I don't have much for you at the moment. No pictures, as I'm at work, but I'll tell you the story.
I got this bass, when my dad came home from trolling the local thrift stores one day, when I was 16. It was in pieces, and in rough shape.
It was a Bently Series10. I've been looking forever since, and have been unsuccessful in finding one like the one I got. There's a few models floating around, but none like mine.
He'd picked it up for 25 dollars, and I was eager to start on it right away. Within the first year (I know >.<) I had repainted the pickguard (as it didn't fit normal p-bass pickguards), and sanded down all the remaining paint on the body (which was a metallicky red, and there wasn't much left on the body), the body was layered woods, probably 10 layers in total, and can post a pic when I get home. I've to this day, never seen a layered wood bass like it, but that's probably because it's not exactly pretty, and everyone wants to hide that stuff up. Now, I got my friend, Nathanael Ashwood (now a local reknown artist) to do some woodburning on the top, and made a design across most of the body.
Then it sat.
For 7 years.
Now, My life is settling down a bit. I joined the army, started a family, and then found it in a box, tucked away and decided to move onto the next step.
It's understandable that I stopped, considering the next step in resoration was the fingerboard.
Someone wanted a fretless, and ripped out all the frets.
-Ripped- out all the frets. It's ugly.
So I bought some rosewood binding and went to town widening the fretslots with a leatherman (it has the perfect file, exactly the width of my binding, so it's just a matter of sawing it bigger and bigger until the file squeezes in, and then opening it just a touch more. It took me a week working at it actively, and my arm hurts.)
So now I'm at the next step. Glue in the rosewood inserts. I'm not coming to you for advice, today, just realized I've been working on it for a decade, and decided someone might think it's interesting.
Once I get the rosewood in there, I already have a radiusing block, and sandpaper. I'll bring the fretlines down, sand the whole thing down and get it even, and then epoxy the board.
I want to pick up some small company's Pickups (as it didn't come with any) and probably make my own wooden pickguard (once I get my bandsaw rocking) and then take a deep breath, and learn to play fretless.
I know fretlines are generally meant to be small, concise and orderly, as fretless players look down on them, and we're trying to make them unnoticable, but I was making it with the intent of being a fretless learner's bass. There's so many fretted players who are afraid to take the plunge, that I would learn on it, then pick up a fretless Alembic, and pass it on. And if it turns out to be a terrible instrument tonally, I'll just pick up a warmoth body with nice wood bindings on red paint, and pray to god the colors match.
In either case, I'm having a lot of fun with this build, and can't wait to get this board epoxied so I can get some flats on it and get cracking.
I got this bass, when my dad came home from trolling the local thrift stores one day, when I was 16. It was in pieces, and in rough shape.
It was a Bently Series10. I've been looking forever since, and have been unsuccessful in finding one like the one I got. There's a few models floating around, but none like mine.
He'd picked it up for 25 dollars, and I was eager to start on it right away. Within the first year (I know >.<) I had repainted the pickguard (as it didn't fit normal p-bass pickguards), and sanded down all the remaining paint on the body (which was a metallicky red, and there wasn't much left on the body), the body was layered woods, probably 10 layers in total, and can post a pic when I get home. I've to this day, never seen a layered wood bass like it, but that's probably because it's not exactly pretty, and everyone wants to hide that stuff up. Now, I got my friend, Nathanael Ashwood (now a local reknown artist) to do some woodburning on the top, and made a design across most of the body.
Then it sat.
For 7 years.
Now, My life is settling down a bit. I joined the army, started a family, and then found it in a box, tucked away and decided to move onto the next step.
It's understandable that I stopped, considering the next step in resoration was the fingerboard.
Someone wanted a fretless, and ripped out all the frets.
-Ripped- out all the frets. It's ugly.
So I bought some rosewood binding and went to town widening the fretslots with a leatherman (it has the perfect file, exactly the width of my binding, so it's just a matter of sawing it bigger and bigger until the file squeezes in, and then opening it just a touch more. It took me a week working at it actively, and my arm hurts.)
So now I'm at the next step. Glue in the rosewood inserts. I'm not coming to you for advice, today, just realized I've been working on it for a decade, and decided someone might think it's interesting.
Once I get the rosewood in there, I already have a radiusing block, and sandpaper. I'll bring the fretlines down, sand the whole thing down and get it even, and then epoxy the board.
I want to pick up some small company's Pickups (as it didn't come with any) and probably make my own wooden pickguard (once I get my bandsaw rocking) and then take a deep breath, and learn to play fretless.
I know fretlines are generally meant to be small, concise and orderly, as fretless players look down on them, and we're trying to make them unnoticable, but I was making it with the intent of being a fretless learner's bass. There's so many fretted players who are afraid to take the plunge, that I would learn on it, then pick up a fretless Alembic, and pass it on. And if it turns out to be a terrible instrument tonally, I'll just pick up a warmoth body with nice wood bindings on red paint, and pray to god the colors match.
In either case, I'm having a lot of fun with this build, and can't wait to get this board epoxied so I can get some flats on it and get cracking.
Hope you enjoy the fretless feel, I hope to go fretless someday... 
