Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This may be a stupid question, but has anyone here on the forum had frets put on a Rick fretless?

Thus creatiing a bound, dot neck 4003/4001 ?

Or I guess a better question would be could it even be done?

Or, are the dots on a Rick frettless actually marking the spot where the fret would be?

That would be my guess.

the dots are different because there are more of them. I have seen a couple of these and the dots are surrounding the notes. They are cool and I want one but have not seen one that I am in place to afford. the extra dots are where the frets would be on the side binding.

wouldn't it be easier to sell the fretless and buy a fretted bass???

Oh yeah, probably, but in this world of tasteless modifications I just wondered if anyone's seen one.

Its not something I would do, Im just surprised that a few of them havent surfaced.

Scott, here are two pictures to help clarify things:





Even without neasuring the distances, it seems clear to me that the dot fretboard markers are in the "correct" place on the fretless neck when compared to those on the 4002 and 4001S, both fretted basses.

What Jaymi is referring to are the side markers located on the neck binding. There are indeed many more on a fretless neck like Jaymi said, and for a fretted instrument, in the 'wrong' positions. I think that it would make for some confusion. I'll see if I can take a picture of the two neck bindings side-by-side for comparison.

As to the side markers, you'd have to replace the binding anyway...at least it should be done that way - remove binding, cut slots, add frets, do nice fret ends, add binding, add dots.

Fretless neck binding (4003FL TUR):



Fretted neck binding (4001 RUBY):

Interesting, I never new that about fretless binding.

Now I guess I'll just have to get one so I can stay in the loop.

(do you think my wife will buy that??)

Er, no. But heck, try it anyway!

Way too many dots in my opinion....I wish the fretless had the standard markings.

Dots on the neck of a 4001s/fl.

That will certainly take some getting used to! When I get mine I just may have to do something about all those dots. I prefer a blank fingerboard on fretless basses and just the usual side markers at positions 3-5-7-9-12, etc.

Cool pic, Bill!