@@shant1530 Sooo glad he is vegetarian. - Where is our cat? No! Buy your strings in a shop! - Is that alto flute a human bone?! I don't like those nasty neighbour kids, but this is a bit extreme. Kids have a right to walk on TWO legs! - No! You can't extract any gold from a goldfish! Use silver on your brass flutes!
Tim Beaton "If you don't want to risk destroying your precious bass guitar to make something you may not even take to, you have no soul" Not everyone has the skill and tools to do this kind of job. If you want to, go for it, but why tf should everyone be held to that standard.
I wanted a brand new 6 string fretless. Good luck finding those in stores. I cant find any. So I created one for myself using some of this guy's method.
I've played bass since "79, but never tried a fretless until a few years ago. I'M IN LOVE! I now have 3 fretless basses (after converting two I had) and my fretted bass collects dust. I had no problem with intonation, because as was said in the video, your fingers already know where to go. Muscle memory takes over.
Totally agree bro...once fretless, no turning back. I was amazed by Ralphe Armstrong of Mahavisnu Orchestra playing one of the first Fender P Bass fretless back in 72’...just had to get involved...😎🤙🏽
....I am hoping to convert ONE of my 6 (lefty) basses to fretless, soon....it will become another "flavour" for my compositions....I settled upon a 5-string, 2-octave neck (a Schecter Stilleto), to have all my "basses covered"...I was inspired by a Gipsy Kings vid...for a few songs their bassist plays an electric upright..with some chorus effect.....I said, "I gotta do it!".....
also, you might already like the fretted model your playing, and there probly isn't a fretless model of that, so why not just turn yours into a fretless isntead?
Thank you for the tips. Just made my Squire jazz bass fretless. I used a chisel to pop the frets out, filled in veneer, glued veneer using superglue, trimmed veneer with chisel, sanded using a 220grit sand paper on a long piece of wood plank, painted sanding sealer on, sanded again with 600 grit, checked for bald spots, sprayed satin finish on, bang on.
Can I suggest... at 0:45, when you're using the craft knife to loosen the fret, that you push it away from you, rather than pull it toward you? That way, you can be more sure of being able to play the finished guitar with 10 fingers, rather than 8.
Maybe you be suprised, but I absolutely don't have any musical talent. I am just building guitars, not playing them. But you are right, building with 10 fingers is easier.
Lovely job Bert. I have a friend who had a Fender PJ defretted but he didn't want a lacquer finish, he wanted to keep the softer tone of the rosewood. Recognising that the rosewood would wear away quickly without some kind of protection, especially with roundwounds, the luthier put only the thinnest of sealing coats and finished it matte. It needs to be redone every couple of years but it gives the player the sound he wanted.
Man, why did you put gloss coat on it?! No one will ever want to play this bass because of what you have done... ...because it looks so amazing :D Incredible effort, effect and experience!
I once defretted my 1962 Precision Bass. I didn't know they were to become highly sought after! I simply used a household screwdriver and pliers. But I didn't make too bad a job of it. I didn't fill the slots and left the fingerboard exactly as it was and played it as a fretless for about 18months before getting it refretted. I sold it for not a lot of money in the mid 90s---and have regretted it ever since.
Thanks to this video I have made 2 conversions and they went GREAT - loads of work but fretboards looked like made by pro luthiers - both necks I have saved around £150/each in my pocket THANK YOU!!!!
I de-fretted a Maple Jazz neck years ago and used dark wood putty in the empty fret slots. I sanded the neck to a near flawless finish and used 10 coats of super glue. It had a remarkably hard and beautiful finish after tons of sanding. Nice job mate! Cheers
I want to say thank you for the instructive video. I was looking for a way to work on my bass, a Fender Jazz Bass. Your video is very inspiring. I can see the passion that you put in your work. Congratulations!
Very cool video and a job well done. I built a bass for my daughter about 9 years ago, and followed the same process including the super glue finish on the finger board. At the time I had found an instructional paper on the super glue process written by Dan Erlewine and gave it a shot. The finger board is still as hard as nails and looks great!
I agree, i`m not hater. Simply I cannot see THE REASON, WHAT FOR...? 2) is it so cool or important to see the old board "fret marks" at this renewed "fretless", even made so greatly?
I agree Art. That amp that he is playing on looks like a Fender 500 rumble amp. I have one and never sounds that tinny. Maybe needs to turn the bass pot up a bit and back off the treble. Other than that ,you are right it is an awesome video. Would like to do this with a few or my basses( I have 10) but don't have the time or patience.
took a lot more care than I did, impossible to find a left handed fretless bass, just take an old squire jbass and rip the frets out with a pair of plyers and fill the holes with sawdust and model glue, worked a treat
I played a bass at the recent NAMM shoe that was a prototype- had like 1/4” wide grooves instead of frets. They said you could feel the grooves, but I couldn’t really. Played like any other bass.
More easy: Use light wood paste to fill the remaining gaps after pulling the frets.... I assure, I have done this 3 years ago with my beatles-bass and it looks still perfect. And there was no risc to damage the board.
This could have been done easier and quicker in many ways. But it would not give this result and that is why we watch his clips and not people who use woodfiller.
The result is simply stunning congratulations.I was thinking about doing this on a fretted guitar though.Do you think its a lot more work on a fretted instrument or i may as well forget about it altogether?
Thank you for this methodical demonstration. When you mentioned the "low spots", it reminded me that one of my five string fretless basses has one, where the instrument's model is shown as an inlaid piece at the twelfth fret. On the middle strings (E,A,D), it makes a buzz when I slide a note past this location. Your video gives me the practical solution to this little issue. If I mask around the low spot, a drop or two of superglue should do it!
That is gorgeous! I really have very little use for a fretless bass in the style of music I play. But I love working on guitars and thinking of attempting a defret job on cheap aftermarket neck I have lying around. I've used it to practice various finishes also. Always good to have a couple cheapies around to experiment with. Learning tools.
Great work! I had a fretless Fender P Bass (sold it due to illness). If ever I converted a fretted bass to fretless I would fill in the removed frets with the exact color as the rest of the fingerboard as I feel that having fret markers ruins the fretless bass playing experience. Example, I play upright bass, violin, viola and cello. None of them have fret markers so I play by ear. So I would want the same experience with any converted bass. No fret markers, so I do not look at the finger board to determine my pitch. Use my ears only. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! -Peter
Please google: Free online video reverser tool Upload a video file (up to 100 MB size) or paste video file url. Then click the Reverse! button and this tool will output reversed video with the same resolution and encoding (in rare cases with some odd encoding we may default to mp4, you man also choose it manually). If the video has sound, you can choose to keep, reverse or mute it.
@@meij008 The way you do it in the video looks so much quicker though, like it just kinda magically floats back into the bottle the second the nozzle gets close to it?
Back in the 80's, I had a 84 NJ series BC Rich Warlock bass. I bought it because I had a thing about doing things differently. I didn't want to play a P bass like every other band's bass player in town. Then one night, I had the brilliant idea to take the frets off, lower the strings, and raise the pick ups so I could be REALLY different. I want to say that I was wasted as an excuse but I wasn't, just dumb. I guess it was cool for a while but the neck began to warp because I didn't fill the fret grooves or seal the sanded wood neck. One gig we had, our guitar player insisted that I play with a borrowed p bass because the Warlock just couldn't be tuned correctly. DRAG. Now, 35 years later, I have brought it out of storage, I am straightening the neck and I am going to put a superglue finish on it, hipshot bridge, EMG Geezer Butler pickups, Grover tuners, and possibly Emerson prewired Pots. The Fretless Warlock will be reborn!! Thank you for this video!
YES, this is what I did to my starter bass that I orig. bought at about 13 with money I saved, $200 for Yamaha p bass. After high school, added active EMG HZ soapbar pickups and paid a music shop to pull the frets. Superglue worked just fine. Lightly sand the fretboard with high grit sandpaper to fill the fret grooves with dust and add the glue just over top of the board, to sand flush after it dries. Finished with fretboard conditioning oil.
SO I AM CURIOUS ? super glue has no tensile strength when left to dry on a surface so when you get around to having to adjust the truss rod how is the glue not going to crack ?
Superglue has an amazing tensile strenght. I think you mean that it is not flexible. So if you have to make big corrections with the trussrod I think you are right and it might crack, but keeping the guitar in good conditions (no extreme heat/cold or humidity) a correction with the trussrod should hardly be necessary.
I believe adjusting the truss rod adjust the entire fretboard in relation to the body of the guitar . So adjusting the rod shouldn't mess up the finish .
I applied thin super glue to an all koa fretless i made over 20 years ago,after reading about Jaco doing it on his fretless, i think he had a rosewood board and it was getting gouged by the strings.the super glue eliminated most of that problem.yours came out much more glossy that mine.
Fascinating video. Seems awfully labor intensive though. I pulled the 24 frets off of my 5-string Ibanez Soundgear, and then... *Nothing.* I mean, I worked carefully with a small, sharpened screwdriver and a folded cloth as a pad so no dents were left on the fretboard. Then I lightly sanded it and gave it a healthy coat of oil. The only "issue" that I've encountered is my inability to find a flatwound low B string. Honestly, I rarely use that string in my fretless playing anyway. That was about 10 years ago, and I still thoroughly approve of the decision each time I pick up my bass! My only regret is that I didn't do it 10 years earlier.
This guy does a very nice job. Here's a tip: you see him chisel the maple veneers around 3:20 - if you do this and the veneer should chip off below the surface of the fingerboard, it's going to be hard to fix! The pieces are already glued in remember. Best way to trim them is to hold a flexible flush-cutting saw against the fingerboard and saw them off. Believe it. Bonus: if you start with over-size veneers, you just made your next set of markers - pre-radiused :^)
Hi old bridgemaker i think you are right about using a flushcutting saw. However my chisels are rasor sharp and I let the markers protrude about 1 mm and after chisseling I sand them flush with the fingerboard (not in the video),
@@meij008 Hey! You did a beautiful job, and I can see that you have very sharp tools. I'm just always concerned about making a mistake that's hard to fix. And as I mentioned, I'll fill the saw kerfs with a veener that's twice as tall as I need and I'm literally making position markers for the next job. Thanks for getting back and thanks for making this video to begin with. Cheers.
I thought I'd see someone totally butcher a bass. Was pleasantly surprised to see good craftsmanship.
lmaoooo u r the guy who made the potato flute, keep your amazing videos coming!!!! 👍 👍 👍
Hey, I know who you are
Pupsi hey.... I know you
Yo! It’s the vegetable flute guy!
@@shant1530 Sooo glad he is vegetarian.
- Where is our cat? No! Buy your strings in a shop!
- Is that alto flute a human bone?! I don't like those nasty neighbour kids, but this is a bit extreme. Kids have a right to walk on TWO legs!
- No! You can't extract any gold from a goldfish! Use silver on your brass flutes!
When you listen to jaco pastorius once
WillC Bass it’s more than the type of bass. It’s technique, tone and all sorts of other factors
+WillC Bass Keep practicing. One day you may sound as he did.
WillC Bass That's 'cos you used a buter knife. If you'd used a butter knife you'd probably have got better results...
Pippin Productions ????
It's this kid with absolutely nothing to do with this at all whose name kind of sounds like 'Jaco Pastorius'
4:52 minecraft piston
Where
What
@@anuvette the sound
lmfao bro nice ears
WTFF XDDD
To all those who say, don't bother, buy a cheap fretless....you have no soul! Sometimes is just nice to do things for yourself.
you are totally right Tim. As an experiment how a result will be it is better to try out on a cheapy, isnt't it?
That's it. 👍🏼
Tim Beaton
"If you don't want to risk destroying your precious bass guitar to make something you may not even take to, you have no soul"
Not everyone has the skill and tools to do this kind of job. If you want to, go for it, but why tf should everyone be held to that standard.
I wanted a brand new 6 string fretless. Good luck finding those in stores.
I cant find any. So I created one for myself using some of this guy's method.
Cheap fretless bass. Hell I can't even find one so rare i think I gotta do this if I'm ever going to play one.
I've played bass since "79, but never tried a fretless until a few years ago. I'M IN LOVE! I now have 3 fretless basses (after converting two I had) and my fretted bass collects dust. I had no problem with intonation, because as was said in the video, your fingers already know where to go. Muscle memory takes over.
Totally agree bro...once fretless, no turning back. I was amazed by Ralphe Armstrong of Mahavisnu Orchestra playing one of the first Fender P Bass fretless back in 72’...just had to get involved...😎🤙🏽
....I am hoping to convert ONE of my 6 (lefty) basses to fretless, soon....it will become another "flavour" for my compositions....I settled upon a 5-string, 2-octave neck (a Schecter Stilleto), to have all my "basses covered"...I was inspired by a Gipsy Kings vid...for a few songs their bassist plays an electric upright..with some chorus effect.....I said, "I gotta do it!".....
I fell in love with that finish. It´s like a mirror. Dude you have so much patience I can´t even understand it. Amazing.
And THAT is much of how the world works. Lots of boring elbow grease to make a nice result.
also, you might already like the fretted model your playing, and there probly isn't a fretless model of that, so why not just turn yours into a fretless isntead?
That is the shinest fretboard I think I've ever seen! Great job and craftsmanship :D Well done!
Thank you for the tips. Just made my Squire jazz bass fretless. I used a chisel to pop the frets out, filled in veneer, glued veneer using superglue, trimmed veneer with chisel, sanded using a 220grit sand paper on a long piece of wood plank, painted sanding sealer on, sanded again with 600 grit, checked for bald spots, sprayed satin finish on, bang on.
That dude at the end is a guitarist. You can tell by the way he plays.
😂😂
he plays like a bassist tho
Just sum guy he does not.
@@sevenblizzards7077 no he does, ik from experience
@Just sum guy - well not sure what kind of bad experience you have, that dude was not playing like a bassist lmao what
Can I suggest... at 0:45, when you're using the craft knife to loosen the fret, that you push it away from you, rather than pull it toward you? That way, you can be more sure of being able to play the finished guitar with 10 fingers, rather than 8.
Andy Northall you already have 8 fingers thumbs shouldnt count
Brohann Sebastian Bach
The right thumb is commonly used in guitar repertoire. So is the left thumb, but it's rare
Maybe you be suprised, but I absolutely don't have any musical talent. I am just building guitars, not playing them. But you are right, building with 10 fingers is easier.
Brohann Sebastian Bach ok fine!!! So that way you end up with 10 FALANGES
Dyslexia sucks
That was absolutely gorgeous, that super glue finish!? I’ve never seen that before
Lovely job Bert.
I have a friend who had a Fender PJ defretted but he didn't want a lacquer finish, he wanted to keep the softer tone of the rosewood. Recognising that the rosewood would wear away quickly without some kind of protection, especially with roundwounds, the luthier put only the thinnest of sealing coats and finished it matte. It needs to be redone every couple of years but it gives the player the sound he wanted.
This is beautiful. That blond line really looks smart. I like that the lines are still there but only serve the purpose of visualizing the fret point.
Man, why did you put gloss coat on it?! No one will ever want to play this bass because of what you have done...
...because it looks so amazing :D
Incredible effort, effect and experience!
They had us in the first half not gonna lie
You got me on the first half not gonna lie
that is wood polishing, from a 1000grid, to a 10000grid powder....
I love to see people who really care for their craft .... Well done !
I once defretted my 1962 Precision Bass. I didn't know they were to become highly sought after! I simply used a household screwdriver and pliers. But I didn't make too bad a job of it. I didn't fill the slots and left the fingerboard exactly as it was and played it as a fretless for about 18months before getting it refretted. I sold it for not a lot of money in the mid 90s---and have regretted it ever since.
Thanks to this video I have made 2 conversions and they went GREAT - loads of work but fretboards looked like made by pro luthiers - both necks I have saved around £150/each in my pocket THANK YOU!!!!
excellent!! i hate the frets 😊
Almost got tears in my eyes,😊 beautiful craftmanship.. very very beautiful finish.🫶
Came for the information; stayed for the shiny shiny.
I de-fretted a Maple Jazz neck years ago and used dark wood putty in the empty fret slots. I sanded the neck to a near flawless finish and used 10 coats of super glue. It had a remarkably hard and beautiful finish after tons of sanding.
Nice job mate! Cheers
wow. Great job and thank you for taking the tine to document it on video.
My god .. this was one of the most relaxing videos I've ever watched. I just feel loads better.
I want to say thank you for the instructive video. I was looking for a way to work on my bass, a Fender Jazz Bass. Your video is very inspiring. I can see the passion that you put in your work. Congratulations!
Like Jaco haha
the beginning is quite scary, but when you see the fretboard shinning like glass, it's quite pleasure and amazing
6:45 The L I C C
I'm glad I'm not the first one who noticed :)
Very cool video and a job well done. I built a bass for my daughter about 9 years ago, and followed the same process including the super glue finish on the finger board. At the time I had found an instructional paper on the super glue process written by Dan Erlewine and gave it a shot. The finger board is still as hard as nails and looks great!
Great job!
An artist at work. I love it.
I agree, i`m not hater. Simply I cannot see THE REASON, WHAT FOR...?
2) is it so cool or important to see the old board "fret marks" at this renewed "fretless", even made so greatly?
Nice work !
I did not expect myself to say this but that super glue finish Idea is just good
awesome video tutorial but very unsatisfying demonstration of the playing and sound at the end. other than that I it's marvelous. great job!
I agree Art. That amp that he is playing on looks like a Fender 500 rumble amp. I have one and never sounds that tinny. Maybe needs to turn the bass pot up a bit and back off the treble. Other than that ,you are right it is an awesome video. Would like to do this with a few or my basses( I have 10) but don't have the time or patience.
He said in another comment that he has no musical talent and just likes making basses and guitars but not playing them
Although he is pretty good
took a lot more care than I did, impossible to find a left handed fretless bass, just take an old squire jbass and rip the frets out with a pair of plyers and fill the holes with sawdust and model glue, worked a treat
this is so relaxing to watch...
I played one once in a music store, went home and took all my frets off my univox. Then baught a proper 5 string fretless dean. Good times.🍻
I just pulled the frets and left the cuts as a guide for the notes. Took about 5 minutes.
J0ZZE123 does it sound alright?
Sam Majcher Would sound fine, the added veneer would be their to stop gunk and just general stuff building up. I
I was thinking of doing the same and putting wood filler on the fret cuts
I played a bass at the recent NAMM shoe that was a prototype- had like 1/4” wide grooves instead of frets. They said you could feel the grooves, but I couldn’t really. Played like any other bass.
This was my question. Might look ugly, but it works, right?
Wow, Beautiful workmanship. Looks like the finish that was on the fretless Pedula Bass's of the 90's. Awesome Sauce.
I like the fact that he uses veneer instead of wood filler, it really looks better!
A welcome interlude, great to see the whole process and a shiny fretless bass ready to create its owner’s dreams in music.
am I the only one who read "a fretless bass conversation"?
Dramilion no I thought it was some debate over what type of bass to use but I’m not disappointed
Nope
Dramilion me too 😂
Yeah i always speak to my keyboards
Really I am! )(-^)
I’m wanting to do this with my acoustic bass.
Haha! I still have yet to do it! 😂
Can I ask a dumb question: Why use superglue to finish the neck? Wouldn't something like 2-Pack epoxy be tougher? Hmm, that was 2 questions!
Good question
There are a couple other vids i've seen where they did use epoxy... seems a little bit more work, but end result was good.
StonyRC where we live, there isn't really something similar to epoxy. I believe this is the closest that we can get: super glue...
OK, that makes sense - thanks for updating me.
CA is harder than epoxy
Enjoyed this. Really loved the music. Very soothing video.
More easy: Use light wood paste to fill the remaining gaps after pulling the frets.... I assure, I have done this 3 years ago with my beatles-bass and it looks still perfect. And there was no risc to damage the board.
NEVER use paste. Leave that for the cabinet makers to fill nail holes.
This could have been done easier and quicker in many ways. But it would not give this result and that is why we watch his clips and not people who use woodfiller.
Also - no "rims" on this bass. It's not a banjo. Learn the correct lingo.
@@leokowald - You're a HACK.
using wood filler, is for HACKS......
Much more to this conversion than I ever imagined.
This is really really cool! I would've never thought to use superglue. God bless
Been doing this since the mid-80's.
I did that 16 years ago on a Lyon 5 strings and never been so happy. It is still my main bass.
Yeah, remove those prison bars and make your way out to the audibility of freedom!!
Great video by the way :D
Great job! Preparing to do my second neck this way - this is a great tutorial.
Let's practice ice skating on this fretboard
Take a skateboard nose grind to it lol
one of the most relaxing things I've watched
The result is simply stunning congratulations.I was thinking about doing this on a fretted guitar though.Do you think its a lot more work on a fretted instrument or i may as well forget about it altogether?
Dreamdancer11 if you are talking about the CA glue finish on a fretted guitar, it would still work. You would just have to mask off the frets
I tried it on a wenge board a couple of months ago. It works perfectly although now and it looks like glass(which it was the thing i was going for).
Thank you for this methodical demonstration. When you mentioned the "low spots", it reminded me that one of my five string fretless basses has one, where the instrument's model is shown as an inlaid piece at the twelfth fret. On the middle strings (E,A,D), it makes a buzz when I slide a note past this location. Your video gives me the practical solution to this little issue. If I mask around the low spot, a drop or two of superglue should do it!
Very nice job.
I was considering a conversion, then took the easy way out and bought a fretless neck. Maybe someday??
That is gorgeous! I really have very little use for a fretless bass in the style of music I play. But I love working on guitars and thinking of attempting a defret job on cheap aftermarket neck I have lying around. I've used it to practice various finishes also. Always good to have a couple cheapies around to experiment with. Learning tools.
The glossy finish looks amazing, I wonder if the cyanocrylate could get cracked by truss rod adjustment?
Nope !
I put + 25 layers Cyanoacrylate on my Squier Classic Vibe J Bass !
No problems !
@@tobbebergman7583 excelent!!! 🤘
@@jggarzao
FYI:
The truss rod should be completely loose (relaxed) when you put on the superglue coats !
Very very impressive, love the perfect gloss finish; you have skill and patience. keep up the good work. Nice video too, thank you!
I want to do this to my Ibanez bass so damn hard, also, lefty fretless players are uncommon, so, fretless conversion is added to my cheklist
I want a ML bass but Dean doesn't offer a fretless Dean ML bass so I'm just going to buy a ML and do the revove the frets myself.
the fretboard is so shiny!! I love it :)
Great work!
I had a fretless Fender P Bass (sold it due to illness). If ever I converted a fretted bass to fretless I would fill in the removed frets with the exact color as the rest of the fingerboard as I feel that having fret markers ruins the fretless bass playing experience.
Example, I play upright bass, violin, viola and cello. None of them have fret markers so I play by ear. So I would want the same experience with any converted bass. No fret markers, so I do not look at the finger board to determine my pitch. Use my ears only.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
-Peter
"stick to it" all you want; 99.9% of electric bassists do not play upright/viola/violin/violette, cello, etc.....
I don't know why but this video is so relaxing to watch
amazing job!
I wonder how well the superglue finish is holding up over time
A VERY long time !
ua-cam.com/video/SyRGDhpj_F4/v-deo.html
@@tobbebergman7583 cool, thank you
Mooi werk Bert! Ware vakmanschap. Bedankt voor de upload! Fijne feestdagen. Groet, Ray
Please do a tutorial on making a fretless bass fretted please
Please google: Free online video reverser tool
Upload a video file (up to 100 MB size) or paste video file url. Then click the Reverse! button and this tool will output reversed video with the same resolution and encoding (in rare cases with some odd encoding we may default to mp4, you man also choose it manually).
If the video has sound, you can choose to keep, reverse or mute it.
Why would you ever do that
@@meij008
So I followed the reversed video's instructions and I'm having trouble getting the super glue back in the bottle, any tips for that?
@@meij008
The way you do it in the video looks so much quicker though, like it just kinda magically floats back into the bottle the second the nozzle gets close to it?
xfritz5375 That’s the joke
Absolutely beautiful, thanks for this vid, loved the finished product and also the background music.
Very impressive but can you make a bassless bass
I have some bassless frets
Nicely done, i did a less perfect job on a cheap bass when i was younger and was pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded
How is it possible to make something so beautiful? xD
Great job.
Excelent musicians in the music background. I lived your video.
6:51
me when i’m home alone
ashish pokharel 4:52 minecraft pistion
I always look for new videos from you .Always great to watch you building guitars Thanks for taking the time to do these videos
Is superglue gonna be as hard as epoxy laquer?
You truly are a Master what a painstakingly job that is, Just Wow!!!
you are a master!
That fretboard is so smooth and glossy I can feel it
personally the really glossy neck just looks weird
Lots of fretlesses come like that. I love it, myself. :)
I've been watching this video many times. Because i love his work
Instructions unclear: my bass guitar is now a nuclear bomb
What a beautifully done finish. Would love that on all my guitars.
Nice Job!!
Back in the 80's, I had a 84 NJ series BC Rich Warlock bass. I bought it because I had a thing about doing things differently. I didn't want to play a P bass like every other band's bass player in town. Then one night, I had the brilliant idea to take the frets off, lower the strings, and raise the pick ups so I could be REALLY different. I want to say that I was wasted as an excuse but I wasn't, just dumb. I guess it was cool for a while but the neck began to warp because I didn't fill the fret grooves or seal the sanded wood neck. One gig we had, our guitar player insisted that I play with a borrowed p bass because the Warlock just couldn't be tuned correctly. DRAG. Now, 35 years later, I have brought it out of storage, I am straightening the neck and I am going to put a superglue finish on it, hipshot bridge, EMG Geezer Butler pickups, Grover tuners, and possibly Emerson prewired Pots. The Fretless Warlock will be reborn!! Thank you for this video!
I put those GZR EMGs in my cheap squier p bass, really brought it to life
I had to give up around the time when you took the neck off.
YES, this is what I did to my starter bass that I orig. bought at about 13 with money I saved, $200 for Yamaha p bass. After high school, added active EMG HZ soapbar pickups and paid a music shop to pull the frets. Superglue worked just fine. Lightly sand the fretboard with high grit sandpaper to fill the fret grooves with dust and add the glue just over top of the board, to sand flush after it dries. Finished with fretboard conditioning oil.
SO I AM CURIOUS ? super glue has no tensile strength when left to dry on a surface so when you get around to having to adjust the truss rod how is the glue not going to crack ?
Superglue has an amazing tensile strenght. I think you mean that it is not flexible. So if you have to make big corrections with the trussrod I think you are right and it might crack, but keeping the guitar in good conditions (no extreme heat/cold or humidity) a correction with the trussrod should hardly be necessary.
I believe adjusting the truss rod adjust the entire fretboard in relation to the body of the guitar . So adjusting the rod shouldn't mess up the finish .
@@meij008 is the end result a dead straight neck?-no toe or bow present hence trust rod adjustment should be a once off?
I applied thin super glue to an all koa fretless i made over 20 years ago,after reading about Jaco doing it on his fretless, i think he had a rosewood board and it was getting gouged by the strings.the super glue eliminated most of that problem.yours came out much more glossy that mine.
I think that Jaco actually applied an epoxy coating over the fretboard. I guess the concept is the same though.
And to think that Jaco used a knife to take out his frets on his Fender back in the day...
I really like the glossy finish it looks really nice
No need to bother with the veneers. I always use "liquid nails" to fill the fret slots and then sand off the excess during shaping.
hack.....I hope you are not chgarging for "nail polish"!!
To watch this your amazing job made me feel so good. Great!
as i violin player i respect you removing frets
Fascinating video. Seems awfully labor intensive though. I pulled the 24 frets off of my 5-string Ibanez Soundgear, and then...
*Nothing.*
I mean, I worked carefully with a small, sharpened screwdriver and a folded cloth as a pad so no dents were left on the fretboard. Then I lightly sanded it and gave it a healthy coat of oil.
The only "issue" that I've encountered is my inability to find a flatwound low B string. Honestly, I rarely use that string in my fretless playing anyway.
That was about 10 years ago, and I still thoroughly approve of the decision each time I pick up my bass! My only regret is that I didn't do it 10 years earlier.
why it is need to finish the fretboard with superglue? is it because the duration of the new fretboard?
Most likely in order to allow the player to slide better.
I hope you wear a mask when applying and sanding the super glue.
This is pretty relaxing.
Anyone else get a dentist vibe from the background music or just me?
Extraction music.....
This guy does a very nice job. Here's a tip: you see him chisel the maple veneers around 3:20 - if you do this and the veneer should chip off below the surface of the fingerboard, it's going to be hard to fix! The pieces are already glued in remember. Best way to trim them is to hold a flexible flush-cutting saw against the fingerboard and saw them off. Believe it. Bonus: if you start with over-size veneers, you just made your next set of markers - pre-radiused :^)
Hi old bridgemaker i think you are right about using a flushcutting saw. However my chisels are rasor sharp and I let the markers protrude about 1 mm and after chisseling I sand them flush with the fingerboard (not in the video),
@@meij008 Hey! You did a beautiful job, and I can see that you have very sharp tools. I'm just always concerned about making a mistake that's hard to fix. And as I mentioned, I'll fill the saw kerfs with a veener that's twice as tall as I need and I'm literally making position markers for the next job. Thanks for getting back and thanks for making this video to begin with. Cheers.
Master!
The music in this video is freaking awesome!!
Next video: fretted bass conversion
That came out absolutely beautiful, i would be proud to own it, thanks for posting 👍.
6:46 the licccc
its kinda relaxing :) to see you work :)
Too bad that I was born with two left hands.
SmurfK rip
Do you have a problem with Polenarif
Hey Bert, wederom een kunststukje. Altijd een genot om naar je filmpjes te kijken. Heb deze en gene er weer op attent gemaakt. Thnx, Rob