OliverBlackman Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 I don’t like the sound of flats on my fretless jazz so use rounds. Only issue is it’s an uncoated Ebony board and gets the usual string grooves. Are these easy enough to sand down with fine sand paper? Are there any pitfalls to doing this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Are you sure it’s ebony? Sounds a bit soft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OliverBlackman Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 Yeh definitely ebony. I had the same thing on a Warwick fretless but didn’t have it long enough to worry about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueMoon Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 Levelling a fretless fingerboard can be tricky without a rig to keep everything stable and correctly aligned. Essential is a sanding board with the correct/matching radius. "Steady as she goes" is the correct approach and perfectly possible for someone who can do DIY, for example. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberthot Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 On 19/02/2022 at 14:38, OliverBlackman said: I don’t like the sound of flats on my fretless jazz so use rounds. Only issue is it’s an uncoated Ebony board and gets the usual string grooves. Are these easy enough to sand down with fine sand paper? Are there any pitfalls to doing this? Is it actual grooves or just the snail trails that you have on the fingerboard? It normally takes years to wear grooves into fingerboards. It would be interesting to see how bad it is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OliverBlackman Posted February 21, 2022 Author Share Posted February 21, 2022 14 hours ago, Delberthot said: Is it actual grooves or just the snail trails that you have on the fingerboard? It normally takes years to wear grooves into fingerboards. It would be interesting to see how bad it is You’re right that it’s more trails than grooves. Not really sure if it has an affect on sound/ tuning. If it’s something best left to professionals I’ll probably keep using it until it’s worse. Might decide to get in coated as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorris Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 Have you considered half round / ground wound / pressure wound string options ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OliverBlackman Posted February 23, 2022 Author Share Posted February 23, 2022 11 hours ago, rmorris said: Have you considered half round / ground wound / pressure wound string options ? Yeh tried half round and just felt it didn’t sound quite as good. The bass is too good to compromise on tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickA Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 If it's not causing the strings to buzz, just leave it. A little wear improves the sound of a fretless imo. My best fretless did start to buzz (30 years of round wounds) so it went to the original makers for a "shooting"; when it gets that bad it would be hard to fix yourself. The Ebony is now rather thin but if it lasts another 30 years it will see me out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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