'76 P-Bass Fretless Conversion, should I?

[darrellcheng]

I obtained a '76 P-Bass, natural with a maple neck. It was not in good condition, it had been stripped, original pick guard was cut in half, and holes filled in with wood. It looks like it was black, and the neck was a fretless, and someone had put frets in. Not a perfect job, but the intonation isn't bad. I have been playing it for a number of years now. Hardware is all original.

My question is, I want a fretless bass, should I convert this neck back to fretless, or should I just look for another bass and keep this bass intact? I would like to keep it's value/originality as much as possible, but im afraid it may be tainted already

 

[lz4005]

If it's been refinished and fretted it's not going to be worth any less if you take the frets out. As long as it's done professionally.

If it was mine I'd get it back as close to factory spec as possible, with maple strips to fill the fret slots, and play the hell out of it.

 

[smcd]

I would like to keep it's value/originality as much as possible, but im afraid it may be tainted already

As lz4005 said, the damage has been done.

Why do you want to (re)convert this bass to fretless? Do you just want a fretless bass, or do you want THIS bass to be fretless because you feel it will sound amazing. If all you want is a fretless, then just buy another bass. Buying a new fretless bass will cost you as much as you would spend to convert that '76 Precision to fretless. If you convert that '76 to fretless, it won't be worth one cent more than if you left it alone. So why dump money into something that won't increase in value when you could spend that money on a new bass?

 

[darrellcheng]

Thank you both.