Non-Rickenbacker Fretless Basses Sub-Forum

[FretlessOnly]

The action on my FL P-bass is 7/32" at the octave. Plays just fine. You need some room to dig in.

[jps]

Here is a short clip of Percy where you can see that the strings are about 3/8" high at the end of the fingerboard.



Here he is with his old bandmate, John Goodsall, one of the finest guitarists I've had the pleasure to see perform several times.

[jps]

The action on my FL P-bass is 7/32" at the octave. Plays just fine. You need some room to dig in.

Tell that to Gary Willis.

[Ivan3000]

I'm just gonna ajust the neck. I'm scared to ajust the truss rod too much for fear of snapping it, If it dosn't make progress by me doing it a little, I'll take it to a luthier. The reason I', trigger shy, is that for his birthday I bought my dad an epiphone acoustic 12 for the 70's I thought I could fix it, but it was beyond repair. So my dad and I tightened the trussrod, and it just snapped. I think I can handle a bass though. Any tips Jeff?

[jps]

Tips? If the rod feels too tight loosen it a bit first to check if it is stuck or jammed. Don't over-torque the rod, use the correct tool, depending on what that should be for that particular truss rod nut. Do not tighten the rod more than about 1/4 turn at most (adjust slowly, don't crank it), then let the neck settle for about 24 hours before checking the action, and/or tightening the rod any more.

Before doing any truss rod adjusting, check the relief, it may be just fine and the bridge saddles may just be set too high, instead. To check the relief gently press the lowest string at the first fret and at the last fret and see how much room there is between the fingerboard and the bottom of the string around the 8th "fret" position. The neck should be basically flat but you do want a very slight amount of space/arc in the neck to allow for the string movement when it is plucked. There is no set measurements to go by as each player will want to have the bass set up for personal desires; it may take some time for you to find just what that is, so that is why it is best to learn to do these setups yourself, instead of relying on a guitar tech guy to do it for you, he does not know how you play. The only thing you may need a tech for is adjusting the nut slots if they need to be filed down or if a new nut is needed if the slots are too low. On a fretless bass the nut slots should be cut so that there is barely any space between the fingerboard and the bottom of the string when the string is NOT pressed down.

Oh yeah, make sure you have lots of dark chocolate to eat during the set up.

[Ivan3000]

Tips? If the rod feels too tight loosen it a bit first to check if it is stuck or jammed. Don't over-torque the rod, use the correct tool, depending on what that should be for that particular truss rod nut. Do not tighten the rod more than about 1/4 turn at most (adjust slowly, don't crank it), then let the neck settle for about 24 hours before checking the action, and/or tightening the rod any more.

Before doing any truss rod adjusting, check the relief, it may be just fine and the bridge saddles may just be set too high, instead. To check the relief gently press the lowest string at the first fret and at the last fret and see how much room there is between the fingerboard and the bottom of the string around the 8th "fret" position. The neck should be basically flat but you do want a very slight amount of space/arc in the neck to allow for the string movement when it is plucked. There is no set measurements to go by as each player will want to have the bass set up for personal desires; it may take some time for you to find just what that is, so that is why it is best to learn to do these setups yourself, instead of relying on a guitar tech guy to do it for you, he does not know how you play. The only thing you may need a tech for is adjusting the nut slots if they need to be filed down or if a new nut is needed if the slots are too low. On a fretless bass the nut slots should be cut so that there is barely any space between the fingerboard and the bottom of the string when the string is NOT pressed down.

Oh yeah, make sure you have lots of dark chocolate to eat during the set up.

Allright!, I'll probably do the one fourth, wait a day and put the strings back on. This is a stupid question and all, but what if i leave it out in a cold area say a freezer. I know that gets the strings close to the neck. On my first bass (red ibanez) my dad left it out in his car to hide it from me (christmas) and when I got it the action was so low it needed to be ajusted. I will definately play it safe on this repair, because i've had my eye on a fretless ever since I started playing bass! Thanks for the help!

[jps]

Allright!, I'll probably do the one fourth, wait a day and put the strings back on.

Um, do all this with the strings on the bass and up to pitch!

[Ivan3000]

Um, do all this with the strings on the bass and up to pitch! [/quote]
Oh, okay! The guitar center people took the string off when doing this a couple years ago. To tell you the truth, I don't trust some of their knowledge 100% Some are more worried about there break than actually helping customers. I'd love to work there. Don't get me wrong though...there are some really helpful people there though. You just have to catch it on a good day.
There was a 330 there once, and I asked to play it...the only reason they let me is because I said "Rick 330" So it sounded like I actually knew my stuff. They normally don't let "Children" play the expensive ones. It dosn't help that I look like I'm 12 either!

I'm gonna check the saddles first though. I'm just not that knowlegable about ajusting intonation. Speaking of, My mustang's intoation is pretty off. Does your mustang have those problems, Jeff? The hofner on the other hand, I couln't ask for more (other than a nice reverse fireglo 4000) or this: Blueboy 4000

[Ivan3000]

Yeah, Before he told me I would get the fretless, I was considering making this "Masterpiece" Into one.
Its an old 6 string nylon guitar painted by yours truley. It has a modified nut bridge and has hofner stock roundwound strings on it.
I think I could give Paul W. and Dale F. a run for their money with this little darkhorse. Haha, just kidding, This is the epitome of poor painting.
Here she is:

[jps]

Looks like a The Fool painting on that guitar! Not bad, for a kid.

My Mustang Bass intonates fine; I have TI Jazz Flats on it at the moment, along with a Hipshot A Style bridge. The intonation would have been fine with the stock bridge, but I wanted to widen the string spacing a bit, which can't be done on the stock bridge. I even repositioned the holes a bit to run the strings through the body. I played the Mustang Bass at a gig Friday evening for the first time; it sounded very nice filling out the bottom end perfectly.

Adjusting intonation is pretty easy to do, all you need as to tools is a good tuner, although a tuning fork would work, too, and whatever screwdrivers/allen wrenches you need to adjust the bridge. There are lots of info on doing the procedure on-line so do some Googling (is that an official verb?), Joey's Bass Notes should have info on how to intonate your bass.

[weemac]

I'm getting a fretless bass soon (apart from my double bass and Ashbory)
It looks like:

[jps]

Cool! I take it that is a...

[Ivan3000]

[quote="jps"]Looks like a The Fool painting on that guitar! Not bad, for a kid.

I play the fool on many occasions! Thanks for the tips. It should be mine roughly in august, and if my friend decides to sell it to me, I might get one of these:

Riding in style
That is the ONLY thing that will hault saving up for a Rick, and still i'm a little hesistant to do this, but I know it will help my coolness factor with the ladies

[jps]

This...

P4-5 Competizione.jpg

...would be riding in style!

[weemac]

Cool! I take it that is a...

Yes it is a: