MoJoKe Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Since selling my 5502 fretless here a year or so ago, and previously to that my Wal Mk1, I have really missed having a fretless, so have been dreamily looking through the sale section in the hope that someone will post the ideal for sale advert. They still haven't! A couple of years ago I bought a 5 string Squier (Yup, a very popular topic here at the moment!) Affinity Jazz. I tried it for a bit of fun in a local music shop. It had been dropped so had some small paint chips, and the bridge vol pot, tone pot and knobs had been damaged. It had a surprisingly playable neck so made them a stupid offer which they went with, as they couldn't do much else with it. I thought it would be a great project to repair and bring back to life, but apart from sorting the electrics and putting on a new set of Elixirs it has instead remained mostly unplayed, and I'd been thinking of selling it. So instead I did some major surgery on it and over Christmas have converted it to a fretless. I often do my own setups and electronics, so not afraid of getting stuck in. I chose to do this "properly" and replaced the fret slots with veneer. I watched a load of YouTube Vids and there are a number showing the copious use of wood filler but, apart from most of these efforts looking pretty ugly, as the neck is pretty low profile I felt it essential to maintain the structure with wood so I found some nice .6mm Birdseye Maple Veneer on Ebay. The next challenge was to remove the fretwire without busting up the Rosewood board, which I did with a pair of end nippers after I had taken an angle grinder to them to shape the jaw tips like a proper fret removal tool (now available to borrow if anyone wants them!). This went very well, and after following a great series of YouTube vids showing the best way to shape the veneer inserts (no you cant just bung them in, they do need profiling properly!) and quite a lot of sanding/refinishing to get the neck straight and level, dropping the string height at the nut and shimming the neck to get the action nice and low. I am actually quite staggered by the results! The birdseye maple looks like gold, and it is [b][i]very[/i][/b] playable! Happy to post some pics if anyone wants to see it... As it is an Affinity Jazz, the electronics are a bit pants, so here is where I need some advice. Do I now sell it as a fantastically converted and set up starter fretless for someone, and get something better myself, or is it worth replacing the pups and putting in a J-retro (I have one in my JO5 and it is awesome!)? If so, what pups? Any ideas? I don't want to do any routing, so only something which will retro-fit... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikkoantt Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I just done same to my Fender Modern Player Jazz 4. But this time with wood filler. I have done numerous fretlesses and this was first time with filler. I think that proper way to do this is with wood veneers, but if you are hurry, like I was, filler is way faster. I used Plastic Padding Chemical Wood. It dries in 5 minutes,so it is pretty fast to do whole thing in few hours. I have been put J-Retro to it earlier and it was nice with fretted version but now with fretless version of same bass it is unbeliviable good. This half parametric mids you can amount some serious life to your sound and findin' that right mwah J-Retro is right tool for the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoJoKe Posted January 3, 2015 Author Share Posted January 3, 2015 Yep, agreed, the swept mid on the J-Retro has a very similar effect to the way the EQ's worked on my old Wal. I like the sound of the Modern Player pickups, but as said I'm not looking to do any routing. If I were, I would probably want to try and replicate J/MM configuration of my Lakland 55-02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles'tone Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 How about getting a top quality passive wiring harness from our own KiOgan for a very reasonable amount and getting some good quality hum-cancelling pickups (Nordstrand/Aguilar etc. ) Thing to watch for though might be that the Affinity pups are the same size instead of the bridge one being slightly wider left to right as per Fender. If so, you'll have to buy two neck pickup singles. Maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles'tone Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 PS. PICS!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoJoKe Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) Here ya go, some pics - I'm pretty happy with this! In the first one you can just about see how the birdseye maple catches the light. [attachment=180068:IMAG01371.jpg] Interestingly the previous two fretless basses I've owned were unlined. I do shows with MSL (and will be working on the MarkBass stand at LBGS2015 again), a couple of years ago I was chatting with Steve Lawson and commented that his gorgeous 6 string Modulus was lined, and didn't he prefer the look of an unlined fingerboard? in his usual way he replied something like "yes, but playing and pitch are the most important thing, why would you not want as much help as possible to improve your playing? Yup, a point well made Steve! [attachment=180069:IMAG0140.jpg] [attachment=180070:IMAG0138.jpg] [attachment=180071:IMAG0136.jpg] I must admit, when taking the fret wire out I had expected to find the Rosewod quite soft, but no, its actually a very hard and good quality material. I am looking forward to seeing how well it fares compared to my previous experiences. The Lakland had a custom birdseye Maple fingerboard which looked like it might have been epoxy-ed, the Wal had Macassar Ebony which must have been the hardest wood known to man, because I owned and used roundwound strings on that bass from new in 1986 until I sold it a couple of years ago and never had to have the fingerboard refinished. Edited January 4, 2015 by MoJoKe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowieBass Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Those infill veneers are great, the fingerboard is looking really neat and tidy. Very nice job! I haven't used them but the Entwistle pickups seem well liked, especially the JBXN neos (though I believe they're a bit taller than a stock J) and very reasonably priced. There's a thread on here about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles'tone Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Nice job! Did you need to re-radius the fingerboard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoJoKe Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Thanks guys! No, the neck was pretty much fine, I lightly crosshatched it with a pencil and used 400 grit wrapped around a box sectioned spirit level to slowly and carefully take it and the glue residues back off and level the maple inserts. As said, the neck was in pretty good (and virtually unplayed) nick before I started and it was already good and level, with no significant high spots. I thought I might have to have a second go at it once I had shimmed and restrung it, but not at all. It did need a second go at lowering the action after it had had a couple of days to settle in, including a tightening tweak on the truss rod to straighten it a bit more, but it has now settled and is great, with just the right Mwah and surprisingly good sustain across all strings. Having measured the pups they are different, so will now go and have a look at the options. KiOgan has recommended D'Marzio - the Entwistles look interesting, except there doesn't appear to be a 5 string Jazz option... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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