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Fretless fingerboard wear with round-wounds

OliverH

OliverH

Aug 2, 2008
122
3
Sydney, Australia
#1
The last rehearsal I went to I noticed that every time I played a C on the A string there was a lot of buzzing with the note, not from the amp or anything but you know the "mwah" sound that you usually get when playing a fretless with round-wound strings... but MUCH more pronounced. Enough to be annoying and not sound good anymore.

I took a look at the fingerboard and it doesn't look too worn from the round-wounds but this being my only fretless I've ever had, and not having bought it new I don't know what is the point where the wear on the fingerboard deserves repair.

From my description does it sound like the fingerboard needs attention... or could it be the strings? (they are cheap ones... but not that old).

And in the case where it may be the fingerboard is there an easy way to repair the damage in the short term or will I need a full overhaul? I guess that opens up another can of worms line of questioning that I'll leave for another day. Thanks!
 
#2
I had a similar symptom on a fretless, and in my case the fretboard needed some levelling. Easy job for a luthier.
You should first check that the truss rod is properly adjusted.
I've been told that this could also be a symptom of neck twist, though that wasn't the case in my instance.

First check the truss rod, and if it's not that, I'd suggest getting a luthier to look at it.
 
#6
Fender Jazz, Japan made in 2000. It's the first time I've noticed the problem and it doesn't appear to happen on any other string or note played.

I'll see if I can take a picture of the fingerboard where the problem is. If it's a truss rod problem is that easy enough to diagnose by myself? What would I look for?
 
#7
If it's something that happens only in one particular spot on the board, chances are you've got a divot in the board that's causing it to buzz more than other places. I'd second checking your neck for straightness, but my guess is that you need a bit of fretboard leveling. It's a simple enough process, provided you have the right tools and the correct technique.
 
#8
Benjamin Strange said:
If it's something that happens only in one particular spot on the board, chances are you've got a divot in the board that's causing it to buzz more than other places. I'd second checking your neck for straightness, but my guess is that you need a bit of fretboard leveling. It's a simple enough process, provided you have the right tools and the correct technique.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I did a bad defret on a Hohnberger, & although ugly, it plays well except for a couple of spots wher it's uneven. I think setup for a fretless bass is a lot more critical for eveness of tone across the strings & up/down the neck. A good setup might fix or at least properly diagnose your problem(s).
As for SLaPiNFuNk's suggestion, I'd think pulling a fretless out on a gig w/o practicing on it would likely be disastrous. IME, decent fretless intonation takes practice.
 
#10
I had a look at it after rehearsal today, and tried tuning the string up and down. If it is a little higher or lower in tension, the buzzing goes away. This makes me think the problem is due to slightly more roundwound wear in that one spot, and only occurs when the windings are aligned exactly on the ridges in the wear spot.

What I'll try is sanding down that spot very carefully with very fine grade sandpaper. Hopefully I can ward off a full fixup for a few years.
 
#11
OliverH said:
I had a look at it after rehearsal today, and tried tuning the string up and down. If it is a little higher or lower in tension, the buzzing goes away. This makes me think the problem is due to slightly more roundwound wear in that one spot, and only occurs when the windings are aligned exactly on the ridges in the wear spot.

What I'll try is sanding down that spot very carefully with very fine grade sandpaper. Hopefully I can ward off a full fixup for a few years.
Click to expand...

I strongly suggest you don't do that. Look at the simple things first....i.e. truss rod. In heat/humid conditions, necks can/do swell and also develop a backbow. I'll bet a Chinese lunch that this is you problem.

If you sand one spot, versus levelling your whole board, you're going to cause more problems. When you press the string down on that sanded spot, it will be lower than the position right up from it, causing it do buzz out even more.
 
#17
I am experiencing the same problem with my ATK300 fretless. Great little bass, but it's got a rosewood fingerboard and some nice divots from previous roundwound usage. Some notes (and you can really tell what notes this guy favored) sound like a duck being strangled underwater. Weak, frappy, phhttthhpt!

I'm taking it to Guitar Workshop here in Sac to have the fretboard leveled. It will cost me $160, but of course that includes a full setup as well, so all in all it's not a bad deal. I'm also going to ask Dave his advice on maintaining a fretless board, because I plan to use roundwounds on it as well. He's an expert luthier and I trust him to all of my setup work, so I'm sure he'll give me some good tips. I'll post on here after I take it in and talk to him.
 
#18
There's a few things you can have done to your board to slow eventual wear on the wood. You can always use flat wounds or half-wounds (if you must use rounds, try using nickel, as it is softer), or you can treat your board with epoxy or CA glue (I prefer CA, myself). What I did on one of my ebony boards was impregnate the grain with CA, then sanded it back down to where I could feel the wood again. Essentially this filled in the grain of the ebony, and strengthened the board while still maintaining the feel of wood.
 
#19
Benjamin Strange said:
There's a few things you can have done to your board to slow eventual wear on the wood. You can always use flat wounds or half-wounds (if you must use rounds, try using nickel, as it is softer), or you can treat your board with epoxy or CA glue (I prefer CA, myself). What I did on one of my ebony boards was impregnate the grain with CA, then sanded it back down to where I could feel the wood again. Essentially this filled in the grain of the ebony, and strengthened the board while still maintaining the feel of wood.
Click to expand...

I've found ebony to be pretty impervious to serious dings. I could maintain my board by very fine sanding of the whole board occasionally. But of course there are alot of variables (quality of the wood, the type of strings you use, how hard you strike the strings, etc)...

What exactly is CA glue? That sounds like an cool option.
 

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