Hey all, I recently took a risk on reverb buying a "60's teisco short scale bass" for 100$ and well, it was suprising. It's just lefty tiesco guitar someone put a bass bridge, tuners, pickup and strings on. They've also defretted it. That's where the problem lies. I don't really want it to be fretless, but instead of pulling the frets out and filling them, it looks like they've sanded the frets down to the fretboard, creating a metal "plug" to fill the frets. Has anyone worked on anything like this before? The neck also has binding on the side, so I wouldn't be able to necessarily saw through the fret plugs without having to replace the binding. I would be open to doing it if that was the only option. If any good luthiers have any experience with this kind of thing I would be very grateful. I'll attatch a few photos for you to check it out. P.S. The hardware/electronics are complete crap and I'm going to replace them. In brainstorming mode right now but thinking putting a mudbucker type pickup (anyone tried the allparts one?) in the neck and a mini humbucker on the bridge. Also been thinking about putting a bigsby with an tune-o-matic style bass bridge and using tapewound strings, and even an onboard overdrive circuit. This thing is going to be REDICULOUS and I love it Peace {} {}
Yep, I've seen a few like that. Basically, you've got to pry the tangs of the frets up out of there. Start with a small sharp pointed tool at the end, pry the end up a bit. Then work across, pulling the tang out with a pair of ground flush cutting nippers. Clean the slots out with a standard fret slotting saw, pushing the end in up against the binding. Then refret it, clipping the ends of the tangs so the ends of the crowns hang over the binding. It's a tedious and complicated fret job, but it certainly can be done if you have the patience.
Arrrggghhh! The dreaded filed fretless! This video shows the same nightmare on a Ric. He took the binding off to get to the fret ends to pry them up.
Why not? Been looking for a short scale bass and figured i'd take a stab and see. Lister did not say it was fretless and the photos didn't look fretless either.
Yah, but it's still not a short scale bass. It's a buggared geetar. Hey! have fun with it. Let us know how it turns out.
Haha thanks! And you're right it ain't short scale. Totally expected a 30' scale neck as advertised but got a 24 inch once instead! Oh the wonders of reverb I'll post some updates when I get around to working on it.
Please do, it’s not what you expected but the journey to your vision will be an interesting one to say the least!
That would be a laborious job but that's how it needs to be done. (he did a splendid job saving that neck!)
