fretless bass conversion (PART10)

Jason from The Musician's Den in Evansville IN demonstrates converting a 4-string fretted bass, to a fretless. In PART 10, the last one in this series, we'll finish the job, the string nut is glued down and then we bass is reunited with its owner.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• fretless bass
• fretless
• converstion
• The Musician's Den
• veneer
• guitar
• repair
• tech
• luthier
• instrument
• Ibanez
• maple
• superglue

[MrJoypad570]

OK QUESTION. what if i wanted to go the other way and put frets on a fretless bass? i ordered i blank fretless paddle neck for a build project because it was cheap. how would i go about it?

[smbstressfest]

@MrJoypad570 That would be tough. It could be done, but I don't recommend it. You'd basically be marking and sawing individual fret slots using a template of some sort. And how accurately you were with the slots' locations would be a strong influencing factor on the intonation of the finished product. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST DOING THIS :-)

[MyLastSerenade03]

Amazing, I want to do this to one of my basses now. Say, I use Fender Nylon Tapewound Flat Wound strings on my frettless (mostly because after 5 or so years my fingers still refused to form calluses lol) and I would like to hear your opinion on them if you have one. In my experience they are low tension so they are easy to play, smooth, stay tuned longer, and last longer all together. They have a very warm sound unless you tune down and then magically become very metal lol.

[smbstressfest]

@MyLastSerenade03 I'm sort of "traditional" regarding bass strings in that I tend to only use nickel plated steel roundwounds for both fretted AND fretless. I have a Breedlove fretless ABG that I string with Thomastik-Infeld Acousticore nylon-core bronze roundwound wrapped strings, but that's my only exception.

The nylon tapewound strings definitely have a unique feel and tone, and if you like them and they work for you; that's all that really matters.

[Petrusist]

a question....what strings on a frettles bass ? flat strings or round strings?using round, will the fingerboard have gaps?

thanks

[smbstressfest]

@Petrusist The strings on this bass are roundwounds. I prefer that sound myself in fact. If you roundwound strings on a wooden fingerboard fretless bass, eventually you will have fingerboard wear that will need to be leveled out so that you can maintain a good action without certain notes being deadened from the wear. But, unless you play really hard or hours everyday, it should take quite a while before this will become an issue. Flatwounds of course will take longer to cause wear.

[ultimabass]

@MyLastSerenade03 I just hit six years of playing on the 21st of last month, and I've STILL got no callouses... but I do have some mean endurance :)

How do tapewound flats sound?

[1951abcd]

That was a good series.

[TheSonsofHorusx]

that poor gio v.v

[eggobass]

The string spacing is uneven.

[mankalabeat]

Wow...amazing work in these series of 10 videos...I learnt a lot, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge! Maybe one day I'll attempt to convert my bass!? thanks again...

[NiklausMetal]

"I'm back here with a damp Q-tip"... lol