Good or Bad Idea?

[Bear_Bass]

Too make a long story short, im going to build a a fretless bass from warmoth and need to know whether its a good idea to go from a fretted bass, to a fretless with no markers (i dont want fret markers by choice). I have had experience on a fretless bass before and intonation was great till past the 7th fret. What are your thoughts and opinions?

[whitefuneral]

I changed one of my legend basses from fretted to marked fretless. Did an alright job but turned out a bit.....off. I wouldn't recommend using a high priced guitar as your first go at defretting. You'd better off paying a luthier $xxx to do it properly.

[Bear_Bass]

It will be done by my local luthier. I can hardly set up a bass, never mind build one

[whitefuneral]

By all means, if you have the money use it well.

[Bear_Bass]

???. Its a Warmoth order hes going to put together, not a custom made one. Anyway whats your opinion, lined fretless or unlined?

[dtiii]

I went unlined when I did my Warmoth build. You get used to it. It worked out well for me because it took my practice to other places that I might not have been prompted to go. It also brought me back to fingerboard basics, especially single string work. Also, the muscle memory takes over, especially if it's the same scale as your fretted bass. It sharpens your ability to hear the pitch. Sometimes it's easy to take our in-tune fretted notes for granted. Lastly, going fretless - unlined - is very liberating. Enjoy the build.

d