SX Ursa 6 Fretless Mod

[PrietoBass]

are you staining the sides of the neck where the fingerboard is too? or no?

Not the sides of the neck... only the side of the fingerboard where the side dots are on now. From that thin line on down it will be the natural unstained maple.

Right now, the neck is maple, with a maple (fingerboard) layer... I want the fingerboard layer to look like ebony, or at least much darker than the rest of the neck.

 

[PrietoBass]

My Affinity Jazz V better describes what I'm trying to achieve.

 

[wild4oldcars]

So I would tap off the are not being stained, wait for it to dry/cure, then epoxy the top. After that, tape the epoxied area, and lacquer the rest of the neck, including the area with the side dots. This would be my approach, anyway. Best of luck!

 

[PrietoBass]

Decisions! Decisions! I didn't want to suffer from paralysis by analysis, so today I went out and got some blue masking tape (medium adhesion).

Best as I could, I tried to follow the fingerboard line where it is glued to the neck. Hopefully the tape is good enough and I applied it well enough and the stain won't seep through...

I set the neck down, opened the stain bottle, dipped the small brush I bought into the stain bottle, and... the point of no return had arrived...

I immediately noticed how obnoxiously messy this (stain) stuff is!!! A few specks flew here and there and landed on the headstock (which I didn't cover fully...). Oh well, I can sand those off. What I won't be able to save is the shirt I was wearing which I discreetly threw in the garbage bin afterwards without my wife noticing...

Here it is... (see attached pic). I'll let it dry overnight and sometime tomorrow afternoon buff it with 0000 steel wool.

The black lines are barely noticeable... you have to look hard... but they are (faintly) there, which is a good thing since I need to know where to place the perloid side dots which will hopefully arrive from Stewmac on Monday. However, once it's all buffed and covered with epoxy I don't think they will be visible enough to be used as a reference. So I can say with certainty that this bass has started a new life as an unlined fretless.

 

[PrietoBass]

My worst fears have just come true...

The stain found its way under the tape.

I started sanding on one spot but the unfinished wood just drank that stain like a drunk at a bar... the stain went deep into the wood.

I need to reset/restart and think of way to get out of this bind if possible, or set a new course...

 

[PrietoBass]

After kicking myself for a while I have decided it's time to move on.

My youngest son, who is studying art and graphics design, suggested I straighten the lines with what I will conveniently call a...

...Professional CYA Line Straightener Instrument.

 

[PrietoBass]

I sanded as much as I could; in some places the lines became blurred and in others the stain had gone so deep that it was impossible to sand all of it down.

Then I cleaned it all up with naphta, let it dry for a few minutes, and taped as straight a line as I could. Then I applied the CYA line straightener...

Then I used the following question as a litmus test: Is it noticeable from a plane flying 10,000 ft high? No??? Then it's a done deal.

You be the judge...

 

[dabbler]

I sanded as much as I could; in some places the lines became blurred and in others the stain had gone so deep that it was impossible to sand all of it down.

Then I cleaned it all up with naphta, let it dry for a few minutes, and taped as straight a line as I could. Then I applied the CYA line straightener...

Then I used the following question as a litmus test: Is it noticeable from a plane flying 10,000 ft high? No??? Then it's a done deal.

You be the judge...

Done like a Pro... you should thank your son.

 

[PrietoBass]

Done like a Pro... you should thank your son.

Thanks Dabbler! My pictures are not high resolution enough to capture all of the mistakes, so I'll say that you are being very generous with your comments!

My son felt very happy for me after his suggested solution made things better; he saw how bummed out I was... BTW, he's the "mastermind" behind my headstock decal as well. I'm grateful to him for his ideas and also grateful to have him.

Those of you whom I've had the privilege to meet here on TB know that I'm into this because of my sons. The oldest was just transcribing a Steve Vai song called "For the Love of God" and called me into his room to check out his tone (plays a PRS SingleCut through a POD HD300 and a Behringer 10" keyboard amp). Good stuff/feel that kid has.

Ok, back to the King Walrus fretless build... here's another photo of the neck. The fingerboard soaked all of the stain and now that it's dry you can still see the wood pattern/grain and the lines. It's very dark, but they are visible... it doesn't look as dark as in the photo.

My decals from R Taylor arrived yesterday. They are cool! Amazing job this guy has done for me. Engine207 recommended him and ever since I made contact with him it's been a very positive experience. If you ever need a custom decal he's (RT) the man to get a hold of. (pm me and I'll give you his email address)

My tort pickguard from Pickguardian has been ordered as well (thanks to bassbenj for the recommendation). I'm looking forward to seeing the body with it.

Additionally, I went ahead and ordered an Audere Pro JZ3 (V/B 4-band). I used to have one (3-band) on my Affinity V a while back but I sold it. I want to see/hear how this preamp is going to change/help the SX pickups which sound Ok but have a weak output. I have extra copper tape from a previous shielding job I did so while the pickguard and the preamp get here I plan to do a shielding job on the body. I'll post pictures here.

Finally, I may need to learn how to cut and shape a nut...now is as good a time as any to learn, so we'll see. The nut was a bit high to begin with, so it's possible that with the epoxy layer the grooves will be at the right height. I'm really counting on having a very level epoxy fingerboard so that I can achieve a lower action than previously.

Since I'm oncall 24x7 this week I'll read up on the epoxy instructions to get familiar with the process, but I won't try it until next week; don't want to get called in the middle of the process and spoil things.

Thanks all for your feedback; keep it coming.

 

[bassbenj]

Done like a Pro... you should thank your son.

I Agree! Very nice save!

I just put the Ebay new bridge on my fretless. I really love the quick change string feature. There is no fun like trying to thread a fat bass string through a too small hole when the end is already in a curlycue from being on the peg and NOT scratch the finish!

On the other hand let me say that the design of the new bridge is a genuine allen wrench fantasy to do a setup. And I'm always a bit sceptical when one of the standard tools for a setup is a hammer...

But It's done, it looks superb, I love the quick change and it sounds/plays just as good as the old one did...

 

[chuck norriss]

looks great
know what would be sick if the entire neck was black

 

[PrietoBass]

Things have been pretty quiet work-wise... although tonight I have to do some post-implementation testing (software) so I wanted to get something going today.

After much reading, I decided to go out and buy some Minwax Clear Lacquer spray cans from Home Depot... the main reasons were that I don't have spraying equipment, requires no sanding between coats, and you can apply another coat after only 30 minutes.

I devised a spraying/drying rig by using an old round wound string and 2 small alligator clips. Then I attached one of those nail hooks for picture frames on my carport, partially screwed the two topmost screws to the neck and hung the neck. (see photo).

Then all of a sudden, it got windy and it was difficult to spray evenly... I was also concerned about things (like dust) flying around and getting stuck to the neck... But after the first couple of coats I got the hang of the spraying process and everything went smoothly after that.

I applied seven coats.

 

[PrietoBass]

I also applied perloid side dots at the 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 17 & 19 fretline positions. If you look from the side of the neck, they're all not lined perfectly... but I'm sure from a functional standpoint they'll work just fine. Right now it's all a learning process for me and these Rondo "kits" allow me to experiment on the cheap.

I'm not sure if I need/want to do some fine sanding (2000 grit) before I apply the decal to the headstock. I plan to apply 7 more coats after that and buff/polish the neck somehow.

I'm going to order the System Three epoxy from Amazon (it's what I see being used on Engine207's bass) so hopefully I can apply the epoxy next weekend!

 

[Gord_oh]

Way cool

 

[PrietoBass]

The Audere preamp arrived; I need to check how it fits into the cavity or if I'll need to apply some routing. I'm waiting for the pickguard from Pickguardian to arrive so I can sit down one evening after work and do the shielding job; I want to do it all at the same time. I also need to correct the bridge alignment as it is slightly crooked... not noticeable but what the heck, why not take care of it now as well?

More to come this week hopefully.

 

[Five String]

Sub'd. I like these projects because it encourages me to do my own work. Plus, you're doing a great job.

 

[PrietoBass]

Sub'd. I like these projects because it encourages me to do my own work. Plus, you're doing a great job.

Thank you! I'm doing this job after seeing the work of others. I've received valuable advice and encouragement from many members on this forum. This is my humble attempt at trying to give something back to the community. Perhaps in time I can contribute more from a musical standpoint (like some great folks around here with incredible talent), but for now, in the words of an instructor I used to have, "it's perfectly okay to be right where you're at".

Don't hesitate to provide feedback! Thx again.

 

[bassbenj]

I also applied perloid side dots at the 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 17 & 19 fretline positions. If you look from the side of the neck, they're all not lined perfectly... but I'm sure from a functional standpoint they'll work just fine. Right now it's all a learning process for me and these Rondo "kits" allow me to experiment on the cheap.

No question SX basses are cheap "lessons" (and if you don't mess up too bad you can even get your money back at the end by selling the bass).

Just to throw out something on fret markers for fretless. When I did mine, what I did was drill fairly large shallow holes in the side of the ebony fingerboard. I then filled the holes with white epoxy and sanded the whole edge flat. This makes for quite easy to see markers, that really work well!

A problem with that was "drill wander" which affected a couple of them so they aren't exactly centered in the black edge. "mojo" I guess.

and here's the catch. I decided that since this fretless jazz bass would likely always have flats on it (most of my fretless basses sport ground wounds), rather than putting markers at the "theoretical" positions for the frets. I carefully tuned and intonated the bass giving an exact straight line across the neck to define the 12th "fret". Then using the edge of a credit card and a tuner, I found the EXACT position of the pure note on each string at the frets I wanted to mark. Now because strings are wound and not perfect, you'll find those positions don't quite form a straight line across the neck. There is some variation from string to string. So then I drew a line that was sort of the "average" position of all those completely correct marks and there was where I put the side marker.

As you might figure this makes for very accurate side markers although you still have to use your ears to really tweak the notes in. But I realized that this really only works if you always keep the same type of string (flats) because a different kind of string would probably shift the notes this way and that different from the notes on flats. So this is where the approximate "theoretical" frets come in, in which case that is sort of an "average position" of what you get with all kinds of strings.

Anyway, that's what I did and I"m pretty happy with how it turned out. At least until I throw the flats away and put rounds on there.

 

[BillyB_from_LZ]

...

Anyway, that's what I did and I"m pretty happy with how it turned out. At least until I throw the flats away and put rounds on there.

Just play with a lot of vibrato and no one will every know!

 

[PrietoBass]

A problem with that was "drill wander" which affected a couple of them so they aren't exactly centered in the black edge. "mojo" I guess.

That's exactly what happened with a couple of markers on mine... great to see mine is starting off the right foot in the mojo department!