Fretless P Bass

[JPJ]

Not so much a build as an assembly job!

The idea for this bass began with a chance conversation between me and the guitarist in the band. I happened to mention I owned a fretless bass (old Ibanez with huge sentimental value) and he was mad keen for me to use this on a gig with our R&B band. Now as we normally play in, how shall we put this politely, er 'lively' venues, the thought of taking the old Ibanez along was swiftly ruled out and instead, a plan was hatched in my head to try to recreate something akin to the Fender Tony Franklin Fretless P bass but on a budget.

The project consists of:
1) an eBay sourced Vintage (as in the brand, not the age) P bass bass body with its factory relic job (which is surprisingly well done, giving the appearance of a natural bass thats been refinished in white, with the white wearing away around the edges and in the 'picking' area, and their relic'd bridge that came with the body;
2) a WD Music Products fretless neck with set of no name fender'esque tuners sourced from Peter Gales on this very forum;
3) Tonerider Precision Plus and Jazz Plus pickups;
4) a KiOgon stack knob wiring loom;
5) Tort plate, strap buttons and screws from CH Guitars in sunny South Shields;
6) A 70's Fender TV era logo from Northwest Guitars;
7) A set of Rotosound flats.

I had to rout the body to take the J pickup and drill through for the pickup wire, but apart from that, it was really an assembly/setup job.

First assembly showed that the neck was sitting with a pronounced forward angle in the neck pocket, so I tickled the angle of the neck pocket with the router to level things out and the second assembly was much better. Anyway, enough words, here's a couple of 'phone photos of the finished bass.





And finally a gratuitous 'action' shot from her first outing


She sounds exactly like she should to me, with a nice growly P pickup and a nasal J honk to blend in via the separate volume controls. KiOgon (John) recommended the choice of capacitors for the tone controls and he got them spot on as the range of tones available are really quite remarkable for a passive bass.

Having used active five stringers for the last upteenth years, it was a bit of a challenge going to a passive 4 string but I enjoyed the experience so much that she got the whole gig!

Future developments will probably see a bridge upgrade and perhaps a three-way switch like the Franklin bass but other than that, she's pretty much everything I'd hoped for and proof positive that a bass doesn't have to cost thousands to play well and sound great.

[JimBobTTD]

Very nice indeed - well done!

Someone posted a video of Franklin trying out his signature bass in the fretless bass in rock thread. Since then, I can't get it out of my head! I might try a five string version myself.

[Pinball]

Great looking bass!

[gary mac]

Nice job, looking good

[kevin_lindsay]

Looks cool, and it's great knowing that you're enjoying it enough to use in a live setting.

[KiOgon]

Looks great, like a well worn P should be & I'm pleased to hear - sounds great - good job. Great to see the action photo too

Cheerz, John

[ezbass]

Very, very nice work. Looks the biz!

[wateroftyne]

Lovely!

[rubis]

Lovely job, just lovely.
For my next project I was intending to do a PJ and was thinking of stack knobs, how do you get on with them?

[JPJ]

[quote name='rubis' timestamp='1355855988' post='1903774']
Lovely job, just lovely.
For my next project I was intending to do a PJ and was thinking of stack knobs, how do you get on with them?
[/quote]

Really pleased I went with this option. The tonal variations you can get between the two pickups is just what I was hoping for, Fender obviously knew what they were doing with the old stack knob jazzes and I really cant understand why they don't still do it today based on my experience of this project.

[warwickhunt]

Just out of interest, is it a fairly easy job to fit the two volumes on one stack and the tone control(s) on the other? I only ask as on occasion I need to fade the volumes (either at the end of a song or as a volume pedal style 'swell' effect) and I dislike basses with two volumes on separate pots (I'm used to a master volume and pan).

[JPJ]

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1355856725' post='1903791']
Just out of interest, is it a fairly easy job to fit the two volumes on one stack and the tone control(s) on the other? I only ask as on occasion I need to fade the volumes (either at the end of a song or as a volume pedal style 'swell' effect) and I dislike basses with two volumes on separate pots (I'm used to a master volume and pan).
[/quote]

Good question: must confess I hadn't thought of wiring them like that but I'd imagine that as a stack knob pot is just two pots stacked on top of each other then i'd guess it would be possible. KiOgon is the man to ask really.

[henry norton]

PJ with an ebony fretless board - one of my very favourite combinations to play - looks pretty damned good too

[gub]

Great Job ,looks really nice !