Jba-4

[Zandit75]

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?

[andrewdosborne]

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.

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

[wokkaboy]

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

[andrewdosborne]

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.

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

[wokkaboy]

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.

[andrewdosborne]

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!

[wokkaboy]

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

[andrewdosborne]

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.



Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

[wokkaboy]

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 !

[andrewdosborne]

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





Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk