Converting A Fretted Into A Fretless.

[mummi]

Hello there. I am new to this board and also new to the art of guitar building....

I have a solidbody "Trash bass" witch I bought for 40$ or so. And I am thinking of ripping out the fretts and installing a new pickup. The pickup I was thinking of using is the Delano DJC4 HE pickup in this bass.

I have realy no Idea of what kind of wood is in the body of this trash the only thing I know is that the neck is maple and does not have a rosewood fretboard.

And a few other thoughts I had of this mission of mine is that I thought that the bass would sound better if it where "holow body" so I was wondering if it would be ok to route a few lines in the body kinda like the warmoth tele body I will put links in the end of this post.

Also If you guy's think this mission of mine is utterly stupid please dont hurt me with words. Rather tell me what I should rather do in this matter.

Please forgive my horrible spelling I am from Iceland

Delano

Tele holow

[demon]

i ripped out the frets on my p-bass to make it a fretless. It had a maple neck as well. It actually played not too bad after a couple of adjustments. Thing is it looks horrible, although I got the frets out very cleanly, it is hard to get the fretlines filled well enough to not be seen too much. In the end I bought an ebony fretboard and lifted the maple one off, replacing it with the ebony one. dunno bout the other question though.....

[Dugz Ink]

For a look at some killer hollow bodie Teles, check out DRAK'S PROJECTS.

Here's the benefit I see to this idea: If the body is even a cheap piece of solid wood, it can still be used as a "frame" and a face can be attached to it. Depending on how the old body looks, you could make something decent out of "trash"... even if it isn't absolutely great.

As for fretless, even flat-wound strings eventually mar the wood... and round-wound will chew it up relatively fast. I've read a lot of articles that say that Rosewood and Ebony will last a LOT longer than a Maple fingerboard... so replacing the fretboard (and frets) with a Rosewood fingerboard could be a good idea.

D~s

[unclej]

the other problem that you'll face if you pull the frets is that the neck will bow when the strings are tuned unless you fill the fret slots with something. when empty the slots act just like the kerfs you would cut into the back of a piece of lumber if you wanted to bend it. i had a student once that sanded the frets down until only the tang was left. looked pretty good actually and kept the fret slots filled.

[mummi]

For a look at some killer hollow bodie Teles, check out DRAK'S PROJECTS.

Here's the benefit I see to this idea: If the body is even a cheap piece of solid wood, it can still be used as a "frame" and a face can be attached to it. Depending on how the old body looks, you could make something decent out of "trash"... even if it isn't absolutely great.

As for fretless, even flat-wound strings eventually mar the wood... and round-wound will chew it up relatively fast. I've read a lot of articles that say that Rosewood and Ebony will last a LOT longer than a Maple fingerboard... so replacing the fretboard (and frets) with a Rosewood fingerboard could be a good idea.

D~s

That realy is an interesting approach ... I might do that instead... That looks sipler that my Idea

[DracWell]

i had a student once that sanded the frets down until only the tang was left. looked pretty good actually and kept the fret slots filled.

Now you got me inspired

[mummi]

What bridge sould I use .. I like the looks of the Single string bridges rather than the regular ones .. what are the benefits of them?

[mummi]

And also if I shold use DRAK'S approach ... should I find another pickup to use??