Hi everybody.
I haven't been very active for a while. I hope to change that, now.
Ended up buying this Carlo Robelli fretless to add to my other two Robellis (4 string with flames, and 8 string).
It was in decent shape when I got it, although it was grimy, and smelled like a mixture of pets, and cigarettes. There are some scratches on the body, and ding on the face, and a couple on the neck. (I knew about them before I bought it).
Also, a few dings on the headstock, which I covered up with nail polish.
Took everything apart. Cleaned, lubed, and tightened the tuners. They work as they should.
Cleaned all the grime off of the fingergoard. Used some 0000 steel wool and lighter fluid. Yeah, I know. Ouch. But it worked.
Conditioned the fingerboard with boiled linseed oil on a recommendation from a luthier. Yeah, I know it's a hot topic. I figured I'd give it a shot. I don't feel like any back and forth about the pros and cons of it. Consider it an experiment.
It had some disgustingly grimy round wounds on it. Although they left some minor impressions on the fingerboard wood, once I cleaned it up they mostly went away.
Strung it with La Bella black tapewounds, then did a set-up. Adjusted the truss rod. I think I reached the end of its adjustment. I'm guessing it was never adjusted before. There was a bit of a bow, but I got rid of it.
Letting it acclimate to the dry environment in New Mexico for a week also helped.
Had to clean up the slots in the nut, adjusted the bridge for string height and intonation. The neck is now nice and flat, string height is really low with no buzzing, and the fingerboard feels nice and clean and silky.
Added Fretglo dots for the finger position markers, as the ones on the bass are teeeeeeeeeeeny. Plus, I often practice in a dark room. They help a lot.
It's passive (my other 2 are active). Neck pickup volume knob, bridge pickup volume knob, and tone. The bridge pickup potentiometer isn't working properly. It goes from zero volume to slight volume for 3/4 of the turn of the knob, then somewhat high volume at the end. Need to address that.
I also want to try and steam out the two dings on the back of the neck, because they land right where my thumb sits when playing certain notes.
All in all, I'm VERY happy with it. Glad I got it.
P.S. I have two more Robellis on the way! I'll post those when they're here.
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