Putting a new fretless fingerboard on a bass, any tips, suggestions?

[mauzer]

Hello there,

I am a newbie on this forum.

Recently bought an old ibanez mc 924ds bass in natural/ brown finish.
My question is:
How much would it cost to put a new fretless ebony fingerboard on this bass including removing the old ebony fretboard?
I read somewhere that it might cost £000 of pounds.

Can anybody tell me who had experience or perhaps a professional luthier who done this before?

How much would the ebony wood cost for the neck?

Also how long does this job take?

If anyone can give me a raph or a close quotation on the job all together- would be apreciated!
Some people might say just get a fretless bass- I am also looking into that, but musician 940 is really hard to find these days.

If you guys can help me with that, would be awesome!

P.S. I am based in UK.

[SamanthaCay]

It kind of depends, as there are a few different ways you can go.
To replace the board I would say right around 400 USD is fair although it could be as high as 600 if there is a need to do a total refinish in order to make things right.

Another much easier and cheaper option would be to have it de-fretted which would be more in the neighborhood of 200.

As far as time is concerned, that will depend more so on the back log of repairs the luthier you take it to has.
The repair its self at the longest would only take about a month but if your luthier is busy it may take longer.

[mauzer]

Wow quite costly process! That does not include taking off the old ebony fretboard and buying new ebony fingerboard material?

[Pilgrim]

De-fretting can be done by almost anyone, retaining the original fretboard. Please do a search here on TB and you will find many threads discussing it.

With any bass having a bolt-on neck and collector value, I advocate getting a second neck and leaving the original unmolested. However, your bass does not have collector value as far as I know (not an Ibby fan), so it seems reasonable for you to consider defretting it yourself.

What will it cost you? A few tools and perhaps 10+ hours of labor to do it well. If you do it half-assed and rush the job, or fail to use non-compressible materials to use the slots created when the frets come out, the result will be a ratty looking fretboard that you cannot take pride in.

You can have a pro do it, and it will look great. MUCH less expensive than having the fretborad replaced.

Here is a close-up of a fretboard I defretted......

[madmachinist]

i don't know about tools/ten hrs labor . that's a bit much.

i have a $3 pair of slip-joint pliers modified by grinding
a recessed groove into the ends of the jaws with a dremel . they grip the frets nicely for removal.

you have to be careful and ease them out a little at a time across the board, or the barbs on the frets can chip
the fingerwood . after that , i use maple veneer that i've
squeezed in a vise first to fill the gaps , glued into place
with clear epoxy . it needs to be tight fitting , but not
overtight- or you'll put a bow in the neck.

when that's cured(overnight) i sand everything flush .
if you don't like blonde lines on the board , you can
stain the maple after you're done.

it's more of a 2-3 hour job for me.