Guitar Gear Forum

always start with the last fret , that way if you decide to back out you only screw one fret and not fret #1 on the other end . But some frets are glued in , pressed in or if like Warmoth Epoxied in . If epoxy was used I would not try it , it'll take some serious heat and skill to get them out . But first step is the same , heat them up with a soldering iron to get them moving a little .



I use a knife to get them out , it worked better than any luthier tools I had here . Just work it in down the length of the fret and gently lift out . Apply heat as needed .


go easy , pushing down on the wood around the slot to help keep it from lifting and less fret barb tear out .



one by one and you want to use wood glue on each slot as you go on the tear out , little chips can be saved and glued back in right away , this will save a lot of work later filling any tear out .




so all this is for a fretless conversion , next step here is to cut Maple pieces and glue them in the slots . You'll need to shape the bottom to conform the the cut . Quick and easy here , just has to sit in firmly . I cut and test fit each one before gluing in .


glue in


next is letting dry , rough cutting down then sanding with radius block and finishing .
that's for next weekend .

Dayum!!!! Which bass is this for?

Fretless going all fretless and shit

G-SPACE wrote:Dayum!!!! Which bass is this for?

Fretless going all fretless and shit

this must be a clue:

early 90's Bunker PBC bass with floating neck ! I took out the center piece too , it's a odd bass but sounds great .

Look whatever you do just make sure you play in tune mmmmkay

yeah every note of every scale will be played so I would think "in tune " is relevant

Just knocked down the big stuff. Next is a little more radius block. I will use Danish oil and fine sandpaper to mix in a sanding dust oil mix to fill it more and build up a few coats and play a thing

badass!

where did you source the strips of maple that matched the width of the fret slots?
how thick were the strips?

right here hommie

https://www.ebay.com/itm/luthier-wood-f ... 1438.l2649

I wanna see a pic of the whole bass plz

yeah should have it back together in another day or so

Devin wrote:I wanna see a pic of the whole bass plz

I think I've only ever seen Fretless post 2 pictures of complete instruments... He artsy.

actually I can't ever get the whole thing in frame

Do you live in a shoebox? Take a step back.

Really cool project though. I dig it when people care to take pictures and document their DIY shit.

I do with one girl ,2 cats and a fuck ton of music gear , no room

all mistakes were made but the end result is great !

Looks fantastic!!!

Thanks man ! ok we are done . I took it out to jam and realized the nut action was too high , I knew this was coming so I hit it a few times with a file the first time I put it back together but it needed more after the jam I could tell it was just way to high . So took it apart again , this time photoing the main parts . Remember this is a Bunker "tension free neck" it has a massive center adjustable support that acts as the trussrod , in a hollow and very light weight neck frame . It has a brass nut that the rod goes through and attaches at the butt end like a Fender 3 bolt thingamajig . While apart I did one more radius sanding and it really is super nice now . Sounds very good.

That thing is dope af

it's a killer little bass . I put the Duncans in it too .She sounds great as a fretless , tons of mmmwah