Creating a Fretless Bass from a cheapie donor P Bass copy

[wazkelly]

Was thinking about building a fretless when it dawned on me that I had this cheapie kicking around and looking rather neglected in a corner hidden behind 2 other guitars, then it dawned on me, why not have a go at converting this one as it only owes me about 50 bucks?

Looked at a few forum threads, some vids on youtube, and it doesn't look too hard so here goes. Initially bought a bag of white plastic pot plant label strips to fill the joints left behind after de-fretting but stumbled on an old thread where DB had done an amazing job on a HB4 for Gavin. Wow, what a shiny neck so off I went and bought some natural coloured timbermate and have ordered some thin CA glue too.

Here after the Before shots......


Speed hump removal to commence on my next day off work.

[andrewdosborne]

Go for gold , its not that difficult a job. I'm going to try the timber mate method next time round. Maple sawdust and CA glue was a bit fiddly especially on the edges of the fret slot

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[wazkelly]

Thanks Ponch.

[wazkelly]

Well, had a spare bit of time towards end of this afternoon and decided to make a start on making this a fretless......

Now that the patient has been sedated time to pull some teeth....errr I mean speed bumps....

[wazkelly]

Then sanded things down with a bit of 180 before taping up ahead of applying Natural coloured timbermate....

Job done and now hung up to dry....

[kimball492]

Great Job Wazkelly.Maybe the guys DB, Wazkelly that have done the fretless with the timbermate method. Can let me know how the timbermate stands the pressure of the neck and string tension. Have you mixed the timbermate with any harderner. What holds those fretboard cuts together.
Cheers
Kimball

[Andy40]

How'd you find the Artist Bass Waz? I've got a couple of 6 string electrics from them and was quite impressed for the $$. I will eventually upgrade them though.

[dingobass]

Great Job Wazkelly.Maybe the guys DB, Wazkelly that have done the fretless with the timbermate method. Can let me know how the timbermate stands the pressure of the neck and string tension. Have you mixed the timbermate with any harderner. What holds those fretboard cuts together.
Cheers
Kimball

Once it is levelled and sanded to 220, I flood the fingerboard with CA glue.
This seems to harden the TM quite sufficiently

[wazkelly]

How'd you find the Artist Bass Waz? I've got a couple of 6 string electrics from them and was quite impressed for the $$. I will eventually upgrade them though.

Hi Andy, was bidding for the Artist and a Yammy at the same time and took the slightly cheaper option and pleasantly surprised. Sound is good and overall finish was good however the cheap plastic nut and lack of a string retainer had the A string popping out of the nut all the time. Not as good as a budget end Yammy but still quite good for mail order Chinese built guitars. I see that a lot of their guitars score Wilkinson PUP's too so that is also a bonus.

[wazkelly]

Once it is levelled and sanded to 220, I flood the fingerboard with CA glue.
This seems to harden the TM quite sufficiently

Hi Kimball, DB's prior thread for Gavmeister's Hoffner caught my eye and hope to do a similar job. Fret board cuts were quite shallow to accommodate the fret wire that was just under 2 mm deep.

Surprised how much damage can be easily caused when yanking out the frets as the Rosewood badly splintered along many of the fret edges once removed. Cheap materials used in the construction may have also contributed and it will be a nervous peeling off of the masking tape so as to avoid any further damage. Might need to spread a layer of Ebony Timbermate to fill in some of the cracks & divots before performing a final sand and prep for the CA glue.