De-fretting and Epoxy

[Duarte]

I love my fretless stingray. It is my favorite bass. Now I'm thinking 'I wish that P bass was fretless'

Can anyone recommend anyone who can do this? Don't want to do it myself - you know what I mean. I'm also interested in epoxy-ing the fingerboard to use rounds on it. And I don't like rosewood fretless necks, so epoxy seems like a cool option. There are some sweet pics to be seen of the kind of thing I mean is you just google it...

Thanks guys!

[budget bassist]

I know a couple of people who have done this, one of them used a big ass soldering iron thing, like a BIG one to heat up the fretwire, melting the glue, then use some fret pullers to extract the frets. LukeFRC on here did it too, but he did it another way.

[YouMa]

I did it to my fender P lyte just be a bit careful.

[LukeFRC]

i did it!
i followed budget-bassests advice but for me i think the heat made the wood stick a wee bit at the top and damaged it. They came out easier without with a sharp chisel and a pair of pliers.
Next i used a thin hacksaw to clean out the slot before filling it with little laminates of wood.
I went the cheaper option of using ronseal diamond hard wood varnish. To be honest i wouldnt do that again!

I was using a very cheap neck (though with a nice lump of rosewood on it) that i dinnae mind trashing if it all went wrong. I wouldn't probably do it on anything good.

I will throw out the option that going by the gallery's website prices a de-fret is £70. Epoxy is a pig to work with so that would prob cost a load more so i recon you are looking at £100 or so.
If you keep your eyes open for only a bit more you could buy a decent fretless off someone here to play with (and know your Jap P wouldnt loose any value and still be lovely)

[Mr. Foxen]

Buy a fretless neck and sell the fretted one. I kinda want a nice fretted neck.

[The Burpster]

When I finally find another PRS to donate its neck for this operation I wil have it done by these....

[url="http://www.woodwiz.com/epoxy"]http://www.woodwiz.com/epoxy[/url]


Even one of the PRS custom shop staff says their stuff looks good...... Thats good enough fgor me!

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='287798' date='Sep 20 2008, 01:27 AM']Buy a fretless neck and sell the fretted one. I kinda want a nice fretted neck.[/quote]

good idea. its all down to Leo Fender desiging it with a swapable neck system!

[Duarte]

[quote name='The Burpster' post='287820' date='Sep 20 2008, 08:43 AM'][url="http://www.woodwiz.com/epoxy"]http://www.woodwiz.com/epoxy[/url][/quote]

Wow, his work looks excellent! Although, there is a two year wait, and he's in the states.

Im not really sure about getting a new neck, I kinda like the I've got. I want the bass to be the same bass, but without frets.

[The Burpster]

[quote name='Duarte' post='287919' date='Sep 20 2008, 11:50 AM']Im not really sure about getting a new neck, I kinda like the I've got.

I want the bass to be the same bass, but without frets.[/quote]

Yep me too. 100% with you.

I'm looking for another PRS IV so that I can send the neck to them and have as a lined fretless. PRS aren't geared up to do this for me, or supply a new fretless neck for less than $2k

But thier custom paint and repair luthier recommended those guys.....