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Fretless

M

Mete

Jun 14, 2010
97
0
Hungary
#1
Hey there,
i want to turn my fender squier V jazz bass to a fretless, i've never played fretless before except trying out some of my friends's basses, anybody turned their fretled bass into fretless, i know some instrument makers/fixers that making this process
so will i just ruin my bass or it'll be good to play or how the performance will be ?
 
#5
After a luthier told me the fingerboard on my '66 PBass wouldn't take a third refretting without replacing the Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, I turned it into a fretless and haven't looked back. I think it has a better sound as a fretless and I can always replace the fingerboard and put in new frets if I want to restore it.

Gale
 
#6
Slowgypsy said:
Really, you should read the "Sticky" at the beginning of this section regarding "Defreting". Good info there. Here's the direct link....
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=71144
Click to expand...


alright, by that thread, definately i'm not doing any defretting by myself, i'll take it to a professional:D oh i didn't see the sticky when i was opening the thread :S but really thank you the for link, it explained a lot about defretting to me, :)

gbarchus said:
After a luthier told me the fingerboard on my '66 PBass wouldn't take a third refretting without replacing the Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, I turned it into a fretless and haven't looked back. I think it has a better sound as a fretless and I can always replace the fingerboard and put in new frets if I want to restore it.

Gale
Click to expand...


well since the bass is not a great bass but the fretboard of the guitar is so comfortable, i was suprised when i bought it. a part of me says defret it and never look back, a small part of me says preserve my own neck and put a new neck incase if i get bored of fretless(i don't think i'll get bored) i'll put my own neck again to the instrument.
Which one will be better for the tone and the quality, defretting or putting a new neck ?
 
#9
Can you give me some information about the price ranges ? I looked at warmoth it's a bit salty on the price, i bought the bass for 420€ the neck costs 400$ :D which brand can you prefer that can be cheaper and useable ?
 
#12
I've had a couple of basses de-fretted, the pros are,

Your already familiar with the neck profile (nice for intonation) and have an idea how it will sound as a de-fret as far as sustain/deadspots are concerned already. Adding a new neck may not quite work out the same or may be better?

How low are the bridge saddles? If you take out the frets the action will have to come down for your usual set-up unless you like it slightly higher. Not that this is a problem, a shim in the neck pocket will bring the neck up to position to account for the fret height (I've not had to do this but the saddles are quite low as it is at the moment).

The biggest plus imo is the familiarity, you can also chose the fill for the lines, maple strips/whatever you prefer. My 2 .
 

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