teeder wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2025 9:24 am
If it were mine, and the fact that I don't play fretless, I'd put frets on the existing board. It would be a shame to ruin that piece of wood.
Love me some BRW!
20220720_165255.jpg
The only bit of BRW I have is the head plate on my Martin.
That's it then. Frets into the rosewood. I have bought an ebay horseshoe for it whilst I search for any original parts. Luckily I only need the horseshoe and bridge.
teeder wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2025 9:24 am
If it were mine, and the fact that I don't play fretless, I'd put frets on the existing board. It would be a shame to ruin that piece of wood.
Love me some BRW!
20220720_165255.jpg
The only bit of BRW I have is the head plate on my Martin.
teeder wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2025 9:24 am
If it were mine, and the fact that I don't play fretless, I'd put frets on the existing board. It would be a shame to ruin that piece of wood.
Love me some BRW!
20220720_165255.jpg
The only bit of BRW I have is the head plate on my Martin.
I am loving following this thread! I'm kinda doubtful that it could be an original fretless, however I recently aquired a fretless Gibson Bicentennial Thunderbird made in 1976 that had its board replaced w an unlined ebony board. But in my case the reciept for the conversion was in the case. Thanks for bringing it to our attention and sharing pics!
I totally agree with the comments about the 60s tailpiece position varying from bass to bass on otherwise untampered guitars I might add. Some (not 21 fretters by the way) had the tail right back to the edge of the body and others revealing about a centimetre of body. At the other end of the scale (pun intended) you have Chris Squires poor long suffering RM that on the 1977 GFTO tour his tech had to move the tail so far back that it revealed the hole beneath where the mute recess was!
I’ve seen that on a few basses with the older bridge / tailpiece. I suspect it’s why some tailpieces have been routed for a later bridge unit like on my main ‘72, to avoid that.
I saw them at Bingley Hall in Staffordshire (between Stoke and Birmingham). Before the NEC Birmingham was built Bingley was used by a number of rock bands in the late ‘70s including Floyd Rush and Bowie. It was a cattle market hall of a hangar type construction.
