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Would you fret a vintage fretless p bass?


Cscsiga

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2 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

Unlined fretless? I'd want lines on it anyway. I'll bet the board is pretty clean above the twelfth if it is unlined...

Mine have no lines but have fret markers on the edge in the right place. That conversion is going to cost you if and when they get it right. Money and chances comes to mind.

Guys out there offering set ups for £10. Yeh who works for 50% of f**k all per hour. Those who can do ha ha I can do I can do I can do. Good go wreck someone else's guitar.

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49 minutes ago, Ralf1e said:

Mine have no lines but have fret markers on the edge in the right place. That conversion is going to cost you if and when they get it right. Money and chances comes to mind.

Guys out there offering set ups for £10. Yeh who works for 50% of f**k all per hour. Those who can do ha ha I can do I can do I can do. Good go wreck someone else's guitar.

 

I've had a few defrets done on different basses over the years, there was no drama I can assure you.

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40 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

 

I've had a few defrets done on different basses over the years, there was no drama I can assure you.

He isn't talking about defrets he is talking about adding frets and hence removal of existing fret markers on the side and replacement of different placed fretmarkers on the side and face. Lot of detailed work in that to trust to a I can do it body. No disrespect but it is not going to be cheap.

Edited by Ralf1e
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14 hours ago, Cscsiga said:

Good point, although as I said before it's not all original by now. It was sunburst originally and now it has a natural finish. That's how I bought it. 

I hear you but a stripped body isn't a big deal. The original bass is still there and if you felt the need, you could have a sweet sunburst refin vintage beauty. 

Adding something new to a bass (what you're contemplating here, extra pickups, pre amps etc...) can't be undone easily without leaving nasty scars. Devaluing scars they would be to if you're bothered about such things.

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7 minutes ago, Ralf1e said:

He isn't talking about defrets he is talking about adding frets and hence removal of existing fret markers on the side and replacement of different placed fretmarkers on the side and face. Lot of detailed work in that to trust to a I can do it body. No disrespect but it is not going to be cheap.

 

No need to move the fret markers, not with our big brains... We can adjust.

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9 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

 

No need to move the fret markers, not with our big brains... We can adjust.

Quite right. As you say we can adjust. However he still has to have the frets put in or it won't be fretted it will still be fretless.

Edited by Ralf1e
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16 hours ago, miles'tone said:

I hear you but a stripped body isn't a big deal. The original bass is still there and if you felt the need, you could have a sweet sunburst refin vintage beauty. 

Adding something new to a bass (what you're contemplating here, extra pickups, pre amps etc...) can't be undone easily without leaving nasty scars. Devaluing scars they would be to if you're bothered about such things.

I'm happy with the natural finish. Who'd stripped it did a great job. It has a satin some kind of wax layer and that's all. Besided I have 2 other sunburst P's. All in all you're right B124C3AB-2133-43AB-86B8-1B00D76DF6E1.thumb.jpeg.aafcaead725beeece60ebd207799b3ab.jpeg

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12 minutes ago, Cscsiga said:

I'm happy with the natural finish. Who'd stripped it did a great job. It has a satin some kind of wax layer and that's all. Besided I have 2 other sunburst P's. All in all you're right 

 

Couldn't you just try swapping necks with one of your other Ps?

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3 hours ago, Cscsiga said:

I'm happy with the natural finish. Who'd stripped it did a great job. It has a satin some kind of wax layer and that's all. Besided I have 2 other sunburst P's. All in all you're right B124C3AB-2133-43AB-86B8-1B00D76DF6E1.thumb.jpeg.aafcaead725beeece60ebd207799b3ab.jpeg

 

Those saddles man, shouldn't look like that. How are you intonating it?

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27 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

? ? ? o.O

 

Click the pic and magnify the bridge, the saddles are pretty much pulled all the way back to the back-plate with the silks of the strings (D/A/E) running into the string slots. It's all pulled too far back, pretty much to its limits. I'm wondering how the intonation has been set up.

Edited by Grimalkin
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56 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

 

Click the pic and magnify the bridge, the saddles are pretty much pulled all the way back to the back-plate with the silks of the strings (D/A/E) running into the string slots. It's all pulled too far back, pretty much to its limits. I'm wondering how the intonation has been set up.

 

You do realise that this is a fretless bass, don't you..? :/ How does one intonate an acoustic double bass..? (A clue : using one's ears, and a decent dose of both experience and practice...)

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13 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

You do realise that this is a fretless bass, don't you..? :/ How does one intonate an acoustic double bass..? (A clue : using one's ears, and a decent dose of both experience and practice...)

 

Pino used to use another fellow to adjust the intonation of his basses, so that the basses were intonated to where he visualised the pitch to be on the board. I use that method, other guys capo off the twelfth fret and go from there. Intonating a lined fretless, dictates where the pitch will be in relation to the line. You can intonate behind the line, as you would play a fretted, or directly on top of the line, which according to Gary Willis, would be the better method. Splitting the fingertip along the line.  

 

I do realise it's a fretless, I've been playing about 35 years in all.

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9 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

You do realise that this is a fretless bass, don't you..? :/ How does one intonate an acoustic double bass..? (A clue : using one's ears, and a decent dose of both experience and practice...)

I believe he means how have you intonated it at the bridge dad. 

On a fretless bass you'd still set the intonation by the 12th harmonic and the note directly underneath. If the intonation of the whole bass is out then the side marker dots will be off. Real pain if the strings are off with each other too!

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"Pino used to use another fellow to adjust the intonation of his basses, so that the basses were intonated to where he visualised the pitch to be on the board."

 

I should explain that a little more, Pino would play the bass, while another fellow would make the adjustment that he wanted. So it could be done in situ, and intonated to him. To where he visualised the pitches to be, unlined after all.

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24 minutes ago, miles'tone said:

I believe he means how have you intonated it at the bridge dad. 

On a fretless bass you'd still set the intonation by the 12th harmonic and the note directly underneath. If the intonation of the whole bass is out then the side marker dots will be off. Real pain if the strings are off with each other too!

 

Maybe that my problem. My 6-string fretless doesn't have (nor need...) position markers at all (no more does a double bass, a cello or a violin...). The intonation of each string, at each note even, is done by ear, not by a 'position' on the board. Of course the octave sounds like the harmonic at the twelfth (and the other harmonics keep  contant check, too...), so, to me, as long as the bridge is reasonable (define 'reasonable'..?), as the one in the photo seems, to me, I see no issue with intonation. Anyone with an ear can play that bass in tune, all along the neck, with the bridge set up where it is. B|

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2 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Maybe that my problem. My 6-string fretless doesn't have (nor need...) position markers at all (no more does a double bass, a cello or a violin...). The intonation of each string, at each note even, is done by ear, not by a 'position' on the board. Of course the octave sounds like the harmonic at the twelfth (and the other harmonics keep  contant check, too...), so, to me, as long as the bridge is reasonable (define 'reasonable'..?), as the one in the photo seems, to me, I see no issue with intonation. Anyone with an ear can play that bass in tune, all along the neck, with the bridge set up where it is. B|

 

Ok.

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22 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

"Pino used to use another fellow to adjust the intonation of his basses, so that the basses were intonated to where he visualised the pitch to be on the board."

 

I should explain that a little more, Pino would play the bass, while another fellow would make the adjustment that he wanted. So it could be done in situ, and intonated to him. To where he visualised the pitches to be, unlined after all.

So by that logic, this bass may well be intonated where the OP wants it. I've experimented with various different ways of intonating a fretless, all have their merits. It may look wrong to you, but that doesn't make it wrong. 

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5 minutes ago, BreadBin said:

So by that logic, this bass may well be intonated where the OP wants it. I've experimented with various different ways of intonating a fretless, all have their merits. It may look wrong to you, but that doesn't make it wrong. 

 

Having the silks sitting in the grooves ain't great, it's out of adjustment on three strings and screwed right back on the springs. To set it like that, your intonation would have to be constantly pitched sharp.

 

Not only that, at that angle the strings ride up more, causing the action to be a little higher.

Edited by Grimalkin
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1 minute ago, Grimalkin said:

 

Having the silks sitting in the grooves ain't great, its out of adjustment on three strings and screwed right back on the springs. To set it like that, your intonation would have to be constantly pitched sharp.

That depends where you put your fingers. It's a fretless...

You seem to be failing to grasp a simple concept - exactly the concept that Jaco employed in your quote.

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