lined my fretless

[Golchen]

I bought a cheap fretless a while ago to try out. Got a Harley Benton from Thomann, not particularly good but OK for my purposes. It came without lines on but I've always preferred the look with lines on, and it's a bit easier for us noobs as well.

Anyway, I decided to add some lines, and it came out pretty well if I say so myself! Here's a couple of pix:

[GreeneKing]

That looks good, how did you do it?

[budget bassist]

+1, how did you do it? I'm assuming you cut slots in the fretboard and then used wood filler?

[GreeneKing]

Me too

[Golchen]

I was originally going to do inserts, but I couldn't source anything that was the thickness I wanted, so yeah, I used wood filler in the end. I found somewhere that did small pots in different colours so just picked a nice one. As it was exactly the same scale length as another bass I have I used that as a template for where the frets went. (tested it first with some small paint markers - can't be too careful there!). I covered the whole neck with masking tape and measured the fret points on both sides to make sure that they would be straight. then it was just a case of clamping it in my work bench and carefully sawing each one with a narrow blade. Took the tape off for a clear view and checked the depth of the holes on each side. light sanding then filled the lines. After drying I sanded it all down then slapped on a few coats of varnish, with sanding in between.

[Golchen]

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='456161' date='Apr 7 2009, 09:42 AM']Never understood the need for lines but then I have always played unlined. Being comfortably built I can't look at the fretboard when I am playing without doing a quasimodo impression. I always use the side dots for reference (or LED's on my GB ) as they are usually where the frets would be. Lined fretless usually have the side dots between the frets just where they would be on a fretted bass. So did you move the side dots as well?[/quote]

It is a Harley Benton bass. For those that don't know, they are such a shoddy company that to make a fretless neck they just don't put frets in. This means that you have no lines AND all the markers in the wrong place! Doh. After getting over my initial annoyance at this, I painted them out and used some white humbrol paint to put some new ones on. Now that it's lined I have reverted to the originals.