Fretless bass - Bass

RE: Fretless bass

Clinton — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:13:04 +0000

@marcel really nice builds Marcel. Would love to build a bass one day and even got the hardware already. Just gotta muster the mindset to get it design specs right to get the ball rolling. My dilemma is bridge string height in relation to neck break angle or straight and scale length.

RE: Fretless bass

Marcel — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 13:55:44 +0000

I have built 4 basses at the Bailey workshop and 11 at home. So far.

RE: Fretless bass

tv1 — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 13:52:17 +0000

How many guitars/basses have you built Marcel?

I'm getting the impression that it's quite a big number ...

RE: Fretless bass

Deej — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 13:47:12 +0000

one with round wounds.

Try and say that 10 times fast...

great work again. I love the fingerboard...?

Fretless bass

Marcel — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 12:28:32 +0000

The third bass I made at the Bailey workshop was a fretless one. I put on flat wound strings to give it the woody sound of a double bass. But after some time I changed them again to round wounds for a more crispy sound. And then I changed them again to flats.

And then I decided I had to make another fretless bass so I didn't have to change strings depending on my mood.

So back into my little shed I went.

I had bought a nice piece of padouk for the body from a wood supplier form the USA. I love the smell of padouk when you saw, route or sand it. Caramel.

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The neck wood is maple and it's got a birds eye maple fingerboard.

The pick-up is a Seymour Duncan SMB 4a. No active eq. Bridge and tuners are Gotoh.

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The only new routing pattern I had to make for this bass was for the pick-up.

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As I am just an average bass player I need some help playing a fretless bass so I have put lines where the frets would be. I used walnut veneer for that.

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For most fretless basses ebony is used for the fingerboard as it is a very hard wood and thus will prevent wear out from the strings. Especially when it's fitted with round wound strings. To protect this beautiful maple fingerboard I put on a coat of epoxy on it.

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I'm quite happy with the result. So now I've got two fretless basses, one with flatwounds and one with round wounds.

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The only disadvantage of it is that over the years the color of the body has changed from red to dark brown. But i still like it and enjoy playing it!