Defret Conversion

[Smythe]

Hello BC-ers,

I recently had the GAS dilemma of wanting a higher spec fretless bass and was struggling to decide what i wanted and which bass i would have to shift to pay for it. I was sat at home one day looking at my treasured Lakland Skyline 4402 and thought to myself "I wish I could just make that my fretless". Then I realised.... this could actually be a reality!!

So I got in touch with the very talented guitar tech, Dave Wilson in Hexham to see if he we could create this idea of mine. We discussed all the ideas I had and the possibilities of the final outcome; frets removed, as close a colour match as possible for the fret filling veneers, all fretboard dot markers to be drilled out and filled with colour matching dowling and all inlay dots moved to the correct fretting positions.

I got the bass to Dave and I will admit, I was a little bit apprehensive of the outcome, not on Dave's ability, more on the aftermath;

Am I making the right move here with such a treasured bass of mine? Will it sound as good fretless as it does fretted?

So I got the bass back last week and i was extremely pleased with the final product, What a fantastic job, It isn't entirely invisible from close up if you scrutinise it, but from a short distance away you can't even tell it was originally a fretted instrument. Most importantly as well, the bass totally sings . Masses of "mwaaahhh" and "pppwwooowww" on tap, and just an overall improvement on its voice and expression. It seems to have brought that bass to life.

I just thought I would share this with you all and let you know I am a happy chappy!!

Regards,

Smythe

Edited July 19, 2014 by Smythe

[HowieBass]

Very tidy job! Happy reborn bass day!

[Riot_Code]

Looks very well done! I've converted one of my basses, though I think I still need to play around with the action to make sure it's all right.
How do you feel that you can't go back though? (sorry if that sounds pessamistic)

[Smythe]

As Dave said "it was very shrewd move from an economical sense". I wasn't using the bass anymore as I have moved onto passives as my main fretted basses, but I still really treasured the bass and wouldn't have liked to part with it. It was a gamble but luckily for me it paid off, it is an improvement on the bass! I see the defret job I've had done as like taking stabilisers off a bike, it's now a better piece of equipment for it!

[megallica]

Looks good, makes sense to de-fret a bass that isn't getting a lot of attention.
How are you coping with staying in tune up the dusty end of the neck?
I found that a little tricky on an unlined fretless at first

[Smythe]

On a previous unlined fretless I owned, I struggled On this bass i had the guitar tech remove all the previous side inlay dots and new ones placed over the correct fretting positions. This has made it a lot easier playing higher scale stuff in tune .