The thing you absolutely want on a fretless bass is a bridge pickup. Not a sweet spot pickup, a real bridge pickup - one right down by the bridge. That's where you get the best mwah from - without mwah, the point of fretless (to me) is lost. Hence, the Peavey gets the fretectomy.
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Which should be defretted?
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
BurningSkies
CRAZY BALDHEAD
- Feb 20, 2005
- 27,956
- 20,348
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Dingwall Guitars
Cheese, which has the better neck. The one that is most stable and can keep a true board. That's the one to use. The more and more I play fretless (and I haven't picked up a fretted bass since I walked off stage in early March), the more I'm convinced the perfect fretless is one where the board is as true and straight as possible that has the least amount of 'wiggle' from atmospheric changes. Were I do get a fretless built today, I'd have someone who can do a graphite neck well. If not that, the most solid reinforced neck would be the one.
Buy a fretless neck and have both. Given the advances in product availability, the only time it might make sense to convert a fretted neck to fretless now is if you are working with a neck-through or set-neck instrument. Also, you can have the superior visual aesthetic of an unlined board if you simply buy a fretless neck.
I use roundround strings, so my fretless fingerboards need periodic maintenance. I converted a fretted neck-through to fretless in the early '70s. The inlays used to fill in the fret slots were harder than the wood used for the fingerboard, so the inlays wore at a slower rate than the fingerboard, which meant a little more maintenance than what would have been needed had it been the other way around, which might be something to think about should you go the conversion route.
I use roundround strings, so my fretless fingerboards need periodic maintenance. I converted a fretted neck-through to fretless in the early '70s. The inlays used to fill in the fret slots were harder than the wood used for the fingerboard, so the inlays wore at a slower rate than the fingerboard, which meant a little more maintenance than what would have been needed had it been the other way around, which might be something to think about should you go the conversion route.
