mcnach Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny-79 Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandmann Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 congrats, looks nice! i have to used to a maple fretless neck though ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bh2 Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hubrad Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstrike Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Dig it! Can't wait to hear how you like the Nordie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Looks cool and another angle covered with a Ray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 [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 ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 [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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 [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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blademan_98 Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Looks fantastic. I hope you post a sound clip when it's done to your liking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 [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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBboy Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 [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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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