Oh my God! I de-fretted my Wick! (Sound clips ADDED!)

Casey said:
Thanks :)

I plugged into my Markbass rig and ran a cd player through it awhile ago and attempted to play along to some Death (Spirit Crusher) and surprisingly it didn't take much time to adjust to playing a fretless. I can pretty much land the song dead on now even without those pesky speed bumps :P

Now to attempt some Necrophagist....
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Please do 'only ash remains'. I'd love to hear that, but with the lovely thumb fretless tone 8)
 
Nice job! :D
I love the hardly visible fretlines (at least that's what they look like from the angles of the pics)... very understated and classy looking!
 
saxonbass said:
Nice job! :D
I love the hardly visible fretlines (at least that's what they look like from the angles of the pics)... very understated and classy looking!
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Yep! Black lines on wenge, Theyre invisible from a few feet away. But when playing the bass theyre noticable.

I was originally going to have white lines, But it really didn't match all that great. So black it is :)
 
hey casey.
very cool idea. i did the same with my bass a while ago.
but it wasn't a warwick. your demo has a nice tone. a bit more treble would be nice though. you can always roll them back if you want, but you can't add treble if there is non.

have you ever heard of HG THOR ?
this company makes WONDERFUL fretboard coatings with epoxy. those fretboards look like glass afterwards. i'm sure, a lot of polishing is the key.
and: the more you polish, the longer it will last before the epoxy coat will start to chip off.

here is the link:


also, check the sound samples.

and here are some pictures:
 
iuserneim said:
hey casey.
very cool idea. i did the same with my bass a while ago.
but it wasn't a warwick. your demo has a nice tone. a bit more treble would be nice though. you can always roll them back if you want, but you can't add treble if there is non.

have you ever heard of HG THOR ?
this company makes WONDERFUL fretboard coatings with epoxy. those fretboards look like glass afterwards. i'm sure, a lot of polishing is the key.
and: the more you polish, the longer it will last before the epoxy coat will start to chip off.

here is the link:


also, check the sound samples.

and here are some pictures:
Click to expand...

Wow.... incredible shine there iuserneim!!!
 
I'm assuming that finish is Casey's process taken to extremes. I am in process of finishing my board (I'll post when it's done, I've taken pictures during the entire process), and I debated using 1000-1500 grit sandpaper and a buffing wheel to try for a mirror shine on my 'board. But I declined because I know I would turn it into a "Holy Grail" type quest, and just end up frustrated because my bass wasn't "perfect".

But it's a gorgeous finish, and it's good to know the process is available.
 
+JohnnyBoy- said:
I'm assuming that finish is Casey's process taken to extremes. I am in process of finishing my board (I'll post when it's done, I've taken pictures during the entire process), and I debated using 1000-1500 grit sandpaper and a buffing wheel to try for a mirror shine on my 'board. But I declined because I know I would turn it into a "Holy Grail" type quest, and just end up frustrated because my bass wasn't "perfect".

But it's a gorgeous finish, and it's good to know the process is available.
Click to expand...

+1

I resently defretted a rosewood board. I just glued some maple veneer into it and sanded it down from 600 to 1500 grit, by hand, and it sounds great. Don't know how long it will last though... :roll:
 
those thor's look like some pedullas i've seen. crazy glass looking fingerboards!!
 
the shine is incredible indeed.
it must be a pleasure to play one of those.

i think, that shine can only be done with wet sanding or polishing creme.

casey, if you can do THAT, it would be insane, especially on the ultra-wide fingerboard your bass has...

keep posting pictures of your fretless conversion, it's a pleasure to look at it.
 
I'll have some more pics up later... I'm working on it again! I had to fix a few areas and I'll be wet sanding today. It should shine it up pretty good. I have to get it done soon though, I have tryouts for a band on wednesday and have to learn a song by then :P
 
How's the fretless Fender Casey?There's no clips of it on your myspace page,is there??
 
Greg said:
How's the fretless Fender Casey?There's no clips of it on your myspace page,is there??
Click to expand...

I ended up selling it :P I didn't like the tone much... It was fun at first, But it wasn't hi-fi enough for me.

So lastnight I was playing around on the Warwick and noticed a few uneven spots in the fretboard which gave me some buzzing... Being the crazy person I'am I removed all of the epoxy from the board and started over again. I've seen alot of really nice superglue finishes, And surprisingly the superglue drys alot harder than the epoxy! Plus it's crystal clear compared to the yellow(ish) epoxy. So I started over again... Out of boredom, And wanting to have it somewhat perfect :P

This time around I really wanted rolled (fret)board edges, I loved playing on that Pentabuzz at GC, The rolled edges of the neck felt awesome and was insanely comfortable to play on. I already rolled the edges, and sat down to play the bass a bit on the finishless board and it plays like a dream... I always had my wrist at weird angles because of the fretboard sharp edge, rounding it off a little made it a bit more comfortable.

I'm putting on the superglue right now, I'm going to do a couple of tubes of it, take out my sanding block and start smoothing everything out. Wet sanding the superglue makes it go by alot quicker and really brings it to a glass like finish. I also went out and got some jewelry polishing compound, I'm going to wet sand it with some of that and it should bring it to a mirror finish.

I'm recieving my piccolo strings on wednesday along with my Dr. Q pedal... So wednesday should be a fun day :D
 
I rolled the edges on my Streamer Rockbass when I first got it... the edges seemed a bit "sharp" to me. Never did it on on the $$ or Thumb, though, either the edges were a bit more "rolled" anyway or maybe I'd just got used to it!
 
The rolled edges are nice :D

I'm sanding down the superglue finish right now, I'll problaby throw on 2 or 3 more coats, finish sanding and then polish it up.

So far, I'm preferring the superglue over the epoxy... It cures rock hard, as compared to the epoxy being a bit plastic like. The epoxy also peels off if you don't have the surface your applying it too rough enough to stick, Which is hard to keep the surface rough but still smooth looking. It may just be that I'm using cheap epoxy, But when I removed the epoxy it came off in peices like plastic peeling. The superglue however went on like water, I wore latex gloves and smooth it out over the fretboard. I had about 3-5 seconds of working time, And went through about 6 or 7 small tubes of superglue, I'm going to use 1 or 2 more tubes once I smooth the board out.

I'm hoping this polishing compound works out with the superglue. But so far, It has a crystal clear finish when it's wet. I have a feeling my tone will be alot brighter now.

And once again, I'm loving the rolled edges :D

If I'm done on Wednesday, I'm going to string it up with some piccolo strings and I'll make a sound clip :D And of course more pictures to come once it's finished.
 
The bass is giving me alot more trouble than I expected... I'm getting alot of noise in different sections of the neck now. When I fix those sections it comes up in other areas.

I've managed to get the board level but still get noise here and there. I'm going to make a few adjustments and see where it goes from there.

I'll get it sooner or later!

On the up side, I recieved my Dr. Q today, adjusted it a bit (internally) and it sounds pretty good :D
 
That's weird!
Maybe the epoxy is better after all (for sound if not for looks). Maybe it's the laws of physics... the slight softness in the epoxy works better than the rock hard superglue? I had a status fretless neck once (I put it on a P-bass) - it was a carbon fibre neck with a phenolic fingerboard (I think that was plastic mixed with bits of wood), it was rock hard, but very consistent all over the fingerboard (???) but this was a very high tech thing.
I'm sure you'll sort it out one way or another! :wink:
 
i don't think that the super-hardness of the superglue would be a problem.
maybe when you adjust the truss rod, but it shouldn't be harder to make the buzz disappear.

just try to find out what's best for YOU.
ok, jaco used epoxy, but that doesn't mean we all have to use epoxy, right ?
time and technology changed to the better.

what did you use to sand the fingerboard ?
a curved sanding block for the fingerboard radius ?
IF SO, then just take your time. when the neck is stringed, the neck relief is other than when there are no strings (you know that)
IF NOT, then try one of those, they really help to get a nice fingerboard surface. with a flat sanding block, you run the risk of making some flat spots here and there...
 
Yeah, I used a flat block. Which is weird because I've used it on other basses before and the whole neck was playable. I think it's just going to take a little time getting it all setup perfectly.

I'll get it sooner or later! I think I may take a break from working on it today though. This is what I get for messing with it too much :P
 
hey casey, check this:

of course, a radiused sanding block would be good for leveling te epoxy.
and if you want to apply another coat (when the surface gets chewed up by the strings), then you would be happy to have one of those.

and now i found something that could be helpful for you (if you need a really long sanding block, or if you don't want to buy one):



hope it helped.
or did you already fix the buzz-problem ??
 
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