Can I make a bound, block inlay neck fretless?

[Soloshchenko]

I have a nice Columbus neck I'm currently re finishing and was wondering if making it fretless would be a pain in the arse given it has bound plastic edges and block inlays? I've not seen a fretless like this which makes me think the answer is no.

[The Bass Doc]

Not recommended IMPO.

The block inlays have a habit of not staying in the same plane as the surrounding wood, giving rise to potential buzzy areas.

Also when glancing down at the fingerboard the eye is taken by the 'busy-ness' of the inlays rather than the line you should be hitting. I'm sure some people will have tried this conversion and coped with the results (playing by feel for the intervals) but I thing the best playing surface is a blank face with the side dots in the right place i.e. where the fretted note would be.

[son of frog]

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='1216761' date='May 1 2011, 06:55 PM']Not recommended IMPO.

The block inlays have a habit of not staying in the same plane as the surrounding wood, giving rise to potential buzzy areas.

Also when glancing down at the fingerboard the eye is taken by the 'busy-ness' of the inlays rather than the line you should be hitting. I'm sure some people will have tried this conversion and coped with the results (playing by feel for the intervals) but I thing the best playing surface is a blank face with the side dots in the right place i.e. where the fretted note would be.[/quote]

+1 for this,

Keep it fretted, and find another neck to de-fret if you have to,

Or just get an already fretless neck.

[hillbilly deluxe]

If you havent seen a fretless block and bound neck there is probably a reason for it.

[Delberthot]

Fender did an extremely limited bound neck Jazz maple fretless but not a block in sight

[LawrenceH]

There are some fretless block/bound jazzes kicking around among talkbass users. I thought this'd be pretty cool, it hadn't occurred to me that blocks would present more of a problem than dots for a fretless. Perhaps less of an issue if the neck was epoxied? Be interested to know the Bass Doc's opinion on that, since it's something I'd like to do one day!

[The Bass Doc]

On a more plain neck the dots don't present a problem because they are between the A and D strings whereas blocks take up more width and will interfere with attempts to obtain a perfectly flat board. A load of epoxy would certainly help but you still have the 'visuals' to contend with and side dots not being in the ideal place.

[LawrenceH]

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='1218287' date='May 3 2011, 07:49 AM']A load of epoxy would certainly help but you still have the 'visuals' to contend with and side dots not being in the ideal place.[/quote]

That bothers me not at all! My current lined fretless has side centre dots/fretboard dots, never found it to be an issue. Thanks for answering my question

[Fat Rich]

I had an old japcrap bound and blocked neck that had been defretted (badly) for £5.

There were a few buzzes around the blocks, also any slides over the blocks sounded brighter than the rosewood giving a slightly out of tune tone apart fretted sound It was the 80s so they were [b]big[/b] slides

So I whipped out the plastic blocks and replaced them with maple and coated the whole lot with epoxy to solve the problems while still looking quite cool.

Can't say I got distracted by the blocks but I tried not to look at the lines anyway because it doesn't matter what your fretless playing looks like, if it sounds out of tune you're in trouble!

[TorVic]

Found this thread after seeing this:

[url="http://youtu.be/uvvm-s1B7E4"]http://youtu.be/uvvm-s1B7E4[/url]

Like the looks of it but am worried about the tone while sliding on the fingerboard. Am guessing the tone might change when the string over the wood vs. over the block inlay.

Edited May 21, 2016 by TorVic

[Dad3353]

[quote name='TorVic' timestamp='1463841983' post='3054515']...am worried about the tone while sliding on the fingerboard. Am guessing the tone might change when the string over the wood vs. over the block inlay.
[/quote]

Not that human ears can perceive. Bassists' ears, possibly (but doubtful for most...); human ears, definitely not.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Dad3353

[DarkHeart]

Ive worked on a defretted block and bound neck and it was quite acceptable.

[markorbit]

I immediately thought of Keith Wilkinson from Squeeze with this track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ESfsDLt-6Y

[goonieman]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1463846731' post='3054549']
Not that human ears can perceive. Bassists' ears, possibly (but doubtful for most...); human ears, definitely not.
[/quote]

I must disagree - but only if your action is super-low. I prefer mucho mucho mwah, which often means VERY low action. At this level, the base material is critical. Wood gives a more sombre effect, less zingy and metallic. If you go to plastic or eopxy or anything, the effect is significantly more pronounced. So, in fact, it's not really about 'tone' but timbre of the note, and attach transients on the mwah effect.

[such]

I thought I'd drop this here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtNmoCv1QCg

[Beedster]

Finished maple biard with blocks is generally fine, unfinished rosewood and blocks less so, ebony and blocks somewhere between the two. That's all other things being equal, so assuming all playing surfaces are are aligned, which as Bass Doc suggested, is often a big assumption.

[blablas]

Defretted my F(ake)ender Jazz Bass V a few weeks ago. Lovely to hear all those theoretical problems in this topic. However in practical terms, if the fingerboard is properly leveled you won't really hear a difference between the blocks or the fingerboard.

[Beedster]

[quote name='blablas' timestamp='1463918535' post='3054918']
Defretted my F(ake)ender Jazz Bass V a few weeks ago. Lovely to hear all those theoretical problems in this topic. However in practical terms, if the fingerboard is properly leveled you won't really hear a difference between the blocks or the fingerboard.

[/quote]

That looks lovely. The problem I've had with mine is that the neck wood occasionally moves - humidity and temperature I guess - but the blocks don't, so if I'm playing with a really low action and with light strings, I do notice it. Whether an audience would is a different matter, but it does occasionally bug me

[Beedster]

Here's mine by the way

[URL=http://s80.photobucket.com/user/Beedster/media/IMG_5432_zps72q5doto.jpg.html][IMG]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j199/Beedster/IMG_5432_zps72q5doto.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s80.photobucket.com/user/Beedster/media/IMG_5439_zps1ho1lwpv.jpg.html][IMG]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j199/Beedster/IMG_5439_zps1ho1lwpv.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[blablas]

A more detailed picture of my fingerboard.