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Defretting a shortscale TMB30
- Thread starter Jona HM
- Start date
Yeah, shortscale fretlesses work, the Mwah is still there in the mid register, though shorties tend to have somewhat of a darker / dubbier / tubbier tone than long scale. I've got a little cheapie old Univox shorty that was badly defretted then resurfaced by me - one of the tops on my "most fun to play" bass list.
Scale length doesn't have very much to do with the sound of a fretless bass. Maybe a little bit, but not much. You can certainly make a fine-sounding short scale fretless.
Getting nice Mwah tone from a fretless is all about the proper truing up of the fingerboard surface, a careful setup, and learning the technique of playing it.
Here's one post that I wrote in 2014 that covers it pretty well:
Yep. The Mwah sound is really just accurately controlled buzz.
First, the fingerboard needs to "True". It doesn't necessarily have to be flat; that is, it can have some relief. But the surface cannot have any ripples or lumps. That's what "True" means.
Then, you lower the action down to the point where it just begins to buzz, under your normal playing. This will depend on your own playing technique. You want it right where it doesn't buzz when you pluck lightly, and buzzes evenly when you pluck hard.
You can get the Mwah sound with any fingerboard wood or fingerboard surface. Harder woods and hard surfaces will make the buzz brighter sounding; more high end in it.
Same with the strings. Flatwounds can Mwah with a warmer, deeper buzz. Roundwounds will usually be brighter, more highs.
From there, you control the volume of the Mwah on each note with how hard you pluck, and the duration of the Mwah with rolling the left hand finger.
It's a combination of careful setup and accurate playing technique.
The above is from this thread:
What Makes the Mwah sound on a Fretless?
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If there is / was a "Best MWAH Recipe" or "How to get MWAH" sticky thread, this should be at the top of it! Thanks!
If you leave it raw, it will eventually wear. But even with the harshest stainless rounds, it can take years. The other thing is the harder the surface, the brighter the tone, that's at least as important a factor.
Any surface will wear over time. Wood will just wear most quickly. Realistically, uless you're playing this bass professionally as your only instrument 40 hours a week, you're not going to need to resurface the board more than once every couple years probably.
I did a fretless board with super glue and it was pretty dang easy compared to what I've heard about using resin. I wanted to blackout the board, so I used Starbond's black glue, which took a lot of coats to build up but it worked! If you use clear glue it won't take as much to get even coverage.
I just poured some glue on a section of the board, rubbed it around with a gloved finger, then did the next section, and hit the whole thing with some accelerator so I could immediately do the next coat. The accelerator can cause white splotching in the glue, but since I was doing a buttload of coats with sanding every few, I knew I could cover it up. I didn't use accelerator on the last several coats to avoid any splotching.
