Modifying a Jazz bass

Jim11895 · #1 08-23-2010, 07:47 PM

Hi. I'm not sure if anyone can answer this, but I thought this forum would be the place to try. I played the Fender custom shop Jaco relic bass a couple says ago and was overwhelmed by the tone. I'm trying to figure out how I can emulate that sound without paying the big bucks for that bass.

Anyone know how hard it is to pull out the frets from a standard J bass and fill in the gaps? I know I could buy a fretless jazz, but I like the idea of dots on the fretboard in addition to the lines (I know, training wheels for new fretless players, which I am). What about epoxying the fretboard? I know I'd need to put vintage pups in to get that vintage tone, as well. Would anyone in their right mind do this to a perfectly good Jazz bass? I'd have a pro luthier do the work, but by the time it's done, maybe I'd be better off just buying the custom shop relic? If anyone has any thought or opinions out there, I'd love to here them.

Many thanks,
J

tonejunkie · #2 08-23-2010, 07:54 PM

There's a sticky in the Hardware, Setup and Repair forum: Defretting ?
I actually did this and it worked out great--of course I also had a spare neck. Great learning experience! Have fun, enjoy the MWAH!

kb9wyz · #3 08-23-2010, 08:03 PM

Go to Guitar Center's used site and buy a used Jazz. Make sure it has rosewood board. Then pay a guy who knows what he's doing to rip and fill it.

That is what I did. But I was only going for a fretless, not the Jaco tone. But She does sound delicious. The bass cost me $270, the de-fret cost me about $250. (I also put a BAII on it and an Audere JZ3 preamp.) If you do go the MIM Jazz route, buy a shielding kit from www.stewmac.com Trust me on that.

Shaky · #4 08-26-2010, 08:38 AM

Are you wanting the Jaco tone, or the Jaco look? There are a lot of good fretless basses available these days at reasonable prices. I am gassing for a fretless myself admittedly because I got introduced to some of Jaco's music recently and was blown away and want to try learning fretless. I am patiently waiting for Kurt at rondomusic to get another shipment of SX fretless basses to use as an inexpensive jump into the fretless world. My long term plan is to modify the bass to eventually be similar to the bass of doom.

darkstorm · #5 08-26-2010, 02:48 PM

For jaco tone Id mainly go for jazz bass with same body and neck woods and same pups. Dont know enough about treating fretless fretboards to know whats best there for that.

lx_night · #6 09-07-2010, 04:28 PM

All the information you need is right here!
Jaco Tribute Bass Build

This guy did an amazing job and saved a lot of money, check it out.
He provided great details.

DeivoxCarnal · #7 09-09-2010, 01:44 PM

Defretting the bass is the easy part, epoxying gets really tricky.

I pulled the frets on my bass and filled with wood purflings from stewmac.
They were a perfect fit, and all I had to do was super glue them in. (less is more when it comes to the glue btw)

After I epoxied the neck I was very unhappy with the way it robbed my bass of it's warmth. It has a very percussive sound now, which would be nice if it weren't so flat sounding compared to when I had just the raw wood. I wish I had just used some tung oil and flatwounds.

Do yourself a favor though and get a radius block from stew mac so you don't change the FB's radius while sanding.

Jim11895 · #8 09-09-2010, 07:01 PM

Thanks to all of you for some really good advice. I appreciate it.

J