OLP MM2 Fretless - finished!

[mcnach]

Well, I had this OLP I bought a while ago with the idea of making it fretless... and I got as far as pulling out all the frets. Then nothing. For months. Many months.

Finally, in on of the bands I play there was a bit of a need for a fretless. So I took the bass to my favourite luthier.

I got it back today.

Here it is:





and here it is flanked by one of the (in?)famous Sue Ryder P-basses and my MM SUB5:




The fret slots were filled in with a dark blue veneer (it looks more blue in real life than in these pictures). I was not very careful when I removed the frets and I didn't want big slots (less work too, so cheaper), so the luthier did what he could with what I gave him... then planed the fingerboard nicely, smoothened up the back too and rounded the edges and finished it in oil, as it was... Beautiful.

I took it to rehearsal after barely one hour trial... and I'm amazed how nice it is to play. I'm used to OLP/Stingrays, so I guess that helped, but although my intonation was not perfect, it was much better than I expected. I'd be happy to gig it already (I do have to watch my hands more than I normally do). I ended up playing a whole lot of RHCP songs on it, and yes, you can slap a fretless, and yes it sounds pretty cool! Today we tried "Blackeyed Blonde" for the first time... and it sounded pretty good

Fretless, eh? Who would have thought it?

The strings are a set of Ernie Balls I think (not my usual), roundwounds 45-100 or so. Rather old, so not very bright. It is actually quite nice and I love the "growmwahl" you can get on the lower notes. I was going to put some flats in there. I have D'Addario Chromes and Status Hotwires -both flats and groundwounds- to try... oh, decisions decisions... I'm new to fretless and almost-new to flats... any hints?

Now I need to replace the pickup and put the 2EQ preamp I took from my MM Stingray... The pickup on this OLP is more powerful than on the other 3 I've owned, not sure why. It sounds pretty good, but I need my alnico parallel fix. So if anybody has a Seymour Duncan or Nordstrand MM type pickup... I'll be interested!

[mcnach]

Probably not exciting to anybody but myself but I just ordered a Nordstrand MM4.2 alnico pickup for this. Breaking away from my usual Seymour Duncan stuff, I wanted to try one of these and they can't be bad.

Preamp ready, battery box ready, router ready... now I just need time

[danny-79]

I'm not that much of a fret-less player myself but its defiantly nice to have one kicking about!
When i did the conversion on my Aria the obvious choice was to put a set of flat's on it, but its its lots of MAWAW you after, stick with rounds

[Sandmann]

congrats, looks nice! i have to used to a maple fretless neck though ...

[bh2]

Superb!

Fretless sure is a lot of fun... I play mainly Drum&Bass with mine.

Make me miss my Ray... oh well, I'll get another one day.

Edited March 10, 2011 by bh2

[hubrad]

I only really do fretless, did a couple of defrets myself in the past and that looks a nice job!
Halfrounds are another way to go - less f/b wear but more presence than flats. I have those on my 'rawk' fretless.

[Darkstrike]

Dig it!

Can't wait to hear how you like the Nordie.

[stingrayPete1977]

Looks cool and another angle covered with a Ray

[mcnach]

[quote name='hubrad' post='1156891' date='Mar 10 2011, 05:01 PM']I only really do fretless, did a couple of defrets myself in the past and that looks a nice job!
Halfrounds are another way to go - less f/b wear but more presence than flats. I have those on my 'rawk' fretless. [/quote]

it's an expensive business to keep trying different string types, eh?

I'm leaning towards halfrounds too, from the one time I tried them they seemed to be rather brighter than flats and probably more what I'm after here. I can see myself repeating the defret route to have one equipped with nylon tapewounds too, for instance... (maybe when I find another nice old OLP with bad frets, so I can get it quite cheap )

[mcnach]

[quote name='Darkstrike' post='1157261' date='Mar 10 2011, 09:26 PM']Dig it!

Can't wait to hear how you like the Nordie.[/quote]


Next week, next week... can't wait to get it all done!

[mcnach]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1157290' date='Mar 10 2011, 09:45 PM']Looks cool and another angle covered with a Ray [/quote]


you know what is the logical conclusion, right?
I'm now idly looking at second hand fretless Stingrays

[Blademan_98]

Looks fantastic.

I hope you post a sound clip when it's done to your liking.

[mcnach]

[quote name='Blademan_98' post='1157477' date='Mar 10 2011, 11:50 PM']Looks fantastic.

I hope you post a sound clip when it's done to your liking.

[/quote]


I'll be happy to embarrass myself

[TRBboy]

I used to love using black nylon tapewounds on my fretless. Very smooth, deep tone and about as close as you can get to an upright sound on a bass guitar.

Edited March 11, 2011 by TRBboy

[mcnach]

[quote name='TRBboy' post='1157493' date='Mar 11 2011, 12:04 AM']I used to love using black nylon tapewounds on my fretless. Very smooth, deep tone and about as close as you can get to an upright sound on a bass guitar.[/quote]


I keep finding reasons to have more basses, rather than less of them.

I think there's a place for a double-bassy type of sound, and also a more EB-like... so I want two fretless basses now.