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Fretless with Epoxy Coating
- Thread starter Amplified
- Start date
I know this is an old thread...I contacted HG Thor through their web contact page. The page assured me that all inquiries are personally answered. It's been a week and I never heard back.
Is anyone else doing this?
Several years ago, I had reached out to him as well.
After a few months I received a response that he was sorry for not responding sooner.
But I had already done the job myself with great results.
Its really not too hard; anyone competent in finishing and/or epoxy should be able to do the work for you.
I did one of my basses in superglue, I've also done epoxy, superglue is harder and much easier to apply, you just need the proper stuff to do it and need to be very neat, if you take your time and really sand it it can come out like glass. I've also had a few necks coated by pros. I don't know what they charge now but I had a Fender done about 10 years ago for 300 bucks. Since I got my Fender TF fretless with ebony neck I prefer uncoated ebony to coated necks, always did actually but wear....ebony sounds better IMHO and stands up even to Rotosound RS66's.
I have 2 fretless basses. One has a gaboon ebony board and the other had Macassar ebony. Both show markings after a 6 months with nickel plated rounds.
I can feel some of them with my fingernail. I figure that if they are visible after 6 months, it'll probably get bad enough to need to be leveled every couple of years.
Yes. It is harder than a refinish. WAY harder as you said. I wanted the epoxy on my fretless, but didn't want to send it out to someone, so I looked around here in Nashville and got lucky. I found a guy here who did a great job. It took a few months, but it was worth it.
Yeah, I can feel them with my nail, I just meant while I'm playing, I'm sure it's not going to last forever without being leveled.
Epoxy, and it was Jeff Marple at Corner Music here. He's really good at the epoxy, but it's a pain, so he won't do it for everyone. I was lucky, in that I knew him before.
I don't think so. His preferred method of coating a fingerboard is definitely epoxy, and he doesn't do any type of refinishing other than that. Urethane and CA will wear through, or peel off eventually. An eighth of an inch of epoxy is as durable as it gets.
Epoxy will also wear over time, maybe over a longer period of time over other methods, but it's not like you're coating the board with diamond dust.
I coated a fretless board with CA glue and found it pretty easy to get right. That included defretting, inlaying veneers in the slots, setting the relief on the neck dead-flat, and then carefully levelling the fingerboard with a sanding block.
I decided to use black super glue (Starbond) as a way to black-out the fretboard. It took many, many coats; definitely more than it would have taken were I not hellbent on hiding the fret lines and dots.
If you were starting with a fretboard that you already know is flat and true, then it's even easier. I just bought some disposable vinyl gloves and used my finger to spread the glue around. I didn't sand the fingerboard or use accelerator until I could tell that all the wood grain was sealed. The glue is thin enough to basically self-level since you're applying so little at once.
After the grain was sealed, I would apply a couple of coats over the course of the day (2-4 depending on my patience and the time I had), hit the last coat with accelerator, and then block sand to make sure everything was smooth. I didn't even use an entire small bottle of Starbond black CA. Once I had enough of a layer build up, I wet sanded up to some silly high grit (4k or something)
If I were to do it again, I'd start with water thin clear CA until it was built up enough to seal all the grain, and then switch to black. But, I hate lined fretless boards and dot inlays, so it was necessary to bury it all under a lot of black CA. If you don't mind fret lines you can just build up the glue as much or as little as you want for your desired finish.
I don't gig and fretless isn't my main, but I'm confident that CA is a resilient finish. I don't know how it would be possible for it to peel off, but I'm also not an expert in adhesives. Most people with patience could do a CA finish on their own, provided you have the time and a well-ventilated space to work in.
I don't like lined boards either, I did a stock Rick fretless which does have some dots but no lines, I put a lot of coats on it and block sanded it with a 10" radius sanding block and also did go down to the finest sanding sponges I could find and it did come out straight and true and looked like glass.
Not a very good picture, 1985 4003FL, it looks better in person like all my pictures
i like lined boards and dot inlays
unfortunately, with insurance - shipping a $4000 bass to california is about $150 so it makes for about a $600 repair bill which is a bit steep if I have to do it every year or two...
unfortunately, with insurance - shipping a $4000 bass to california is about $150 so it makes for about a $600 repair bill which is a bit steep if I have to do it every year or two...
That's cool. I was merely explaining what my experience has been, and that leans heavily towards an epoxy treatment. It's thick enough that it can be sanded back to a sheen if it has some wear, but I've honestly never had any wear due to how lightly I play. I also don't need any dye, because I don't have fret lines, and the board is already black because it's ebony.
I have a Warmoth lined fretless neck, with an ebony fingerboard on a MIJ Fender P-Bass body. I had a local guy finish the fingerboard with Fullerplast. It was actually his idea. He told me it was a really tough varnish. I don’t know how many coats he applied, but it’s held up to
nickel plated roundwounds since the early 90’s. It has accumulated some scratches from the string’s windings, but they don’t affect the sound or playability. I’m amazed at how well it’s held up for all of these years.
I did a web search for Fullerplast, but I haven’t found much. It does appear that it’s still being made. If you can find a supplier, you might want to consider it.
nickel plated roundwounds since the early 90’s. It has accumulated some scratches from the string’s windings, but they don’t affect the sound or playability. I’m amazed at how well it’s held up for all of these years.
I did a web search for Fullerplast, but I haven’t found much. It does appear that it’s still being made. If you can find a supplier, you might want to consider it.
