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Fretless suggestions?


thisnameistaken
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I recently shifted my Stingray f/less, and decided Stingrays just aren't for me - I never got happy with the neck. So can I probably assume that I don't want a Precision either?

So I need a new fretless. I've had a couple of others in the past (Godin Acoustibass, USA Fender Jazz) and of the two I liked the Godin much more for tone, but the Jazz was much more practical on stage due to the horrendous neck dive on the Godin. I liked the Jazz enough until I had to replace the bridge, pickups and neck...

Logically I'd buy a Jazz if I could find a nice one, but I want an unlined, ebony board like I had on the Godin. I don't really dig boutique-looking basses, but I do like natural wood finishes if they're not too "bling". Strictly no gold hardware - I don't want anything showy.

Tone-wise I'd like it to do the typical fretless bloomy sound. Most of the time it's going to get drowned in effects, frankly, but it would be nice for it to be there.

Neck-wise I like Jazzes (that work) and (especially) my '91 Thumb but I don't have the budget for an old Thumb fretless, and I think the short top horn on the Thumb would make fretless playing difficult. I like rolled edges and boards with a proper radius to them, no flat boards.

Any ideas?

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Get a Thumb BO4 for around £550 and get someone to swap the wenge fretboard for a slice of ebony. The Bass Gallery guys can do this, I believe. Could work a treat!

Edited by rjb
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[quote name='lemmywinks' post='510078' date='Jun 10 2009, 12:39 PM']If you could live with a lined pau ferro board then my Warmoth Jazz is now up at £410, less than half the cost of the parts new.[/quote]

I had a pau ferro board on the Stingray that's sitting in a box downstairs waiting for a courier to take it away. Nice enough, but I much prefer ebony. The Jazz I had was rosewood and that was a bit too mellow too.

The Warmoth idea's not a bad one, but I was hoping for something that I don't have to spend a day assembling and however long waiting for the parts to arrive.

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