I received the bass that was defretted (a Dingwall Combustion 5 string) from a friend locally at a REALLY good friend price. Given they sold for about $1700 new then (now they're more like $2300), and this was under $1000 and only very very lightly played. I figured at the time, a backup to one of my others...but over a year or so, I just didn't play it. I'd been thinking about fretless (having played a 4 string fretless Jazz for a few years in the 90's), I figured this would be the perfect opportunity for a project.
The first defret was done locally by someone renowned for working on mostly classical and acoustic instruments, and even doing reconstructions of seriously damaged or destroyed pieces. Lots of cellos, violins, etc. but also classical and acoustic guitars. He also does work on electric instruments. The frets were removed and the lines inlaid in boxwood. I really did want visible lines since this was multi-scale & I hadn't played fretless in a good while. Right off, the lines didn't have enough contrast to the somewhat lighter rosewood fretboard/fingerboard. I will never be a 'play in a dark room/never look at the fretboard guy and I HATE being on dark stages and not being able to see my bass. My eyes aren't all that great to start with either.
Beyond the low-contrast lines, the bass' action was 'playable but not pleasurable'. I did one gig like that and it was workable but not a smooth easy play. I feel like maybe there wasn't as much attention to truing the fingerboard as I would have liked, and the neck definitely needed shimming to bring the action down up high. I also can only describe the intonation as 'roughed in'...though I certainly took care of that, though it felt to me like maybe he lost interest in getting the details right at the end.
Even so...I really loved the way this bass sounded, especially unplugged. The ash body/round wound strings just sounds so good to me but I was feeling it wasn't translating when amplified. I played a show with it and in the mix it sounded good, but I felt like I could get closer, I move the neck pickup back to the 'middle' pickup slot (it sounded closest to ideal on the bridge pickup). I pulled out the EMG preamp and put in a Darkglass Tone Capsule because the EQ points made sense for fretless for me with it's low-mid/high-mid control centers. Better still. I shimmed the neck myself and brought the action down some. But was still feeling like it should be better.
So, I packed it up and sent it out west to Maurilio Mina, a first call for aftermarket custom work on Dingwalls, first call for pro-players on the west coast, and the luthier who works with Carey Nordstrand. Still chasing it's acoustic tone we modified the bridge with piezo saddles, a second preamp integrated with the Darkglass and some custom electronics. The bigger part was that he cut out all the inlay lines. While there he Drilled out all the marker dot inlays; side & front. The neck was fully inlaid with Luminlay, the fingerboard made true and refinished (both front and back).
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It plays WAY better now, it feels way more comfortable, it sounds closer to what I want to hear from it. For the past year or so I've been playing it about 95% of my time...which given that I also received a new custom fretted Super-P this year, says something. I've just really been in love with playing it and really spending time learning fretless more correctly and completely. I've been holding it for between 4 and 8 hours a day lately.
For me it's not a trick to learn how to play multi-scale fretless...I've only played multi-scale since 2005; and the one time I didn't was a hired pickup travel gig where it made more sense to fly with a Steinberger. Dingwall basses have small 'banjo' fretwire that makes you fret more precisely than most basses...they really trained me to have better technique so the transition hasn't been bad. I never did a whole lot of chord-play in the past (beyond guitar), so learning the fingerings isn't a re-learn/re-program, so that seems to make it not seem terrible? It just seems like having a high C string will allow me to center lower of the fretboard more regularly.
I'm not counting them out. My one hesitation is the unlined board. I think I'd like lined, given the transition between my usual fanned basses and a traditional parallel position bass.
