Converting a bronco to fretless

[Bromosapian]

I've been thinking about converting my squier bronco bass to fretless for a while. I never use it since getting a VM jazz bass, so this is better than selling (I guess).

So I have two options from what I can tell: Remove the frets and fill them, or get a whole new neck. What would the hivemind suggest?

note: I don't really care about sound all that much, I just want something to cheaply learn fretless on.

 

[AltGrendel]

I was going to say that Warmoth has short scale necks, but they'd cost you more than the bass.

 

[yellofury]

or trade it for a cheap Sx that is already fretless

 

[Bromosapian]

Sounds good, but I doubt I would get a trade. My bronco is in pretty bad condition.

 

[rllefebv]

Defret... Build skills along with a fretless bass!

-robert

 

[Bromosapian]

Do people sell kits for putting in the stopgaps (or whatever they're called)? Also: what tools would I need to defret it.

 

[Tommygunn]

Wood putty, screw driver, hammer

 

[Bromosapian]

Wood putty is all I need? I always thought you needed special little fret fillers. Maybe I'll have a fretless in a week then....

 

[Tommygunn]

Thats what I've seen used. Also, heat up the frets, they come out easier that way.

 

[Bromosapian]

what would I heat them up with? my oven?


(SARCASM NOTE: I WILL NOT PUT MY BASS IN THE OVEN)

 

[mongo2]

A third option is to file off the frets leaving the fret tangs as lines.

 

[trayner1]

I did it with a hammer, chisel and wood putty. And a LOT of sanding.
It's super easy, I'd say go for it. You can't really screw it up...unless you put your bass in the oven to speed up wood putty dry time.

 

[Bromosapian]

Mongo, what kind of stuff would I need for that? Mind you, I have no experience doing this and I dont want to sand a valley into the bass.

 

[mongo2]

Mongo, what kind of stuff would I need for that? Mind you, I have no experience doing this and I dont want to sand a valley into the bass.

I have quite a bit of experience with fret work so maybe this isn't for the noob but I've used a mill bastard file to remove most of the fret (taking care to not touch the board, masking helps) and then a long radius block with sandpaper to remove what's left of the frets and radius the fingerboard. I cleaned frequently to minimize gouging the fingerboard.

Pulling the frets with a modified end cutter is much easier but filling the fretslots would them be necessary. I wouldn't use wood putty for filling fretslots.

 

[A-Step-Towards]

I'd pull them , there are many how to threads. ALot of different ways you can do it , depending on the quality of job you want.

 

[Thurisarz]

I say do it - so i know if i should get a third one

 

[Bromosapian]

Still not sure how to heat the frets.

 

[Pilgrim]

Just DO NOT do a hack job, and don't use wood putty or any other materials that can compress as a filler. There are numerous "how" to threads on talkbass and elsewhere on the Internet that will walk you through it. Do your own homework and you'll find answers to your questions.

BTW - I used white styrene strips .020 thick on the neck I defretted, and I used a craft saw .022 thick to clean out the slots where the frets were before inserting the styrene. Easier to find than wood veneer, non-compressible, and inexpensive. Yes, it leaves white lines, but for me that was a feature, not a bug.

Done well - not a hack job - it will take you around 5-10 hours of labor including removing the frets, gluing back any chips, inserting and gluing the filler material, trimming the filler material, than lightly sanding and perhaps oiling the neck.

Anything can be done badly. Do it well, grasshoppa.

And given the low resale value of the Bronco, I agree that doing it yourself and learning a new skill is probably justified. You have a limited amount of $ at risk.

 

[MattS]

I'll share with you a few tips on how I did my fretless conversion on my acoustic bass. It came out awesome, it was alot of work.
Tools/supplies:
- soldering iron to heat up the frets for removal (cheap $5-$10 from radioshack)
- some sort of veneer, use Sauers veneer you can get it from www.woodcraft.com it's the perfect thickness for filling the fret gaps. I bought a pack for about $16 and it's plenty
- masking tape
- super glue or
- wood glue
- sandpaper (150, 220, 400, 600, 1000 grits)
- a japanese saw - you can get this at woodcraft.com about $30, flexible blade for cutting the extra veneer after it's glued in, you might be able to find a similar saw at home depot, but the saw I got at woodcraft is just awesome and worked very nicely.
- radius block *very important* first ya gotta find out the radius on the neck of your bass, you can look that up online most likely or find the measuring tools and can order the right block from ebay or stewmac.com, will cost about $10.

other tools/supplies that are helpful but may not be required
- fret slotting saw with depth stop ($30 from stewmac) for clearing the fret slots.
- fret pliers, you can probably use a screwdriver and some other type pliers to pull the frets out, BUT that could easily get sloppy. I think stewmac's tools are a bit overpriced, I got decent pair on ebay for $15.
- if you're using roundwound strings I highly recommend putting epoxy on the neck; marine grade epoxy, system 3 epoxy, super glue, oil based varathane, oil-based polyurthane, etc...
if you're gonna use flatwounds then coating the neck is not necessary.

Check ebay for tools.

Keep in mind to release most/all the tension of the neck before ya get to work, and that you will have to lower the action quite a bit which means re-filing the nut; I did this by putting a piece of sandpaper on the neck after smoothed and sanding the bottom of the nut on that to maintain the radius curve rather than filing away at the top and string slots which is a bit trickier.

Here are some pictures of my process. I coated the neck with oilbased polyurethane which was difficult but i'm happy with the results.


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I ended up swapping out the phosphor bronze strings and putting on flatwounds just to further protect the fretless board cuz I spent so much time on it. I wish they made flatwound phosphor bronze strings. Sounds awesome, plays awesome.
Neck is coated with polyurethane, which is quite difficult to do, but I am very happy with the results.
I plan on converting an electric to fretless in the near future, which would be much easier since I can remove the neck, but tis the slow season at my job so I'm trying not to spend money for the time being.

Here's a video of my solo project so you can hear how it sounds.
http://www.youtube.com/theforestroom#p/a/u/1/Ed8tw_ZQ-RY

GOOD LUCK!

- Matt

 

[Bromosapian]

Oh another thing, I prefer the lines, I am a ludyte.