- Fretless
- Y
Hey Y'all,
I thought I'd always keep this one around for when the fretless urge hit me, but I'm in what I'd call an "optimizing" phase (can't really call it "downsizing" or "simplification" because I'll come out with roughly the same number of basses, just different ones) so I'm posting it to see if there's any interest.
It started life as a 90s Climax bass - emerald blue, lightweight, with a crack in the body by the controls. Through the addition of a cut-down SB-2 pickguard (that had a broken tip so it had to be replaced on the SB-2), a truly ugly routing job, and a brand new MFD P pickup from the G&L store it became an SB-1 equivalent. Then I got a defretted ASAT neck (gloss vintage tint finish) and it became fretless. It's been hanging on my wall and gets pulled down when I feel that fretless might fit a project/song I'm working on, but then it never gets used because my ears are better at hearing how out of tune I play than my fingers are at correcting it to play in tune.
Before anyone asks -- all the parts not on the bass as it is now (MFD HB pickup, G&L tritone setup/preamp, fretted neck) are long gone. Heck if I still had the fretted neck I'd put that back on there and play the heck out of it that way, I loved it as a fretted and it beat out some factory SB-2s for how much I liked it.
Flaws? It has a bunch. The crack in the body by the controls -- I think those come from shipping impacts. It's never moved while I've had it and if you are concerned I do still have the copper plate that the Climax innards were attached to that can be used as reinforement (I prefer the lighter weight from not having it inside the bass). There are some dings, chips, dents in the body and the back of the neck. The ASAT neck was defretted and although it's nice and smooth with filled slots it's not prettiest job in the world - you can see where there was some tearout around the removed frets. Again nothing that I can feel for that, just visual. The neck pocket fit is not the closest and the neck has been fitted on more than just this bass and you can see some spots near the pocket where the neck finish was sanded/removed to fit a tighter pocket than this one (see the pics). The routing is crude and the pickup doesn't line up as nicely as I'd like - but sonically it's just fine, no balance or other issues I can detect.
Controls are simple vol/tone and it's wearing a pretty fresh set of .095E Chromes. Tuners and truss rod are smooth, bridge is good.
As-is it weighs in at 8.3 lbs by my kitchen scale.
It came in a molded case and I'll ship out in the same if you want (or dismantled in a smaller box if that's your preference). The only extra parts are the copper plate the Climax innards were attached to. If your plans include turning it into some kind of dual MFD-P Matador-like creation I'll donate another MFD P pickup I have in the drawer and a broken-tipped & crummily repaired SB-2 pickguard (black) is yours for the asking with the bass.
It's a fully functional fretless made of US G&L parts as it is, but for someone who likes projects there are plenty of options:
- restore it to a Climax fretless, either passive like a Kiloton or active (have to cover the P pickup route with a pickguard or plate)
- do some more routing and have a Climax position MFD and an L1K position MFD fretless (I've done this with a fretted Climax)
- do some more routing and turn it into a "Matador" fretless (I can include an unused MFD P with it if this is your goal)
- refret it for any of these
- and on, limited only by your imagination
Right now none of these possibilities are a project I want to pursue so I'm putting it out there. I checked what I have into it and came up with:
$475 pickup in Houston, +shipping elsewhere (cash in hand, paypal, zelle all work for me)
I'd also trade the fretless neck for another 3-bolt 1.5" nut width fretted G&L neck if anyone wanted to do that. Other trades would be:
- older Trib JB2 or SB2 under 9lbs
- partial trade for a US SB2/SB1/LB100/Climax w/1.5" nut width satin neck, 8.75lbs or less, no later than 2010
- Fender Kingman v2
- Guild Starfire I or II
I thought I'd always keep this one around for when the fretless urge hit me, but I'm in what I'd call an "optimizing" phase (can't really call it "downsizing" or "simplification" because I'll come out with roughly the same number of basses, just different ones) so I'm posting it to see if there's any interest.
It started life as a 90s Climax bass - emerald blue, lightweight, with a crack in the body by the controls. Through the addition of a cut-down SB-2 pickguard (that had a broken tip so it had to be replaced on the SB-2), a truly ugly routing job, and a brand new MFD P pickup from the G&L store it became an SB-1 equivalent. Then I got a defretted ASAT neck (gloss vintage tint finish) and it became fretless. It's been hanging on my wall and gets pulled down when I feel that fretless might fit a project/song I'm working on, but then it never gets used because my ears are better at hearing how out of tune I play than my fingers are at correcting it to play in tune.
Before anyone asks -- all the parts not on the bass as it is now (MFD HB pickup, G&L tritone setup/preamp, fretted neck) are long gone. Heck if I still had the fretted neck I'd put that back on there and play the heck out of it that way, I loved it as a fretted and it beat out some factory SB-2s for how much I liked it.
Flaws? It has a bunch. The crack in the body by the controls -- I think those come from shipping impacts. It's never moved while I've had it and if you are concerned I do still have the copper plate that the Climax innards were attached to that can be used as reinforement (I prefer the lighter weight from not having it inside the bass). There are some dings, chips, dents in the body and the back of the neck. The ASAT neck was defretted and although it's nice and smooth with filled slots it's not prettiest job in the world - you can see where there was some tearout around the removed frets. Again nothing that I can feel for that, just visual. The neck pocket fit is not the closest and the neck has been fitted on more than just this bass and you can see some spots near the pocket where the neck finish was sanded/removed to fit a tighter pocket than this one (see the pics). The routing is crude and the pickup doesn't line up as nicely as I'd like - but sonically it's just fine, no balance or other issues I can detect.
Controls are simple vol/tone and it's wearing a pretty fresh set of .095E Chromes. Tuners and truss rod are smooth, bridge is good.
As-is it weighs in at 8.3 lbs by my kitchen scale.
It came in a molded case and I'll ship out in the same if you want (or dismantled in a smaller box if that's your preference). The only extra parts are the copper plate the Climax innards were attached to. If your plans include turning it into some kind of dual MFD-P Matador-like creation I'll donate another MFD P pickup I have in the drawer and a broken-tipped & crummily repaired SB-2 pickguard (black) is yours for the asking with the bass.
It's a fully functional fretless made of US G&L parts as it is, but for someone who likes projects there are plenty of options:
- restore it to a Climax fretless, either passive like a Kiloton or active (have to cover the P pickup route with a pickguard or plate)
- do some more routing and have a Climax position MFD and an L1K position MFD fretless (I've done this with a fretted Climax)
- do some more routing and turn it into a "Matador" fretless (I can include an unused MFD P with it if this is your goal)
- refret it for any of these
- and on, limited only by your imagination
Right now none of these possibilities are a project I want to pursue so I'm putting it out there. I checked what I have into it and came up with:
$475 pickup in Houston, +shipping elsewhere (cash in hand, paypal, zelle all work for me)
I'd also trade the fretless neck for another 3-bolt 1.5" nut width fretted G&L neck if anyone wanted to do that. Other trades would be:
- older Trib JB2 or SB2 under 9lbs
- partial trade for a US SB2/SB1/LB100/Climax w/1.5" nut width satin neck, 8.75lbs or less, no later than 2010
- Guild Starfire I or II
