72 Musicmaster Fretless Project

[Stub Mandrel]

18 minutes ago, ped said:

pan/tone

 

Looks close to Pantone 600 to me.

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Sounds lovely, @ped.  

[tauzero]

On 12/08/2025 at 16:23, ped said:

Thanks. Yes I wanted to use the word ‘ferrules’ but wasn’t sure if I’d dreamt it. Ok - one to stuck in the maybe pile. The tuners on the Mustang neck are probably functionally just as good/better and as I won’t be playing it in tune anyway, it might not matter a great deal! 

 

Perhaps https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003662960717.html would help.

[ped]

1 minute ago, tauzero said:

 

Perhaps https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003662960717.html would help.

 

Thanks - I must admit having never taken a tuner apart or replaced one before I'm fully ignorant in the ways of the tuner. I'll have a look at how things fit together and see what needs doing.

 

Another option is to have the Musicmaster neck defretted, giving me the option of the Mustang ebony neck which I could leave as-is.

[Hellzero]

Your intonation is more than correct Chris, no big out of tune notes at all, just always a bit too sharp, but don't worry it doesn't destroy the music at all.

 

I've heard way more out of tune notes by professional renowned classical violinists or cellists, but beware of the lines as you'll start playing out of tune for sure if you rely on them (your always a bit too sharp intonation is certainly because of that).

 

That said you can use a slight bit of chorus if you're not 100% confident with your intonation, it will level things up.

 

Concerning the ebony fingerboard, it will take years and years of heavy playing to mark it to a no return point, but a levelling will sort it.

 

And raise that E string a bit, it will breathe even more. 😉

 

Edited August 26 by Hellzero
Spelling

[ped]

6 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Your intonation is more than correct Chris, no big out of tune notes at all, just always a bit too sharp, but don't worry it doesn't destroy the music at all.

 

I've heard way more out of tune notes by professional renowned classical violinists or cellists, but beware of the lines as you'll start playing out of tune for sure if you rely on them (your always a bit too sharp intonation is certainly because of that).

 

That said you can use a slight bit of chorus if you're not 100% confident with your intonation, it will level things up.

 

Concerning the ebony fingerboard, it will take years and years of heavy playing to mark it to a no return point, but a levelling will sort it.

 

And raise that E string a bit, it will breathe even more. 😉

 

 

Thanks for the comment. I'm glad it sounds OK. Better to be consistently wrong than all over the place - as you say, perhaps it's partly the bridge intonation. The strings are really light gauge so I can't quite get enough relief on the neck with them as things are - once I have the new bridge installed I'll do a proper setup with my usual strings. Currently with the truss rod slackened off, there's a verrrry slight back bow giving some rattle around the first few frets.

 

The parts are all arriving over the next few days - the bridge and decal are here, the pickup surround and loom are in the post - so we're nearly there.

[Stub Mandrel]

39 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

beware of the lines as you'll start playing out of tune for sure if you rely on them (your always a bit too sharp intonation is certainly because of that).

 

Adjust your intonation using your normal fingering at the octave, using a tuner to compare the harmonic with the fretted note.

 

Get it right for your normal finger placement and this will help across the neck.

 

As you get your ear in, you will start to rely on the lines less... but with the long neck on an electric bass it's much harder to hit the right spot when jumping to a note without some yardstick to guide you).

 

It can help to aim slightly flat, as it's easier and sounds better to roll your fingertip up to the correct pitch than to drop down.

 

EDIT: Whoops sorry if that's egg-sucking stuff, I thought this was another thread...

Edited August 26 by Stub Mandrel

[ped]

On 26/08/2025 at 12:00, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Adjust your intonation using your normal fingering at the octave, using a tuner to compare the harmonic with the fretted note.

 

Get it right for your normal finger placement and this will help across the neck.

 

As you get your ear in, you will start to rely on the lines less... but with the long neck on an electric bass it's much harder to hit the right spot when jumping to a note without some yardstick to guide you).

 

It can help to aim slightly flat, as it's easier and sounds better to roll your fingertip up to the correct pitch than to drop down.

 

EDIT: Whoops sorry if that's egg-sucking stuff, I thought this was another thread...

No that’s great stuff, I’m fairly novice on fretless so I have taken your advice and found that playing slightly flat is really helping. 
 

I dropped the bass off today at Chapel Guitars after a very spirited drive across some lovely countryside. 
 

Steve is great and totally understood what I wanted. Electronics, shielding and pickup correction all fine, and the neck options:

 

I’ll keep the ebony fretless mustang neck as-is. But I’m going to have the original neck defretted and coated. It’s a really nice piece of rosewood so it’ll look lovely, and it’ll be nice to use the original neck. I can compare both anyway and see. We’re going to try a nitro coating to bring out the look of the wood. 

[ped]

I’m not 100% sure that nitro coating, even several layers, will be tough enough.. I consider fretless fingerboards consumables so I’m not worried about maintenance or eventual replacement (though it might take a long time to get there) - maybe it’s worth a try. Any experiences? We might look into some resins or poly instead but I’m not sure what’s readily available and easiest to work with. 

[Hellzero]

Nitrocellulosic finish will wear almost as fast as no coating at all, prefer some polyester or polyurethane finish, I had this done on a few fretless fingerboard and it was really fine.

[police squad]

On 12/08/2025 at 16:49, ped said:

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by police squad

[ped]

19 minutes ago, police squad said:

 

 

Oh yes definitely 🤣

[ped]

RE the fingerboard coating, we're going to use Osmo Polyx

https://osmouk.com/product/polyx-oil-original/

 

Very easy to apply, and a nice middle ground between a full resin and a natural oil. @Andyjr1515 I just read about your experience using this stuff on a guitar body and I note your reservations - do you think it'll be suitable for a fingerboard - I don't mind having to reapply occasionally, and I'm not expecting it to be quite as glass-like as poly.

 

 

[Richard R]

From the product website site:

"Very water, dirt and abrasion resistant.

Highly resistant to common liquid spillages such as water, juice, tea, cola and wine.

Saliva-resistant and sweatproof."

 

What sort of gigs do you play @ped??

 

[ped]

19 minutes ago, Richard R said:

From the product website site:

"Very water, dirt and abrasion resistant.

Highly resistant to common liquid spillages such as water, juice, tea, cola and wine.

Saliva-resistant and sweatproof."

 

What sort of gigs do you play @ped??

 

Lots of kids parties 🥳 😂

[Richard R]

41 minutes ago, ped said:

Lots of kids parties 🥳 😂

 

"suitable for children’s toys (EN71.3)"

 

I missed this one out as I didn't think it relevant!  🤣

[ped]

27 minutes ago, Richard R said:

 

"suitable for children’s toys (EN71.3)"

 

I missed this one out as I didn't think it relevant!  🤣

Short scale bass is like a children’s toy isn’t it? 😂