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Fretless Rebuild, long and slow

Dave Vader

Dave Vader

May 18, 2009
263
4
Devon Uk
www.plasticsquirrel.co.uk
#1
So a few months ago I bought a hideous looking fretless at a car boot sale for £15. Some of you may remember being rude about it at the time, I did not blame anyone.
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I finally managed to snag a nice body for it on ebay this month, a beautiful Mahogany Jazz copy, should cure the neck dive problems, and I'll be able to play it sat down in front of the TV, always a bonus.

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The plan is to sort it out in 2 or 3 stages, being playable at all times, as I'm a bit poor and can't buy all the bits I want at once.
Phase 1, is a single bridge pickup jazz, with no scratchplate, and the same crappy neck.
Phase 2 should be 2 pickups and a black, or tort scratchplate.
Phase 3 will be either a new neck, or an epoxy finish on the old one.

First I had to get all the parts out of the old fretless, neck came off easy, no problems there, donor body all on it's own and happy.

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But as I came to get the J pickup out of it, I found all the screws had stripped heads, so out came the drill. And then a hacksaw as well...

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And after levering it out with a screwdriver, it's ready to go, hoorah.

Got myself a nice cheap J control cover from axesrus, and discovered cosmetic problem no 1.

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Might be easily fixed by stage 2, which might involve a proper scratchplate going on. Or there might be some fun with tape going on. Lucky I'm not one to care about looks on a bass.

Here's all the bits ready for assembly of the phase 1 J-bass.

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#3
aaaaaannyway...
Having decided to file down the nut so I could have super slinky action and maximum mwah on the open notes, I hit problem no. 2. Cheap plastic nut, it broke into a million pieces, so I have a new one on order.

I filed out the neck pocket to get a super tight neck fit, which I have, there was only .5 of a mm difference in width, so all is well, and a file is all you need.

Then came the bridge pickup, seemed easy, but cavity too tight, I could have just had a neck pickup, but I don't really like the sound on its own, and I could be stuck like this a while. So I scraped it out carefully with a chisel, and it fits in nice and snug now.

Much wiring, and a broken tone pot later, and I go for the re-assembly (why does he not mention the bridge? Cos it was easy, that's why).
The 3 strings that still fit on my busted nut are flat against the board, so no need to shim the neck upwards. Bridge is at maximum height, and we have sound, need relief in the neck though, as behind the 5th we have a lot of rattle and deadness. Must knock out a hole for truss adjustment, as the nut is at the body end.

No pics, cos I did all this after a cancelled band practice, and so hadn't borrowed the camera from work. Will get pics in the week, when I install the new nut, as long as it arrives (damn the postal strike, even though I'm on their side).

Oh, and any suggestions for pickguard colour? I'm thinking black or tort...
 
#5
Be careful Dave, I came up poor like you(dirt poor as we say here) and started out modding a chinese jazz bass, now I have a nice shop with lots of toys...LOL You may be on the way to complete corruption of yourself.

Keep up the quest, quite interesting.
 
#7
So here's my nut now...
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luckily I got my new nut in the post today, and guess what? For about the 300th time in a row, they sent me the wrong part.

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So in true impatient style, I went for it, having done this to a telecaster about 15 years ago, when I got sick of the local shops only having gibson style nuts, and couldn't yet order anything I liked off the interweb.

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Yep, file out the end of the board and stick the damn thing in anyway, works a treat, it's not like I'm altering a vintage fender or anything, it's a car boot sale neck.

Nut still too high, hacksaw time (I know very unprofessional, but I lack tools, though not practical ingenuity and pure dumb luck)

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Obviously, that's a bit rough, ever tried keeping a nut in a vice? :rollno:
I know, so here's a way to file it down and get it flat without making fiddly jigs.

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Not great I know, and I lost a bit more thumb in the process, but I have another thumb, and it wasn't from the important side anyway.

Eventually, I got the nut fitting pretty well, and about the right height, so I put it in and let the strings hold it for now, it'll get glued eventually, but I need time to make sure.

The neck is pretty high off the body so a little back shim goes in to keep the bridge a bit lower, don't want to have the pickups on little bridges of their own...

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And so for getting the truss rod right, god bless body end truss rod adjustment, it's not fiddly at all.

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And eventually, and much later than expected, I've got it not too bad, I've fiddled the intonation so that it's close enough for Jazz (ho ho ho) after all it's a fretless, I don't have to be exact.
And here's phase 1, all strung up and ready to play.

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pickup sounds like crap, and she buzzes like hell electrically, but I reckon that'll play right out in a week or two. If not, I've just sold my ashdown, and have funds for new pickups, and maybe a pickguard and some decent pots. Stay tuned for phase 2 kids...
 
#8
Quick update, doesn't sound that bad through my backline 600, it was the little Laney Mighty Bass that I use to check things work before I try them properly that it didn't like. Had a good go on it last night, and it's pretty good. Needs to have the nut set in properly with a bit of PVA and sawdust, and then phase 1 is all good to go.
 
#9
Phase 2, all present and correct. Have put in a tonerider J pickup in the bridge postition, because it was very cheap and they get good reviews. It's okay, I don't think it warranted such great reviews, but I will get a neck one for phase 3 anyway. Also went for black pearloid on the plate, as it would then match my tele (although that plate was home-painted and only looks a bit like BP). Anyhow, had to get a new control plate to match the pickguard, and it doesn't quite fit the body properly, check out the lower horn. I had to file the heck out of it to get it on, but it was cheap. I also had to knock out a fair bit of wood underneath it so that the neck pickup would go in in the right place. But I think it works alright.
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And with it's little brother who inspired the PG choice...

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