Defretting a fretted neck

[Steve McGinnis]

OK,

I know this is not the best way to go about making a bass fretless (although Jaco sounded pretty good). I have a Taylor AB-1 fretted bass, which I would much prefer to be a fretless bass. I contacted Taylor though a dealership and apparently I cannot just buy a fretless neck. I am starting to think I should just have the frets removed and viola! I have my fretless. This bass is definitely in player condition it has two big repaired cracks on the body so resale is not as big a consideration as if it were mint.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[jam]

It's messy and time-consuming to DIY and get it right. I've done it once, and I don't know if I'd do it again. You'll need to coat the board after pulling the frets and filling the slots, since (I assume) you'll be using roundwounds.

I'd at least shop the job to a competent luthier, and if the price wasn't outrageous I'd go that way.

Good luck however you do it,
JAM

[Bernie]

I have a fretted Guild Pilot that I upgraded pups on. Resale on these is ziltch. I acquired a nicer fretted bass and figured the Guild would be cool as a fretless.

I called around and found out that repair shops, probably for good reason, don't want to be bothered with jobs like this. The one that was willing to take the job wanted to yank the frets, inlay the fret lines with wood, and finish the board at a cost of about $350.00. Now I can't sell that bass for $200.00, so putting $350.00 into it was out of the question.

I undersand how a repair person wouldn't want to do it the cheap, easy way - they have reps to uphold and using wood filler and boat sealer (ala Jaco) wouldn't do much for building or maintaining a rep.

The only way I'd get it done would be to do it myself, and I don't have the time, and if I did and paid myself for the time I spent working on it (I'm not a good DIYer, BTW), I would have quite an expensive cheap bass. Buying an inexpensive MIM fretless Fender would be a cheaper way to go (for me.)

Good luck with whatever decision you make.

-Bernie

[Bob Rogers]

If you are comfortable with the fact that this mod probably reduces the value of the instrument to approximately zero it looks like a reasonable DIY project. Stew Mac has a tool for pulling frets. You need to find a wood filler that won't shrink. Be sure to mask everything other than the fret slots before putting in the filler. I'd wait at least a week for the filler to cure before sanding the filler and the neck flush.