Fretted Fretless

[Drucifer]

 

[Discount Bassy]

I'm already curious to hear how it sounds slapping.

 

[swarfrat]

I dunno. But you can count to 35 on your fingers using base six. And it even teaches places.

 

[Eilif]

So one thought I am having is how far down I take the epoxy.
Just above the fret? I think this is where I start

Another thought

We all know that fretless basses don't work well with slapping. You can make it work, but it is more difficult.
Why? I think the fret play a critical role

So if I expose the frets just a bit, I get the metal of the fret, with the flatness of a fretless

Potential that could be realized: a fretless that can do slap easily

1)If exposing the top of the fret...
Question to you and other luthiers, how easy is it going to be to get the fret level with the epoxy? I'm not experienced with this, but I've had times where I've tried to sand down a surface with different fillers and one keeps giving up more than the other resulting in a different height.

2) If not exposing the top of the fret, I'd leave a fair bit on top. You don't want the layer of epoxy over the fret to become a natural cracking or flaking point by being a too-thin bit between two larger solid blocks of epoxy.

 

[Williethump]

Somewhat off topic but what tone would you get if instead of epoxy you precisely ground down the frets level with the board? It seems cleaner and easier than ripping out the frets. I've never had an original thought so I'm sure one of you wild amateur luthiers must have tried this. Great tone and good mwah or the voice of a duck?

 

[ZachM]

Just buy a fretless bass and leave us alone. Use both on gigs.

Leave "us" alone? I've literally never seen you post in here before now, and it's totally unhelpful and rude.

Scoops is a very accomplished and capable luthier, and if you'd ever been in this forum before and paid any amount of attention to your surroundings, you'd know that. If he (or anyone else) wants to experiment with a weird idea, that is their prerogative - whether the peanut gallery agrees or not.

 

[Fat Freddy]

Leave "us" alone? I've literally never seen you post in here before now, and it's totally unhelpful and rude.

Scoops is a very accomplished and capable luthier, and if you'd ever been in this forum before and paid any amount of attention to your surroundings, you'd know that. If he (or anyone else) wants to experiment with a weird idea, that is their prerogative - whether the peanut gallery agrees or not.

What he sez ^^^^^.....

 

[BassFishingInAmerica]

We have to assume that every great off-the-wall endeavor has been met with a litany of criticism. Often times, it is the criticism that pushes one to want to succeed even more. The thing is, if it wasn't for some of our nuttiest ideas, some really cool things would never come about.
Btw, even the failures will help someone, somewhere.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Somewhat off topic but what tone would you get if instead of epoxy you precisely ground down the frets level with the board? It seems cleaner and easier than ripping out the frets. I've never had an original thought so I'm sure one of you wild amateur luthiers must have tried this. Great tone and good mwah or the voice of a duck?

That works ok. Sounds like a fretless, I had one someone else did and I had to cleanup the board. The long term problem is that the fret tangs are harder then the wood and will wear differently then the board, assuming you play enough to cause wear.

 

[Silevesq]

This is very funny, I actually just though about this. Hoping this work out!

 

[AndyPanda]

Somewhat off topic but what tone would you get if instead of epoxy you precisely ground down the frets level with the board? It seems cleaner and easier than ripping out the frets. I've never had an original thought so I'm sure one of you wild amateur luthiers must have tried this. Great tone and good mwah or the voice of a duck?

It just sounds and feels exactly like a fretless. That's how I used to do it back in the early 70's. It works very well and is by far the easiest/fastest way to do it but it's generally frowned upon. Any luthier who has had a customer bring him one of those necks to be put back to fretted knows how much more difficult it is to get those fret tangs out than it would be to saw new fret slots into a board done with hardwood strips for fret lines.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

I'm already curious to hear how it sounds slapping.

Claypool always got along just fine slapping a fretless.

 

[Fat Freddy]

Kinda.....

I was posing somewhat of a riddle

I'm thinkin something like this

I have this fretted neck, I dam it off pour in epoxy, once the epoxy dries shape the epoxy to be just above the top of the frets.

This is an experiment I've been wanting to do for a while so here goes

View attachment 3898190

Make it glow!.....

 

[I-Am-The-Slime]

Freak on, brother!

 

[2groggy]

Holy smokes! I stop lurking for a day and miss a project weirder than any of mine. I'd say "go for it" but you've already gone.

At least my weird stuff never offended the haters. Lucky me.

 

[Sneezles61]

Seems odd, in a forum about bass, and nuttin' else... A poster post flakes right out...
Have I stumbled into a pithe of DVNT's not looking for adventure?
Time for some homebrew... I like when someone slashes the box open and has fun...
Sneezles61

 

[Rôckhewer]

Wow Who let the trolls out?
I've seen this type of closed minded ignorance and vitriol in the past, drive a brilliant mind and good friend away from sharing on this forum....
...To our loss.
It is blatantly obvious that several of the naysayers do not even have a working knowledge of the process or materials involved. (So STFU)
Let alone a mere modicum of faith... that someone who posts in the LC ... just might BE a talented Luthier?
Hard to grasp for some of you I suppose.
And if you don't see the point... then you don't see the point. Watch and learn... or don't and piss off.

@Scoops .... can't wait to see the results!
Carry on.

Sorry for the rant.
Namaste

 

[Eilif]

I realize I was a "don't do it" and I still lean that way, but I'm kind of hoping it works. I have visions of something gleaming and shiny like one of those half-epoxy lathe-turned projects folks are aways posting on artsy websites.

If it does work and is stable, maybe you could take basses with a shallow neck and veneer fingerboard (or no fingerboard) and treat the epoxy as the fingerboard. All kinds of interesting possibilities with tints, colored swirling epoxy, items suspended in the epoxy, etc, or just a really thick finish that makes stained wood leap out at you.

 

[Scoops]

Wow Who let the trolls out?
I've seen this type of closed minded ignorance and vitriol in the past, drive a brilliant mind and good friend away from sharing on this forum....
...To our loss.
It is blatantly obvious that several of the naysayers do not even have a working knowledge of the process or materials involved. (So STFU)
Let alone a mere modicum of faith... that someone who posts in the LC ... just might BE a talented Luthier?
Hard to grasp for some of you I suppose.
And if you don't see the point... then you don't see the point. Watch and learn... or don't and piss off.

@Scoops .... can't wait to see the results!
Carry on.

Sorry for the rant.
Namaste

This is not just to @Rôckhewer, but all the others that spoke out against this behavior.
I believe this provides us insight on our society today. It's terribly obvious
I am proud of the stand much of the LC community took.

We need to promote working together, and being together, not this hate mongering

 

[Scoops]

I realize I was a "don't do it" and I still lean that way, but I'm kind of hoping it works. I have visions of something gleaming and shiny like one of those half-epoxy lathe-turned projects folks are aways posting on artsy websites.

If it does work and is stable, maybe you could take basses with a shallow neck and veneer fingerboard (or no fingerboard) and treat the epoxy as the fingerboard. All kinds of interesting possibilities with tints, colored swirling epoxy, items suspended in the epoxy, etc, or just a really thick finish that makes stained wood leap out at you.

I've done about 10 FB's with epoxy. It does add a little weight The necks I still have in my possession are shinny. Here's one of them. This has a fair amount of play on it and you can see the ware, but it doesnt seen to kill the shine.

I use System 3 Mirror coat. I treat it much like lacquer. I'll sand it down to 3000 or so, and then buff it out
None of the boards I possess have cracked, nor do they offer and great resistance against the truss rod

So to your point on thickness, one neck I have at fret 1 is about .75 thick, and about .85 at the 12th fret.
Granted this is an ebony neck, ebony FB, with about .075" thick epoxy. It's been pretty stable for as long as I have had it

I plan on removing some of the material from the back of the neck to get it to the same dimensions as the unepoxyed neck

Talk about interesting possibilities, you could glue down something like a tree of life in the FB, coat it over with epoxy, radius it off, polish it up. Rock on!

As a part of this experiment, I do have a nearly identical neck that I will be able to use as a baseline

More later