fretless fingerboard

[muskyman]

Hello Friends:

I'm new here, so pardon the "dumbass".

I'm overhauling a 25 year old fretless with an ebony fingerboard. I'd like to add some brightness in addition to a general reconditioning. I know that Jaco always added epoxy. I can see some wear marks from the strings, and planned on giving the ebony a little sanding. For the sake of high frequency tone and neck preservation, does anyone have any advice?

 

[Deep Cat]

Tell us more about your bass.

What kind of electronics do you have in the thing? What kind of bass is it?

 

[manolo578]

I'm looking at expoying my brand new Fender fretless standard jazz MIM. Bump on this thread to help me out too haha

 

[radioface]

Here's my bit of advice, don't use round wounds on your fretless bass, ever!

 

[muskyman]

My frankenbass to be is an 88 Carvin LB75 fretless, maple neck-through, koa body, 16.5mm string spacing. The only electronics that are currently defined is a hipshot bridge with graphtec piezo PUPs, and a Bartolini piezo buffer. Everything else is up for grabs. I am planning on...

- strip off all the finish in favor of hand-rubbed type (tung oil?)
- machine "pleasant" contours (this Carvin is prior to nice radius machining introduced in later years)
- rout out whatever holes required

And, I'd like to do what I should to the fingerboard. Earlier, I read a thread confirming that cutting the fingerboard to add lines/markers is bad, so this idea is out. This guitar has always played well. My goal now is tone, tone, tone!

 

[Steve Dallman]

My fretless started life as a cheap Washburn. I changed the EMG Selects to actual EMG's. I built a baxandall bass and treble preamp and put that on the neck pickup. I put an EMG mid boost on the bridge pickup. Volume and blend.

I removed the fingerboard and put a slab of bubinga on it, finished in a hard, bartop polyurethane. I moved the neck out half an inch (the fingerboard overhang covered the gap) and moved the bridge back half an inch to make the bass 35" scale.

I replaced the original bridge with a Shaller roller bridge, one of my favorite bridges.

I put side markers as on any bass, but where the corresponding fret would be. I added on for the first fret position.

Later, I made a really nice mahogany body, finished in Gibson red, the same shape as the original Washburn body but with a longer upper horn. I covered the face of the headstock with mahogany veneer finished in Gibson red.

I originally used GHS Brite Flats, but soon switched to Labella tapewounds. I love them, and I'm not a fan of flats. 15+ years since I switched it to fretless and the fingerboard still looks like new.

It's the best fretless bass I've ever played. I can't think of one I'd want more.

 

[muskyman]

Nice piece Steve. So you made everything but the core of the neck. This sounds like something I would do.

You used PUR on the fingerboard. Was this a 1-part or 2-part? You must have chosen this with purpose (judging by the rest of your project). Do you think that PUR is better than epoxy?