Re: Gigging With A Fretless Bass
Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:10 pm
Fine. The fret(less)board was refinished after the frets were yanked, so the inlays are never touched directly by the strings. Sometimes I use round wound strings on the bass when I want a brighter tone. Kind of a long, LONG story about how this job was done, but top-line: I took it in to a guitar shop in Portland, (NOT the 12th Fret, where they do awesome work,) and told the guy I wanted the frets yanked and replaced with ebony. It took him NINE MONTHS to do the job, (which was considered to be a very long time back in the 80's) and he really struggled with it. It looks great from a distance, but up close you can see some serious chunks of wood missing from the fretboard. Plus, there was a huge seam along side the fret board where the new finish was applied - the guy didn't even bother to smooth it out. I had to do it myself with the crude knowledge I had.