Fretless Bass

[Dchrist]

I am not a very experienced bassist yet, but I want to learn fretless, so I decided to make my old bass into a fretless, but have markings where the frets would be, sao I could still know were the notes are. I have seen this done before, and I was thinking I could remove the frets, sand them so they were flat and shiny, and then put them back in their places. This way it would be simple, and I could do it myself, with tools I already have. I just have one problem, I don't know how to remove frets. Are there any articles or posts anywhere that already tell how to remove frets? Would this idea even work, and if not, what should I do?

[Hoser Rob]

Forget it ... it's way, way too much effort and it'd would still look like crap because the part of the fretwire that goes in the slot is narrower than the slot. That's what the tangs are for. Fill the slots with something else.

www.frets.com is always the best place to start. You'll need a proper set of modified cutters to pull the fret. www.lmii.com or www.stewmac.com has them.

[whitey]

or a really small screwdriver and another big screwdriver

you use the really small screwdriver as the ''chissel'' and the big handle of the other ''as the hammer''

yeah i'm gonna get flamed...but i done that in under 5 minutes,watching tjhe simpsons and getting perfect results,no chipps at all.well...a little bit at the 7'th or 6th fret on top.

then next day filled with maple dust and super glue.

flat and plays perfect.

i'm not telling you to do that,thats just my way.

[j. pierce]

Brian's got a fret puller at the universal jems store: http://universaljems.com/cart/tools.htm

It's $13, and really the best tool for the job.

A soldering iron with a clean tip to heat the fret up a little bit really helps to. Yeah, you might not get chip out, but better safe than sorry.

Then just fill the slots with veneer. Trim roughly to shape, glue it in and trim it flush when the glues dry. I helped a friend make a fretless out of an old junker bass, and we just used the thin basswood sheets they sell at the local crafts stores. Cut them into strips, and sanded them down enough to fit into the slots.

[Primal]

When I did that to my Rogue bass (currently undergoing a body rebuild that has stalled for the past few months), I just used a pair of end nips. I had a soldering iron, but apparently they don't use glue on Rogue basses.

Once you fill the slots with veneer, you may want to sand it flush, then sand the entire fretboard down (lightly so as not to change the radius), and then refinish with a harder finish.