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Gonna get me a fretless...

Dan B

Dan B

Oct 19, 2008
1,270
527
36
Amherst, MA
#1
So on Saturday I am going to buy this bass that I saw on Craigslist.

Looks like a Peavey Grind; the seller turned it into a fretless and is selling it for $100. I am so excited! :hyper:

al24g1.jpg
 
#4
i'm a step ahead of ya, i purchased my 2nd fretless just yesterday....

Man o' man am i lovin' the tone(s) and expressiveness of the fretless !!

for $100.00 i don't think you can go too far wrong, but beware: the frets might've been pulled badly....
HG Thor does remarkable epoxy work by all accounts, perhaps you'll be doing an epoxy job soon !

Hope the new bass works out well for ya !
 
#9
Just bought it. Impressions:

Tone: I love it. It growls nicely but it's very refined and round. The sounds from it are all very usable and malleable compared to the Schecter (which is also good but getting the sound you want is tedious). The low strings are nice and boomy without any sort of "floppyness" to the sounds; the higher strings nice and crisp but not sharp.

Feel: It's like butter. The neck is nice and thin but not overly thin (like an Ibanez SR) and the shape is very well designed, with easy fingerboard access to the higher reaches, and there is no neck dive. Oh yeah, this thing is LIGHT. I was surprised when I put it on (and I thought my Schecter was light!). The buyer did the defret himself, and honestly, I don't see anything wrong; there are no odd lumps, the board seems even throughout. When he did the defret he sanded it, epoxied, marked the areas with Sharpie (which doesn't look like Sharpie; really it looks like black line rather than marker), and epoxied the neck again. That said, I think the neck is fine. The strings are old but the bass hasn't been touched in 5 years so although they need to be cleaned, they don't need replacing any time soon.

Price: The guy marked it down and sold it to me for sixty dollars. That's right; sixty. Might not be the deal of the century but considering I have seen Grinds for more, I think this was a good deal.

On to the pics!
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#18
Jazzman said:
Fret buzz? I thought this was a fretless? :D :hiding:

Looking at the pics, the nut needs some work. You might also need to level the fingerboard to alleviate the buzzing.
Click to expand...

I got rid of the buzzing by raising the action a bit but right now it's a mile high, so I'm gonna take it down some. Leveling will come soon but not right now.

How should I go about the nut?
 
#19
The nut appears as though it was never lowered to compensate for removal of the frets. I usually go by feel, which will vary from bass to bass, it would be a good start to lower the slots so you can just barely fit a 0.012" shim between the fingerboard and the string in the first position when depressing at the third position.

You are trying to get the nut as low as possible without the depressed length of the string buzzing.

Simply put, you would set up the nut height similar to a fretted bass...it would just be lower because there are no frets that you have to clear.
 
#20
Jazzman said:
The nut appears as though it was never lowered to compensate for removal of the frets. I usually go by feel, which will vary from bass to bass, it would be a good start to lower the slots so you can just barely fit a 0.012" shim between the fingerboard and the string in the first position when depressing at the third position.

You are trying to get the nut as low as possible without the depressed length of the string buzzing.

Simply put, you would set up the nut height similar to a fretted bass...it would just be lower because there are no frets that you have to clear.
Click to expand...
That I'll do; thanks.

Considering I haven't done this before, what tool should I use? I'm guessing some kind of file, right?

Dumb question, I know.
 

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