Fender Jazz - De-fret job. (Pictures and Soundclip)

If I had hands for such work I think it'd be the job for me if I fail ON the stage! ;)
LOL, you should see my friends guitar after we gava it a fretjob. We pulled them all and tried to seal up with glue :P
 
i'm thinking of buying an essex jazz bass and defret it myself. has to be sunburst of course =D
 
thumbin said:
John88 said:
Excellent job Casey. Any thoughts about doing this for a living?
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It has crossed my mind a few times... I'm not comfortable modding other peoples instruments though :P

Although it has passed my mind multiple times to start building basses...
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If I had your talent for that I would be showing my work to as many people as possible. Any decent guitar repair shops near you??
 
Hey Casey,

you used polyurethane for the slots, but why did you use epoxy for the dot holes ?? Why not just use polyurethane as well ??
 
ThirdthumB said:
Hey Casey,

you used polyurethane for the slots, but why did you use epoxy for the dot holes ?? Why not just use polyurethane as well ??
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I'm not quite sure why I did :P
 
Well done casey, it looks great, gotta agree that it would look even better without the pickguard!!!!

Cheers

Rusty
 
Awsome, I'd never trust myself enough to do that to any bass, let alone a Fender Jazz Deluxe! (I do have a soft spot for Fender stuff...)

Great job!
 
An update on the fretless... The polyurethane decided not to dry between the fret slots so I removed it all from the board and re-slotted it. I poured on a thin coat of fast setting epoxy and let it dry. Strung it up and gave it a sound test and it sounded ALOT better. The epoxy has a rock hard glass like finish and gave it a TON of "mwah".

I took it apart again. And since I've been drooling over these pitch black ebony fretboards. I decided to mix in a few drops of black epoxy paint with the epoxy giving me a pitch black epoxy :) I'm applying about 10 or so thin coats which is about a tube of or so of quick setting 2 part epoxy. I figure I'll be to the sanding process on monday and should have it strung back up by wednesday or thursday.

I'm also refinishing the back of the neck giving it an oil finish.

Sound clips up asap :)
 
Its always interesting to see what mod you do next, once again awesome job :D I can't wait to hear the sound clips.
 
Callum said:
Its always interesting to see what mod you do next, once again awesome job :D I can't wait to hear the sound clips.
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I still have some wenge and ovangkol peices laying around... I'm trying to think of another mod to do that won't be overkill :P

Someone mentioned awhile back about making a ramp between the pickups... I tryed doing this, But I use only hand tools and man that wenge is hard to card out to the shape of the body so it sits flush between the pickups!

Maybe I'll give it a shot again one of these days.
 
The bass is complete! Sort of, I need to file a new nut. But at the moment I have the strings on it and it's playing. It sounds awesome and looks great!

Pics and possibly sound clips tonight! :D
 
Here are a couple of pictures.

Don't mind the nut... I havn't cut a new one yet... So a peice of paper servs as my nut unil I get around to it :P But the bass does sound awesome. The epoxy added a alot brighter tone than the polyurethane... I think this is the smoothest fretless I've ever played :)




Pitch black fretboard :) I think it matches up pretty good with the bass.
 
Heres a short and crappy sound clip... If you havn't noticed, I havn't played fretless in a long while!
 
saxonbass said:
You've done a fantastic job on that bass, Casey! :D
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Thanks!

I'm oiling the neck right now and sanding it down a bit more to make it a tad bit smoother. At the moment though, This is one of the smoothest fretless basses I've ever played... I hate to say it, But it's competing with a fretless corvette I've tryed and even a Pentabuzz!

I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, But I also reshaped the neck. It now has a flatter neck, And rounded edges of the fretboard so the whole thing is really smooth. Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do about a nut, I may make a nut out of black epoxy so everything is pretty much hidden and flows good.

It's nice to have the best of both worlds now... A VERY hi-fi sounding Thumb and now an awesome classic sounding fretless jazz :D

I think once I totally finish it up I'm going to record a new "song" and incorporate both basses into it.
 
A black nut that "disappears" into a black fretless board looks pretty good IMO!
Think you might get a queue of people wanting you to do De-frets for them! :wink:
 
saxonbass said:
A black nut that "disappears" into a black fretless board looks pretty good IMO!
Think you might get a queue of people wanting you to do De-frets for them! :wink:
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heh, Now that I've somewhat figured out the "secret" to doing it, I may consider making a craigslist post about doing it for a small fee.
 
saxonbass said:
A black nut that "disappears" into a black fretless board looks pretty good IMO!
Think you might get a queue of people wanting you to do De-frets for them! :wink:
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heh, Now that I've somewhat figured out the "secret" to doing it, I may consider making a craigslist post about doing it for a small fee.
 
I've finished oil sanding the neck and it's like butter! I need to build a nut now... And I'm going to tune it DGCFB. Should be pretty groovy!
 
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