Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I disassembled the entire bass and put the neck stock in my heat press, it straightened the back-bow out quite nicely. I'm not putting my full trust in the neck, so I will route a small channel down the mid section and glue in a graphite reinforcement. Larry Davis suggested using a quarter sawn ebony board, which will surely strengthen the neck. Of course I will leave the FB unfinished....all black hardware, FB, Roto or DA Tapes and checkerboard binding and HB-1's; this thing's going to look and sound great.

Maybe it's just me (Mom always said I was different ) but I could never understand why anybody wanted face dots on a fretless in the first place??? They don't do anything, since they aren't in the right place to help you, and most of the time when you're playing you can't even see them anyway. Maybe they're some sort of aid to people switching over from fretted instruments, but I'll happily take mine with a few small side dots and clean faces.

I agree with Todd. A fretless board with no dots is a very good look.

daveman wrote:I agree with Todd. A fretless board with no dots is a very good look.

Count me in with your club.

I even use black strings on mine, so that nobody can tell what I'm doing while in "stealth mode".

Going with an a new unlined ebony board was an option i considered when i defretted my Cii,but decided i wanted the bass to look more stock.(plus the maple strips mod was a lot less $.)
I am really happy with the results,am trying to rely mostly on my ears and not my eyes for intonation....

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teb wrote:I even use black strings on mine, so that nobody can tell what I'm doing while in "stealth mode".

I did that for a while on my ZON Sonus fretless basses, LaBella tape wound strings.

Doh! changed my mind again. Found some blood wood fb blanks at Gallery Hardwoods. Black binding on the sides of the finger board.....no dots, no clear coat. Just received my HB-1s, now I need a Wilder harness.

jps wrote:

daveman wrote:I agree with Todd. A fretless board with no dots is a very good look.

Count me in with your club.

Now, there's a club I'd be happy to join as well!

I got a gorgeous piece of 3/8" thick bubinga fingerboard blank from Gilmer Wood Company, one of the few who carries blanks that thick. Most guitar and bass blanks are 1/4" or 5/16" max. If you don't have the wood already, check them out:
https://www.gilmerwood.com/items.php?CID=36

Thanks Gilmour.....I just purchased 2 bloodwood blanks from Gallery Hardwoods. If they don't work for me, I'll check out Gilmer.

I have a ziricote fingerboard on my Martin Keith fretless Elfin 5. The tone and mwah are superb onit with both rounds (D'Addario XLs) and flatwounds (TI Jazz Flats). Plus, ziricote looks amazing.

That is a beautiful FB JPS......I'm choosing the orange-ishs hue of the bloodwood because it's a nice contrast to the black.

I didn't see in this thread what color your 4003 is; yes, the bloodwood should be cool, just don't let it bleed all over everything!

Well here's Jeff Thomas' former black beauty all stripped down for a frame up resto. Yes it will be black and I'm almost done applying the checkerboard binding. When the body is prepped, I'll fab the fingerboard using the bloodwood. Gettin' kinda of giddy about seeing the fb glued up and the body wings re glued to the center section.