Making a fretted into a fretless.....

[Bill Whitehurst]

I had wondered if filing down the frets was an option.
Now, I see it has been done sucessfully.

I would imagine that going back to fretted would be
near impossible, though.
Recutting slots in wood has to be way easier than
cutting through frets.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Filing the frets down is a nightmare for any future refret, I would never do that as an amateur, nor would most pro Luthier's, but it's your bass.

 

[GnomishViking]

Just take your time and use the correct tools and supplies. I've built a few basses from scratch and done one fret less mod that didn't turn out cause I want to cut corners

 

[paulears]

I had a fair bass, and de-fretted it, filled the gaps and it looks nice. It plays nicely from the feel but sounds muddy and dull. The rosewood fingerboard is now nowhere near flat anymore and the strings have rubbed it away pretty badly. I don't play it often and only when I need that dull sound. I won't do it again.

 

[oldNewbie]

One caution : My experience defretting a 4001 a long time ago showed that dead spots and wolf tones may well appear, frets can mask that problem . Fiddling with the infernal rick trussrods reduced the range but didn't eliminate it . Made clear why Rick owners who play fretless might like tapewounds and not try for growl - the bass was very good, except for about five notes of D-string and 3-4 notes of G which were unusable. Might be a good idea to ask around if the instrument is known for dead spots or wolf tones.
If you do it, I'd also suggest slitting the edge of each fret with a razor and working very carefully to pop it straight out to avoid splinters, if only to make the filling cleaner.

 

[GMC]

When converting a fretted to a fretless bass it's worth considering what sort of tone you are looking for. For a "Jaco" tone, you need a bass with two jazz pickups. You need to have the frets removed, then the lines filled with a contrasting veneer and then the fingerboard needs to be coated in either epoxy resin or yacht varnish. Then get a really good set up done, have the action lowered and the nut slots lowered too. Pop on a set of good flat wound strings and you are done.
For a early "Pino" sound, leave the fingerboard uncoated / unvarnished. Look for a Music man pickup fitted bass. I've not really liked P bass fretless conversions.
Coating the fingerboard generally adds to the mids and top end of the sound and creates a very specific sound. An uncoated fingerboard sounds more organic and natural to my ears. If you choose to use round wounds, you will find that they sound brighter but are a lot more harsh on your fingers as you glissimo and are punishing to the fingerboard wood below. Most bespoke fretless basses use ebony boards over rosewood due to the difference in hardness. But round wound strings will chew through either quite fast, depending how often and hard you play it. I think Pino Palladino has gone through 4-5 ebony fingerboards on his famous Music man bass since the 80's and it's not his main instrument any more. I've not tried a fretless with a synthetic fretboard yet.

 

[CP5U]

Why defret a fretted neck if its a bolt-on? Wouldn't it make more sense to just get a fretless neck that would fit, or one from the same manufacturer if possible? Then you would have both options and could always swap back.

 

[Callused Finger]

Agree with the suggestion to replace the neck. That way you can always go back.

 

[MD]

Seems with the abundance of low cost, entry level fretless basses available these days, it's almost silly to defret
(unless there's junker in the corner, and money is a major concern).

 

[Nev375]

Hey it worked out for Jaco, so why not?.....

I've done it two times. I'm not a professional and had to invent my own method, but this is what I did:
(Note, this is before we had the luxury of internet and had to figure things out for ourselves mostly.)
Disclaimer: There's better ways of doing things, just putting this out there for reference.

Used a fingernail clipper to gently coax out the frets from the end. Was careful to collect any splinters so I could glue them right back in.
I used some polystyrene plastic strips I got from a hobby shop that sells models and R/C airplanes and stuff.
Don't remember what glue I used, but i glued the strips and the splinters back into place. ( i used tweezers to handle the splinters)
I checked the flatness of my kitchen countertop and decided it was true enough.
Taped down some sheets of sandpaper end to end butted right up to one another. (No overlap)
Then I just slid the neck back and forth over the sandpaper to grind the plastic down smooth.
Note: This is the important part. I only touched the neck from the headstock end so that the weight of the neck would distribute itself evenly along the sandpaper. I was careful to use only side to side energy and not induce any up or down forces. I did have to rock the neck back and forth to match the radius curve but I checked often to look at the fretboard to see how things were progressing and which areas of the fretboard were in contact with the sandpaper. When everything looked even, I was done. Took a long time, but it worked. Note, I was young and poor and living in an apartment so I didn't have access to real powertools.

I didn't coat the rosewood board. I just used some lemon oil on it if I remeber right and just played it like that. I used roundwonds on it and was a bit disappointed to see the marks it left, but I decided if I developed a light touch on my fretting hand It'd be ok for a long while. And it was.

 

[Bassamatic]

IMHO - Unless you have played a fretless for a while and like it, and you have some really great bass that would benefit from this modification, AND you are skilled enough to do it without ruining the fingerboard or willing to pay someone good money to do it - Fuggedaboudit! Get a Squier fretless if you want to try one out - don't possible damage your bass and set yourself up for a big repair bill for the de-fret and the re-fret when you decide you don't like it. I've been to that dance.

There are a lot of very skilled people here that make it sound like a walk in the park - it isn't.

 

[hopwheels]

It may be cheaper to get a fretless neck and swap it on one of your basses, just to see if you like it at all. If you don't you can always sell it for the same amount of money.

I just did this with a MiM Jazz...it's not dialed in completely, but even the initial results are fantastic. It turned a bass that I wasn't sure why I purchased...impulse...to a great instrument to begin to understand fretless. The original frets were tweaked anyway (D string 19th fret), so the swap was an improvement.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

...I vastly prefer a very light resonant body bass for pizz work in general; and since 99.9% of my fretless playing is pizz, I specifically look for the lightest most resonant bodies I can find for fretless.

What is this "pizz" you speak of?

 

[+6dB Dan]

Seems with the abundance of low cost, entry level fretless basses available these days, it's almost silly to defret
(unless there's junker in the corner, and money is a major concern).

Unless you're a lefty . That's why I'm planning to do this or have this done at some point.

 

[bucephylus]

What is this "pizz" you speak of?

Sorry. That's formal double bass speak for playing with the fingers. An abbreviation of "pizzicato," which is Italian for "pinched," and in the case of musical instruments indicates plucked with the fingers.

Hope that's not TMI.

 

[bdplaid]

Let's say you have a half decent fretted bass guitar, and one was to make that into a fretless, could you actually hope / expect that it would be half decent?

Or is the fretless version a complete different animal?

I know makers do this but is this just a cop out, so that they don't have to pump money into making a prototype of different versions to perfect the fretless version?

Thanks for all information in advance.

I had an Alembic that sounded like crap since the day I got it. I never played it, so I thought, "defret it, what have i got to lose?" It was the best fretless ever, like it was born to be that way.

I have a Yamaha that I defretted, and it's good, but was better as fretted.

just depends, on something which I've never figured out.

But the short answer: it can be awesome, but have it done by a competent guy; the fret slots need to be filled.

 

[bdplaid]

A doable project as a conversion, but it's not easy, sometimes impossible to get frets out without damage to the fretboard. As a factory applied finish, the poly is much more durable in my experience, CA glue is much easier for a DIY job. Check out a used Squier VM Jazz fretless, I was shocked how good they are right out of the box, and the lined fingerboard makes the transition from fretted to fretless much easier.

I recently played a fretless Ibanez, holy squirrels, was it good.
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[Mosstone]

After consulting with several luthiers, I discovered that poly was the preferred coating for fretless necks.

That's interesting. I've got de-fret project going, myself (actually, it's been on-going for some time) and I was going to go with the pour-on epoxy. Partly because that's how Kevin Kaufman did Jaco's fingerboard and partly because I thought it would be much more durable than CA glue. After considering what a bear the epoxy is to work with, I started leaning towards CA again, but if poly is durable enough, I just might go with that.

Do you know if they sprayed it, or brushed it on? Do know how many coats?

 

[eastcoasteddie]

Sorry. That's formal double bass speak for playing with the fingers. An abbreviation of "pizzicato," which is Italian for "pinched," and in the case of musical instruments indicates plucked with the fingers.

Hope that's not TMI.

Nope, not at all....I was told that I am a bit more cerebral than most...I like to learn new things

 

[esa372]

Do you know if they sprayed it, or brushed it on? Do know how many coats?

It was sprayed (in a spray booth), but I don't know how many coats were used.

Pat Wilkins (who did the poly coat) is a TB member; I'm sure you could shoot him a PM with any questions you might have about the process, or you could contact him though his web site.



:edit:
I just left a message at his shop; I'll let you know what he says, once he replies.