Well, I had this OLP I bought a while ago with the idea of making it fretless... and I got as far as pulling out all the frets. Then nothing. For months. Many months.
Finally, in on of the bands I play there was a bit of a need for a fretless. So I took the bass to my favourite luthier.
I got it back today.
Here it is:
and here it is flanked by one of the (in?)famous Sue Ryder P-basses and my MM SUB5:
The fret slots were filled in with a dark blue veneer (it looks more blue in real life than in these pictures). I was not very careful when I removed the frets and I didn't want big slots (less work too, so cheaper), so the luthier did what he could with what I gave him... then planed the fingerboard nicely, smoothened up the back too and rounded the edges and finished it in oil, as it was... Beautiful.
I took it to rehearsal after barely one hour trial... and I'm amazed how nice it is to play. I'm used to OLP/Stingrays, so I guess that helped, but although my intonation was not perfect, it was much better than I expected. I'd be happy to gig it already (I do have to watch my hands more than I normally do). I ended up playing a whole lot of RHCP songs on it, and yes, you can slap a fretless, and yes it sounds pretty cool! Today we tried "Blackeyed Blonde" for the first time... and it sounded pretty good
Fretless, eh? Who would have thought it?
The strings are a set of Ernie Balls I think (not my usual), roundwounds 45-100 or so. Rather old, so not very bright. It is actually quite nice and I love the "growmwahl" you can get on the lower notes. I was going to put some flats in there. I have D'Addario Chromes and Status Hotwires -both flats and groundwounds- to try... oh, decisions decisions... I'm new to fretless and almost-new to flats... any hints?
Now I need to replace the pickup and put the 2EQ preamp I took from my MM Stingray... The pickup on this OLP is more powerful than on the other 3 I've owned, not sure why. It sounds pretty good, but I need my alnico parallel fix. So if anybody has a Seymour Duncan or Nordstrand MM type pickup... I'll be interested!
Finally, in on of the bands I play there was a bit of a need for a fretless. So I took the bass to my favourite luthier.
I got it back today.
Here it is:
and here it is flanked by one of the (in?)famous Sue Ryder P-basses and my MM SUB5:
The fret slots were filled in with a dark blue veneer (it looks more blue in real life than in these pictures). I was not very careful when I removed the frets and I didn't want big slots (less work too, so cheaper), so the luthier did what he could with what I gave him... then planed the fingerboard nicely, smoothened up the back too and rounded the edges and finished it in oil, as it was... Beautiful.
I took it to rehearsal after barely one hour trial... and I'm amazed how nice it is to play. I'm used to OLP/Stingrays, so I guess that helped, but although my intonation was not perfect, it was much better than I expected. I'd be happy to gig it already (I do have to watch my hands more than I normally do). I ended up playing a whole lot of RHCP songs on it, and yes, you can slap a fretless, and yes it sounds pretty cool! Today we tried "Blackeyed Blonde" for the first time... and it sounded pretty good
Fretless, eh? Who would have thought it?
The strings are a set of Ernie Balls I think (not my usual), roundwounds 45-100 or so. Rather old, so not very bright. It is actually quite nice and I love the "growmwahl" you can get on the lower notes. I was going to put some flats in there. I have D'Addario Chromes and Status Hotwires -both flats and groundwounds- to try... oh, decisions decisions... I'm new to fretless and almost-new to flats... any hints?
Now I need to replace the pickup and put the 2EQ preamp I took from my MM Stingray... The pickup on this OLP is more powerful than on the other 3 I've owned, not sure why. It sounds pretty good, but I need my alnico parallel fix. So if anybody has a Seymour Duncan or Nordstrand MM type pickup... I'll be interested!
