geoham Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 I've just bought my first fretless - second hand locally. I thought I'd tell you about it on here - and hopefully someone can give me some advice. It's a 20 year old Jim Deacon, with PJ pickups. It was defretted by Glasgow luthier Jimmy Moon around 10 years ago - very good job. I only paid £45 for it,. It's in pretty poor condition, so I'm giving it a minor refurb (spending as little as possible!). I don't mind how it looks, as long as it's at least playable. I had planned on buying the Vintage 'Jaco' model that a few of you on here have praised, but my wedding has put the brakes on that. The plan now is to see how much use this one gets (and how in tune I sound!) then purchase something a bit more decent.... So far I've dismantled it and removed a lot of dirt (dog hair down side of pickups etc...very nice), cleaned the beat up body with Flash (I know!) - was the only thing that would remove the cigarette smoke smell from it. Finish is in very poor condition anyway. I've shimmed the neck, replaced the knobs (which were mismatched). I'm also replacing the P pickup with an eBay cheapy, since the top coil wasn't really working at all - I reckon it had become demagnetised. There is one area I need some help with - the nut. It's very deep cut, barely raising the strings from the body at all. Is normal for a fretless? I'm thinking about removing it and putting a shim under it - but not sure how to get it out cleanly. Photo below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lettsguitars Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 It's normal for a fretless nut to be cut almost all the way down to the fretboard. Looks ok. Leave it. Neck looks a little twisted which isn't a proble, just thought I'd mention it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Looks OK to me - as long as the fingerboard is true - as low as it'll go is fine for me, you don't need any higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoham Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 Thanks for the advice on the nut guys, one less thing to worry about! Reckon the twisted neck was probably caused by the same abuse that damaged paintwork. The guy I bought it from said he used this at pub gigs when he didn't want to risk using his Musicman, and just chucked it in the back of a van without a case. Anyway, including cheap ebay parts I've spent about £60 on this - can't really complain! It's definitely good enough to introduce me to the fretless world. Hopefully the postman will bring my pickup today and I'll be ready to go. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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