Adding lines to an unlined fretless: Reasonable? Best Techniques?

[BuddhaFingas]

I'm a lefty player and a kitbuilder, lifelong tinkerer, and middling-capable woodworker. On-hand tools extend to hand tools, band saw, belt sander, drill press, routers, and a good collection of Dremel add-ons and optional extensions like the workstand/ press, router table, and so forth. I'm used to doing reasonably-precise work in wood, plastic, soft metals.

Im actively considering trying fretless bass, but as is usual for lefties, choice is very limited and access to playable samples or demo units near-zero. Ive never been able to lay hands on a lefty fretless, even at the Amigos shows and such. Hen's teeth.

There are a few sub-1k lefty fretless basses out there that are moderately interesting, but very few with lined boards.

Im wondering how practical it would be, without elaborate custom tooling, to add a quality set of line markers to a finished fretless bass. Only other choice would be defretting something never originally intended to be fretless, which feels somehow backwards to me.

Is this reasonable at all, and what do you see as the minimum toolup, process and material to ensure success and a good quality result?

 

[ardgedee]

Something I've contemplated for the build I'll probably never get around to doing is drilling pinholes between the strings at the stops, and filling them with an appropriate color. That way you get the real benefit of lines (seeing where your finger pad lines up with the stop) without worrying about discontinuity in the fingerboard surface under the strings.

Somewhat inspired by the stop marks on the NS Design fretless.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I'm a lefty player and a kitbuilder, lifelong tinkerer, and middling-capable woodworker. On-hand tools extend to hand tools, band saw, belt sander, drill press, routers, and a good collection of Dremel add-ons and optional extensions like the workstand/ press, router table, and so forth. I'm used to doing reasonably-precise work in wood, plastic, soft metals.

Im actively considering trying fretless bass, but as is usual for lefties, choice is very limited and access to playable samples or demo units near-zero. Ive never been able to lay hands on a lefty fretless, even at the Amigos shows and such. Hen's teeth.

There are a few sub-1k lefty fretless basses out there that are moderately interesting, but very few with lined boards.

Im wondering how practical it would be, without elaborate custom tooling, to add a quality set of line markers to a finished fretless bass. Only other choice would be defretting something never originally intended to be fretless, which feels somehow backwards to me.

Is this reasonable at all, and what do you see as the minimum toolup, process and material to ensure success and a good quality result?

It's a perfectly reasonable modification, if that's what you want on your bass. I've done it a few times on customers' basses. Basically, you saw the fret slots, as you would for a fretted bass, and glue in wood veneers or plastic strips. My favorite is 0.020" white styrene plastic strips from the hobby store.

And of course, you can also just buy a fretted bass, of your choice, and pull the frets and glue in the lines. Save yourself the trouble of sawing the slots accurately.

 

[ardgedee]

And of course, you can also just buy a fretted bass, of your choice, and pull the frets and glue in the lines. Save yourself the trouble of sawing the slots accurately.

What my luthier did while refinishing the fingerboard on my defretted was to save the dust from re-leveling the board, mix it with epoxy and put that in the fret slots. The result is lines that are visible to me while I play but extremely subtle more than a few feet away. Might be too subtle for a gigging musician in uncertain lighting, I won't assume it works for everyone -- but I like it.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

What my luthier did while refinishing the fingerboard on my defretted was to save the dust from re-leveling the board, mix it with epoxy and put that in the fret slots. The result is lines that are visible to me while I play but extremely subtle more than a few feet away. Might be too subtle for a gigging musician in uncertain lighting, I won't assume it works for everyone -- but I like it.

I've filled the slots on an ebony board with black-tinted epoxy, with the same effect. You could see the lines from 2 feet away, but not from 10 feet.

 

[Ggaa]

Doable but IME it's near impossible to see lines when you're playing anyway.

 

[JRA]

Im actively considering trying fretless bass, but as is usual for lefties, choice is very limited and access to playable samples or demo units near-zero. Ive never been able to lay hands on a lefty fretless, even at the Amigos shows and such. Hen's teeth. There are a few sub-1k lefty fretless basses out there that are moderately interesting, but very few with lined boards.

defretting an ax of choice seems less "backward" than putting lines in an unlined fretless fingerboard (to me), but you do you.

however, if you end up getting a lefty fretless with an unlined board: please plan on playing that unlined fingerboard for a while before you dive into the modification you have in mind --- you might just like the unlined board and you'd save yourself some time/trouble finding that out for yourself.

OTOH: you'll have way more fun on any fretless than you could ever have with a fretted, so in advance of your efforts = congrats and good luck!

 

[MIMike]

I don’t think you need lines on a fretless neck. You can’t really see the lines when you play anyway. Side dots are much more useful, and would be easier to install.
On fretless, you need to play as much with your ears as with your eyes.

 

[RandomKaren]

I'd try it without first, side dots are all you need.

 

[smart51]

Do you look at the fingerboard while playing? If not, lines won't help you, but side markers might. I cut diagonal slots on the edge of a fingerboard board once and glued in maple veneer to make side markers.

 

[BuddhaFingas]

It's a perfectly reasonable modification, if that's what you want on your bass. I've done it a few times on customers' basses. Basically, you saw the fret slots, as you would for a fretted bass, and glue in wood veneers or plastic strips. My favorite is 0.020" white styrene plastic strips from the hobby store.

And of course, you can also just buy a fretted bass, of your choice, and pull the frets and glue in the lines. Save yourself the trouble of sawing the slots accurately.

My concern, which might be unfounded, is that a fretless board needs a much better quality of board prep and finish than is needed on a fretted production bass; the frets' levelling and finish carry most of the working burden.

I figured a bass that was already prepped for fretless play would be a sounder starting point.

That, and I worry about too much chipout during defret.

Sometimes I worry too much.

 

[JRA]

Sometimes I worry too much.

yeah, i think you might be "overthinking" in this case. get a fretless, make a fretless, whatever, just play a fretless. you'll have a blast, it's the playing!

 

[BuddhaFingas]

Regarding the lines vs sidemarkers need concept several expressed... I get that I'd not look at the lines too much eventually, as I dont often look at the frets when I'm playing something now.

But I can feel frets, and I have to learn to play fretless first. And I look at the frets a lot when learning something new, especially for big position shifts. Maybe bad technique but Im 100% self taught at this point, making ish up as I go.

I figured lines would help with learning, if not actual playing... and figured almost every fretless would come with side markers in the right position for a fretless, which wouldnt be true for a defret.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

My concern, which might be unfounded, is that a fretless board needs a much better quality of board prep and finish than is needed on a fretted production bass; the frets' levelling and finish carry most of the working burden.

I figured a bass that was already prepped for fretless play would be a sounder starting point.

That, and I worry about too much chipout during defret.

Sometimes I worry too much.

Well, yeah, any fretless fingerboard needs to be correctly trued up and surfaced, for it to play well. That includes after you put lines into it.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

and figured almost every fretless would come with side markers in the right position for a fretless, which wouldnt be true for a defret.

But it's less work to move the side dots than it is to accurately cut the slots.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

I figured lines would help with learning, if not actual playing...

...and for this, there are stick-on temporary markers.

 

[Norm Nelson]

And of course, you can also just buy a fretted bass, of your choice, and pull the frets and glue in the lines. Save yourself the trouble of sawing the slots accurately.

if it's good enough for Jaco ...

 

[logdrum]

You need another fretted bass with the same scale neck, high intensity low profile LED bar and some photo resist
Lline the 2 necks. Line up their nuts (that may sound weird but they are basses not grumpy 50 year-olds). and then position LED bar on the other side of the fretted neck. In a dark room, paint phot resist on the unlined board. Lick your fingers and hit the light and say Batmania 3 times. The shadow from the frets should make those areas keep the photo resist. Dial up Lindsay Lohan's 3rd cell phone and then hit the flashlight on your Apple Phone and glide that light about 1/2 inch from the FB.. The lines should be permanent now. If Ms. Lohan answers be prepared to impersonate Ron Howard.

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[lethargytartare]

If you're a tinkerer and kitbuilder, and just want to test the waters, why not just buy a fretless neck and slap on any old lefty body?

 

[Piper Bob]

Get some thin automotive pinstripe tape and mark a few fret lines. By the time you wear out the tape you won’t need it