marek

Hi, I'm currently working on the fretless below, and I've decided to epoxy the fingerboard, because it's made out of pau ferro (a.k.a. santos rosewood), and I don't think it will withstand roundwound strings for too long. I passed a few shops today, one being a boat supplies shop (I think I heard something about marine epoxy). The first thing I saw was a big (and quite cheap) box of marine epoxy. Then I explained what I wanted it for, and the guy said it wasn't transparent. What stuff would you guys use to harden the fingerboard? the only epoxy I've seen apart from that is the araldite stuff that's like a sort of paste. Any particular products or brands? (I'm in the UK ) thanks in advance, Marek

Thanks. I think that's pretty much sorted it now, I'm going to leave out this compensation business.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry, when I meant zero fret, I actually just meant the line where the zero fret is, I wasn't planning on installing an actual fret there though. Is it a good idea to have a zero fret on a fretless bass? basically what I meant was, do you need to lengthen the distance between where the string comes out of the nut and the first fret to compensate for the fact that you're pressing it down a fair distance? I hope that makes sense

cheers, I'm a bit stupid when it comes to the measurement part. I've got a few things to work out and I don't know where to start. I made a guitar before, and it had none of this compensation thing. The zeroth fret was the nut. Also it had no neck angle - just flat. Saying all that, it was a great guitar (here). I don't use anything else now, my old strat is now redundant. However, this bass, as far as I can tell, must have some space between the nut and the zeroth fret, something I have no idea how to work out. I was thinking just to leave an arbitary few mm and hope for the best, but that may not be a good idea. Also, it's going to need a neck angle, but how much? I don't know how to work out these things. I've tried drawing diagrams to make sense of this stuff, but I can't see where to start.

Hey guys, I'm building a fretless bass (pics to come when I find the pesky lead that connects my camera to my computer). I've got to the point of marking out the neck laminates after gluing planing and sanding. I've cut the slots for the fretlines on the fingerboard already, but left some wood before the zeroth fret. Thing is I don't know how much space I should leave, i.e. how much space there should be between the nut and the zeroth fret, if any. I read a book, and it said that about 3mm is normal, but I don't know. Any advice? Cheers, Marek

cool, thanks that's exactly what I needed. think I'll go passive for now, because it's easiest, and then build one if I ever feel i'll need one. I've only ever owned passive basses and never seen the need to get an active one. What does it matter if the preamp is inside your bass or in a pedal or in an amp?

hey guys, I've just taken delivery of all the parts I need to make my bass, except for the electronics. The problem is I don't know what pots to buy. The bass I'm building is fretless, and I'm putting in some kent armstrong "hot vintage jazz" pickups, which I guess could be a direct replacement for a fender jazz bass. If I wanted just 2 volumes and a tone control, what value and scale (lin or log) pots would I need? and also there needs to be a capacitor somewhere, but what value should that be? Since I'm in the electronics section, I got one other little thing to ask. I was thinking of making the bass active/passive, so it could be played switched off if ever the battery ran out. Has anyone had any luck with any schematics found online? thanks in advance, Marek

no photos, but i can tell you i just marked out where i was going to cut, then used my router that has a guide attachment thing that i just line up with the side of the neck wood. A few passes later, a flat bottomed trussrod channel that's everso slightly too deep.

cheers, buddy. the headstock, its a bit of a mess, i ended cutting out by balancing my little router on top of it for which the bit was too short, so i had to do one shallower pass and then a deeper one. i am intending on making a trussrod cover, but i'll do it when i find the wood. i'm going to do it in a little white flame. the reason i decided to do a top plate was because i was worried about the extra wings of wood i had to glue to the sides coming off. glue paranoia you're right the finish is incredibly dull. i went for the cheapest option i could find - teak oil, and got really lazy when it came to sanding it afterwards. I think I just found a peice of well worn 600 grit on the floor which was almost completely ruined with half-dried teak oil anyway. i just wanted to stick it all together to see if it worked. I think i'll do it again at some later point, but i can't take off the bridge, because i knackered the screws that screw it in to the body. the back of the neck is really nice and shiny though, because when i took it in for a set up (which was really quite expensive) they did lots of nice stuff like buffing the back of the neck with one of those wheels. can you buy buffing-wheel drill attachments? maybe i'll do that when i've finished. p.s. very impressed by your use of semicolons. maybe when i grow up i'll learn where to put them.

the trussrod channel ended up being about 4mm too deep. the reason i decided to do something about it was because i was worried the neck would be really thin behind the trussrod. what i did was route the trussrod channel right through, and put a fresh piece of wenge down there and glued it. but, i screwed up carving the back so i chucked it and used the leftovers to make another neck. the wood for the neck minus the ebony was £15 (~$30US) and there's easily enough wood there for two necks.

i mostly play for a ska/reggae/metal band, so sometimes i'm shredding powerchords, and sometimes i'm playing the skank, or some sort of palm-muted melody on the lower strings. soloing, i end up using the full range of the guitar. this guitar has the fattest highest bass frets i could find so pulloffs are really easy. as soon as i started playing it i realised that soloing on it was much easier for me because of it.

i started playing really young with a guitar i found in the attic, and no-one told me you're supposed to swap the strings round if you're a leftie. by the time i found out i thought it was too late. one advantage of the way i play is that i can play a right handed guitar with no probs (except for the fact that the knobs are always under my arm and they all get turned unless i'm careful or tape them down) the guitar i had before this was a right handed strat with a duncan '59, with the knobs ripped out. so i didn't put any knobs on this one. the switching works so it's either one pickup or the other or off.

My first one, finished... it's left handed with the strings the wrong way round. once i had finished it i ran it down to a shop in london to have it properly set up and stuff. it made a world of difference having an expert fine-tune my frankenstein. learnt a lot doing this one, like, how to cut a trussrod channel too deep or sanding the skin off my hands. thanks everyone for the advice on this forum btw. it sounds just like a strat when using the neck position, and then death metal in the bridge position. http://www.wikid.co.uk/guitar/

thanks so much guys. i've looked for a few places for tru-oil, but the only place i know that sells it (a gunshop) is only open when i'm at work. however, i found this other shop on my way to work that sells teak oil and rustin's danish oil. would this be any good straight on top of my raw ash? thanks, Marek

alright guys, I've been building this guitar for the past couple of months or so and it's goin really well for a first attempt, thanks to all the great advice on these forums and the tutorials on the main site. well, it's almost over and i've just got to do the finishing and fretting now. i'll post pics when it's done. (it's just a bog standard metal guitar with a fixed bridge and a sort of carved top) so i need to finish it on the cheap (realistically less than £10 if possible) and easily as i'm quite good at screwing things up. i couldn't care less about how the finish looked as long as it protects the wood from moisture and beer-stains etc. somthing that would last years and years would be quite nice too. I was thinking a natural finish, but i have no idea about these things. at the moment it's raw plain old ash for body, and maple-wenge-maple neck with an ebony fretboard and head veneer. any suggestions? cheers, Marek