JPJ

A small update. The fingerboard has now had four coats of Tru-oil and finally looks like it’s sealed. Tomorrow, I’ll start on the slurry and buff technique until I reach a finish I am happy with. I’m really trying to take my time with this process as I have a propensity to rush jobs like this and then regret it later.

Thanks Marti, Thats what I wanted to know. I already use the Nino mute, and I’ve also changed mine from contemporary to traditional strings but whilst I can get a really convincing db tone from the D & G strings, I’m still struggling to get the same from the E & A strings.

Question to the more technologically minded. Is anyone using IR’s of double bass with an EUB (specifically NS NXT in my case)? If so, how do you find them and what hardware are you using?

Fair point, but this is an acoustic bass so my journey’s above the 12th fret will be infrequent 😂

So a light sanding of the fret markers and then the first coat of Tru-oil on the fingerboard, which was almost immediately absorbed.

I ended up buying a Pelicase for my NS NXT 4. I was lucky in that I found a guy selling some off as ‘new old stock’ otherwise the price would have been prohibitive but still less than a made-t0-measure flightcase. Works great and I have no worries now throwing this in the back of the van.

Slow progress as life and gigs get in the way but last night I cut the slots and glued in the little fillets of veneer to make the edge markers. As if this job wasn’t perilous enough, I decided to make it more difficult by putting the first twelve frets on the top of the neck and the second twelve on the bottom. No idea why I did this other than I love a challenge. I cut the slots freehand to pencil lines marked on masking tape using a junior hacksaw blade, which it turns out cuts perfect slots to accept 0.6mm veneer plus a little bit of PVA glue. The veneer I used was sapwood from a piece of walnut which has turned out to be a perfect balance of visibility and discretion. This morning I have trimmed all the fillets back flush with the fingerboard and scraped any glue residue using a sharp craft knife. Both the fingerboard and the edge will get a light sand later to tidy up and then I’ll move on to finishing the fingerboard with Tru-oil. Got to say I am extremely pleased (and relieved) with how this stage turned out. Still plenty of opportunities for me to cock it up royally but this was the stage that concerned me the most so I am happy that the result is as good as it is.

More local, Stormin the Castle. Main stage Saturday night, the slot just before the headliner “Phil Campbell & the Ba$tard Sons” 😎

Sounds to me like you are hitting the limits of your desk. Ignore me, but since going digital ten years or more ago, all these problems have stopped for me. Need to eq the mic channel - no problem I have a choice of parametric or graphic eq. Need to eq front of house - no problem I have the choice of parametric or graphic eq. Need to eq a monitor bus - no problem I have a choice of ………. Effects-wise I have four busses with a pretty unlimited selection of delays, reverbs, etc. Monitors-wise I have six individual mono busses or three stereo busses. Need to adjust eq whilst sound checking - I just take my tablet out front with me. All this in a three rack space box that doubles as your stage box. Oh and I can save any number of scenes so that once I’ve played a venue with a band, I have a baseline setup for the next visit. On your last point, and as I am sure more knowledgeable folk than me will say, compression is no substitute for good mic technique and can actually be the source of feedback in certain situations.

Southern Incorporated gig yesterday, social club in an old mining village in County Durham. Nice size room with plenty of enthusiastic audience members. We played really well, and slipped in a couple of newer songs as we ramp up to a major bike festival show at the end of August. Seemed to go down well with the audience as we received a standing ovation at the end of our second encore. Nice when the promoter hands you the money and says “after a performance like that I feel like I am ripping you off paying only this much” - job done 😎

Yes a Y cable will work fine.

Todays progress consisted of trimming all the veneer fillers back and sanding and sanding and sanding the fingerboard. There were a number of dips and high spots all over the board but now it’s nice and level and flat, and the fret line fillers are about as inconspicuous as I can make them. Next step will be building a jig to cut the fret end slot markers as I don’t trust myself to freehand these with the Dremel. I’ve saved all the sanding dust and I have a bottle of tru oil on order. Once that gets here I’ll be attempting @Andyjr1515 slurry and buff technique on the fingerboard.

At this point, it looks like the slot filling is going well, so no. But I can still faff it up from here so we’ll see 😂

Well I made a lot more progress than I was expecting. All fret slots are now filled and the glue is drying overnight. Tomorrow night it should just be a case of trimming the excess slot filling veneer, and sanding the fret board flat.

There is definitely something on the board. It might just be lemon oil residue but I’ll know better when I’m finished sanding. I’m undecided on whether to coat the board or not, it’ll largely depend on how good the finish is with the veneers in.

Well that’s it, the frets are out. In truth they came out amazingly (or worryingly) easy with very little chip out. Next to clean up the board in readiness for slot filling.

Funny you should mention this. I bought some fret pullers off Amazon and they arrived more like cutters than pullers. After a quick introduction to my bench grinder, problem solved😎 Before After

Yes, both fretless and fretted, works fine 👍

Well the veneers I ordered from David Dykes have arrived so I guess it’s time to rip those frets out 😬

Don’t worry John, I’m a fairly experienced fretless player, both my original Ibanez Roadstar that got me into Fretless in the first place as an 18 year old, and my Fender Tony Franklin Precision have unlined boards, and my Overwater Perception 5 string that I had defretted has the slots filled with a matching dark wood so the lines are almost invisible. In the case of the Warwick, fret line ends will work without having to move the existing side dots.

This is something I have been pondering. I think I will need to either cover the existing side dots (mid-fret position), add new ‘on the lines’ markers or if my wood working skills are up to it, do those nifty fret end markers like those shown below. I’ve got a few different veneers inbound from David Dyke’s and once I’ve received these and ripped the frets out, I’ll decide.

I’ve done a couple and it’s a bit of a nightmare. My ‘technique’ is to stick the mirror acrylic to my template using double sided tape. I then cut to about 10mm oversize with a jigsaw on the highest speed setting cutting really slowly. Then I finish to the template using a 60 degree chamfer cutter in my palm router, again on the highest speed setting. With one sheet of Perspex the double sided tape actually pulled the mirror finish off the back so check on a small test area first (in that case I covered the back with wide masking tape and then used the double sided tape onto that). Other thing to watch out for is the swarf is very ‘sharp’ so leave the protective film on the front as well otherwise you’ll end up with loads of scratches (again, lesson learned the hard way). Of the two I have made, I have also made at least four rejects.

So, the last board layout lasted a week, and the Finally is now relocated to the end of my chain. Used it at my gig on Saturday and loved it, as did the sound guy.

Billy Bootleggers in the popular Ouseburn area of Newcastle upon Tyne. Great live music bar with in-house PA & engineer (who actually knows what he’s doing). The bar has three bands on each Saturday, and we had our favourite 5pm kick-off slot. Lots of folk in for the music supplemented by passing trade and with dry warm weather, there was plenty of passing trade. We played well and the bonus of being home by 8pm makes it doubly pleasing. Oh and first gig with the Finally v2 ‘with bass in mind’ and I couldn’t be happier with how this sounds, now at the end of my chain (arguably where it’s supposed to be) it provided a lovely fat warm input to my amp, and the engineer said it’s the best D.I. he’s heard in a while. Oh and we got paid too 😎