Hellzero

Needs a bit of rust and it will even look better.

Check the SynthAxe as you might learn a lot from this rare instrument. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SynthAxe And the way Future Man (who is Victor Wooten's brother, named Roy) is using it as a drum kit with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Man

Unlined fretless are not that common and the standard by big factories like Sire or even Fender seems to be lined fretless. Being a fretless player myself, I've always struggled to find unlined fretless basses. That said, I ended up not focusing on this as I don't look at my neck that much while playing, only once in while. So yes a fretless Sire P10 or V10 with an unlined fingerboard would be great, as long as they switch back to ebony, not doing this with a maple fingerboard, which is an heresy. Hoping that Marcus Miller is a BassChatter and that the guys at Sire will read this thread too. And I think Nathan King is a BassChatter or at least someone at Andertons is.

Ask @chrisbass13 which courier he's using as he's been shipping some expensive basses to the U.K. and USA recently. The courier was way more cheaper than what you mention.

Check this, that's what decided me to opt for a DP127 aka Split P :

You believe right. 😉

This will be a (too soft) one use and bin file... I have a Dunlop fret file, now Gurian, since more than 30 years. To me, and loads of pro luthiers, it's the best available, not cheap at all. It will last forever, it comes with 3 different burrs (for narrow, medium and jumbo frets) and you can buy these burrs back if ever needed. I think it's the only one with that special feature. It's a 3 in 1 file covering all types of frets. https://www.allparts.uk.com/products/gurian-fret-crowning-file-set

Try to find an old original Mexican roadworn Fender Precision Bass, they are excellent instruments and remember that your Flea bass has been made by the same (or similar) trained people. 😉 Otherwise, there is the Custom Shop 1961 Fender Precision Bass Relic : it costs a lot, but less than most of the real vintage models (and vintage is certainly not better...).

With a fretless, you have the opportunity to always be in tune with the others, which is not the case with a fretted or fixed notes instrument. So, it's a kind of perfect instrument on its own, but you have to listen to the others and not rely on a perfectly pitched note on a strobe tuner. That said, paradoxically, practising alone and playing perfectly pitched notes will improve your intonation a lot. As Alain Caron always says, and he is a terrific fretless player exactly knowing why and what he's playing, music is 10% gift and 90% sweat. Fretless as you might know it is my main instrument since more than 30 years, and yes I play a lot in the dusty end, and yes I play chords, but I've been practising a lot and persevered... So, yes, persevere !

A very slight rock is already too much. 😉

I would say avoid a percussionist if there's no drummer, as they have a very bad habit of playing anything but the beat...

The stacked knobs is a great idea, but like the VVT it doesn't allow fast tone or pickups changing, the best being VBT for this purpose. That said, I had a lot of original Fender vintage basses that where naturally reliced, but the best relic I ever owned was the Jaco Pastorius Custom Shop Relic : what an amazing bass on all points ! That said the Fender Flea Relic Jazz Bass is also quite amazing, especially considering the price.

Making an Archtop Guitar by Robert Benedetto is also very helpful and still available too... That's with this book, that I bought immediately when it went out, and other readings (no Internet library back in the day in late 80's, early 90's), talkings with (classical) luthiers and learning from them, plus thousands of setups, hundreds of assemblies and a few buildings (around 25 instruments to date and only 2 I'm proud of) that I acquired my skills. So it's a patience game and I still learn today. I'm not a feral luthier like @Lo-E, I'm more an impossible to tame one. 😇

That's really good @Geek99, with your perseverance and all the guidance you received, you now know how to perfectly set up the action and spot the issues. It's always pleasant to learn something and be able to apply it. Also good to pay a visit to @Andyjr1515 as he will definitely fix all your frets issues. And congratulations to @Lo-E who has been able to explain clearly with words what to do, when we all only gave guidance(s) or link(s). That's a tricky thing to achieve the correct way and he did.

I modified an old Lenco turntable in the 90's to wind my own pickups. Breaking wires are all about finding the right speed... At 78 RPM, it was becoming challenging... And pole pieces placed exactly under their corresponding strings is pure bullsh*t as the magnetic field is the same even between the adjacent pole pieces unless you put your string so close to these pole pieces that they will attract the string and create very weird harmonics making you think your instrument is always out of tune.

Indeed, the first fretless Fender was made in 1970 and it was a Precision Bass. What you see in this calalogue are well known ones off from the mid 70's as Fender USA only started making fretless Jazz Basses in 1988... Amazing when they could have sold thousands of these after the Jaco tsunami from the mid 70's on...

Certainly not, it was "bass guitar"...

Now it looks like a boat paddle that stood too long in ferruginous Scottish water.

It's also missing the defretted basses turned into fretless and the refretted basses getting back to their original condition. The type of frets can be important, so what about a forum for regular frets, large frets, small frets, mandolin frets, moving frets, badly reglued frets, lost frets, large flat frets, large flat frets recrowned, large flatter frets, small sharp frets, small flat frets, regular flattened frets, fretless wonder frets, dented frets, partially polished frets, Polish unpolished frets, Polish polished flattened flatter flat sharp large now smaller than small but close to regular even if they are worn frets, stainless steel with titanium oversprayed frets in semi-solid form, imaginary frets and of course nickel lithium turbo diesel 6 gear automatic frets.

Excellent. Love it. Big fan of John "Faces" Scofield. Mono Neon is great here. And Larry Goldings on the organ is amazing. In fact, I need this ! Immediately !

Of course. 😇

A long time ago, a friend of mine send me postcard from abroad where he put my name on it, the street was " Blue Peugeot 205 Street" without any number and the place was "Near Virton, I think" which is a city 15 kilometres away. He stated Belgium. And yes I did get the postcard a few days after it was sent ! Good ol' time.

Now, I'm a veteran... And yes, maybe I'm one of those...