Fretless Basses!

[Dakotah LaPrelle]

Hey guys! I just swapped the neck from my MIM Jazz to a maple fretless one. Just curious to see who else has done a fretless swap and if they like it? I actually love it! I do need to adjust the A string though... Somewhat resembles fretbuzz but obviously no frets...

 

[thudfromafar]

I haven't swapped any necks, but defretted my yamaha bb414 (P/J configuration). DR Chrome flatwounds. Fretless is definitely the way to go for me. But, one day I hope to have a better bass, maybe a custom one. For now, it'll do the job.

 

[bassbenj]

Hey guys! I just swapped the neck from my MIM Jazz to a maple fretless one. Just curious to see who else has done a fretless swap and if they like it? I actually love it! I do need to adjust the A string though... Somewhat resembles fretbuzz but obviously no frets...

Yes, I have swapped neck. In fact, I've gone further and have TWO necks (and bass has threaded inserts installed on neck so you can change it all day and not worry about stripped screws.

It was orignally an SX Ursa Jazz bass 5er. As it arrived it had a bit of a dead spot problem but not real bad. Then I bought an SX fretless neck from Rondo dirt cheap. It was maple with blocks (sort of like yours) and being maple had a thick overcoat of poly. In swapping it on the bass I encountered the dreaded fretless buzz problems. Usually it means there is a high spot on the neck in the area of the buzz that needs sanded down or alternatively you can just add more relief which eliminates the buzz but reduces Mwah. In my case it turned out it was the black blocks! A few had come unglued and were pushing up on the heavy poly coating raising it and causing the buzz. So I got some clamps and clamped them back down over night. Well that worked for a while, but soon they were unglued and buzzing again.

SO... I got out the iron and chisel and ripped the entire fingerboard off the fretless neck and bought a real black ebony pre-radiused board from luthiers supply and glued it on! Trimmed it up and added side markers and this bass simply kills now! Since it's ash (my other fretless SX is alder and is still as from factory) it's brighter and for that reason I used pressure-wound strings rather than grounds or flats. VERY bright fretless. TOO cool for words. I haven't put it back fretted because I love the fretless and don't like the dead spots and I have plenty of SX fretted 5ers. But I could if I needed to.

Bad news is that while the neck swap is pretty easy, I found you really do need to do a set up with each swap. It's not exactly a "drop-in" kind of replacement.

 

[snyderz]

I've dropped fretless necks into quite a few basses. A couple needed shims, but for the most part, nice fits and low action.