playing given all the love and work you have put into it.
@DB
Yeah Phil, been playing bass like forever and started using D's many years ago. Best sounding and longest lasting, win, win. And now use them exclusively for guitar as well. Can't see me changing anytime soon.
Looking forward to sliding up to those notes.
@Tony
Don't know about the "no undies" part but I am looking forward to the freedom of fretless.
@Wazza
Thanks mate. I am hoping that the flats might go a bit easier on the epoxy. If they do mark the finish its OK as long as its just cosmetic. If they damage it enough to interfere with the playing then that will be a deal breaker. I'll probably only be playing her about once a month so hopefully should last me for a while.
Finally Finished.
Although I am not 100% happy with her (never am) at least I now have a fretless bass.
In line with my full disclosure policy, although the fingerboard looks OK, after only 4 or 5 hours of playing it is showing minor scuff marks. The main problem is that I am not yet used to using horizontal vibrato and I am still in the habit of string bending vibrato. My guess would be that as I can easily buff them out they are only cosmetic, but because of the high gloss finish ANY mark will show when caught in the right light. This is not a problem for me as appearance is not that important so when the scuff marks get bad enough I will rub down the FB with 2000 grit and give it a matte/satin finish which should hide these minor marks.
Would I do the epoxy thing again? Most definitely! Just next time I will leave it as a matte finish. In my opinion there is no way that an untreated Rosewood FB would stand up as well as epoxy. At least she looks OK for the photo shoot.
I just did a few minor mods to this one. Took the headstock from 4 in-line to 3x1, epoxy fretless fingerboard (obviously), string through body ferrules, a bone nut and some fairly serious modifications to the body cuts. All other hardware, i.e. bridge, pup and electrics are all kit standard. The only thing added was the non-standard 4th machine head.
As my bass amp is on full-time loan to my church I have not been able to hear her in full song. At home I usually practice my guitar through an fx pedal and earphones and through these cans the bass is distorting quite nicely, so I guess that I am getting a good strong signal. So I am looking forward to trying her out in the near future. I will decide then whether to upgrade any parts.
It has, at times, been a frustrating journey but immensely rewarding. Whenever we try new things we run the risk of failure, but that is how we learn new skills. Bring on the next project.
Cheers guys and gal and thanks for all the encouragement.
rob (Westie07 to Warren)
Piccies:
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote