My half fretless bass..

[ColinGWood]

So I defretted the upper register of my bass last night. No problemo, just took an iron and put it almost on high. I heated up the frets for about 10 r 15 seconds, and I used a wedge tool and a butter knife to gently rock them out of the board.

There were tiny tiny pieces of wood that frayed up at the fret line, but no biggie whatsoever.

The only problem is that it's tough to fret right at the first "fretless" fret (12). My upper 12 frets are fretless, first 12 are standard.

 

[odin70]

Sounds cool. The only problemo i see is compromising on the frettet and unfrettetd action.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

Yep. Same result here. 13 is a bitch. Everything else works fine.

 

[line6man]

Yeah, it seems like action would be a problem.

I've seen a half fretless where the fretted portion of the board was sanded down so that when the frets were put back in, the tops of them would be at the same height as the fretless portion of the board.

Does anyone have a link to that thread?

I don't understand why someone would want a half fretless bass though, when you can defret all of it?
Aside from the hindrance of having frets at all, there would be a huge difference in sound between the upper and lower halfs of the board.

 

[David Jayne]

The only problem is that it's tough to fret right at the first "fretless" fret (12). My upper 12 frets are fretless, first 12 are standard.

The way to fix that is to build a new fingerboard from position 12 on up, thicker than the original, so it's nearly the same height as the remaining frets.

 

[danomite64]

For it to be right, you should raise the fretless part of the board to be the same height as the frets. But, I'm sure it's cool as it is.

 

[ColinGWood]

haha I don't have the know-how or tools to thicken the fret board below the 13th, even though that's a great idea.

I just got bored with my bass and sure enough last night I finally yanked em out. Now all I want to do is yank em ALL out! This is my only bass though, so I'll wait... I don't want to make it completely fretless because I can still play my whole band set regularily while only touching the upper register once.

Come to think of it, if I had any woodworking skills, I would love to just make myself a new fretted neck and just yank all the frets outta this one.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

A layer or two of ebony/rosewood/maple veneer should to the trick. I think that is definitely getting into pro territory though.

 

[colcifer]

Been wanting to do this but don't have a bass I'm willing to lose if it were to go badly. Pictures! Soundclips!

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I think I would want it fretted only up to the 5th fret, then fretless the rest of the way down. I may have to go get a pawn shop bass to try this out...

 

[ColinGWood]

This thing is going to be fretless SO soon! WOW I love playin a flat board!

 

[ColinGWood]

There's an image, haven't filled the fret cracks and I don't think I will

The biggest problem is definitely the action difference. The intonation on the upper register is just a tad off, but again, it;s because of the action.

And again, I better find a new fretted soon because this baby is GOING. ALL. THE. WAAAaaayyy!

 

[Stephen]

http://www.brownsguitarfactory.com/