Conference napalm::guitar

    The way my old fretless bass got to be fretless was by
    filing the frets away. When I got the bass, it was alredy
    fretless. The fret part that goes into the wood are now the
    fret marks.
    

    What you'll find Tom, is that if you pull the frets out; you will have
    small indentations in the neck - where the frets were. You can get
    buzzing and dead notes if you don't have the slots filled.
       Some frets are inserted from the top, and a different kind are
    inserted from the ends. I'm not shure which. - Both may or may not
    be glued in.
       If you do pull the frets out you might need a pair of cutting
    pliers that have the surface on top instead of on the side. 
    You might also try to pull the frets out from the side - I'm not
    shure.
       If the frets are pulled out, you will probably have to file or 
    sand your fretboard. If you file your frets down, you will only have
    to file the sharp edges, and maybe add some kind of glue to keep the
    remaining fretwires from coming up. It may need to be sanded.
       The biggest thing is to be careful. I pulled the frets out of a
    cheap bass and was not at loss (much) because of the butcher job that
    I did. It was a cheap bass.
       You might try to find some books on luthier type work at the library
    to get an idea as to what to really do.
    
    
    /John

	Take your time pulling out the frets. When I've filled in the
	fret slots, I've used white epoxy (the 2 ton stuff that takes
	24 hours do dry - Never use the 5 minute epoxy as it shrinks with
	age, and what ever you assemble with it may fall apart a few
	years from now). The problem with a Maple fret board is how to
	sand/smooth the fret board without screwing up the finish. With
	as rosewood, or ebony fretboard, you can sand them & since the
	fret board is unfinished, you won't be removing anything that
	would change the way that the fret-board is finished.

								Jens

    I've seen several maple bass necks that were fretless (probably
    conversions).  The thing I'd probably worry about on a maple neck would
    be wear, as the strings tend to wear the fretboard on fretless basses
    and you don't have a seperate fretboard to replace (ie, when it gets
    worn too much and you've sanded it too thin, it's time for a new neck).
    
    One of the coolest I've seen was a maple neck that had the frets pulled
    and the slots filled with thin strips of ebony.  I personally think
    that leaving the fret tang in there looks kind of gross.  As Jens
    mentioned epoxy would be a good choice too.  You can color it if you
    don't want clear.
    
    Be sure you don't leave a maple board unfinished, it gets gook off your
    hands in the wood and looks nasty before very long.
    
    Greg

Any brand names for the epoxy?

Also, can I just leave the finish that's on the neck and fill
in the slots, or is it better to sand off the old finish and 
re-coat it after filling in the slots?


-T

    It'll be better to refinish the top of the fretboard after you do your
    work.  I don't think the finish usually goes under the fret edges, so
    there will be more then just the slots unfinished.
    
    Greg

    Depending on how the frets were installed, they could very easily come
    off by warming them with an iron (the type you use for clothes at max
    temp will do it).
    
    You can then fill the holes with epoxy, nacre, ivory, wood of a
    different color... Try a couple of frets (25th and higher...) first and
    if the result is nice, do the rest of the neck.

     There was an interview with Jaco Pastorius in Guitar Player magazine
     7 or 8 years ago in which he described how he defretted and refinished
     fingerboard on his '60 Fender Jazz bass (the famous "Bass of Doom").
     If memory serves, he simply pulled the frets (they come out perpendicular
     to the face of the fingerboard) and then filled the slots with boat epoxy.
     He recommended Petit's Polypoxy. Then, and this is the key thing, he coated
     the face of the fingerboard with more epoxy using many many coats with
     sandings inbetween. This hard surface helps give a fretless bass its 
     characteristic "growl".

     If you can find the old interview, I believe there are a few more details 
     in it.

     Best of luck!

     a small correction:
    he didn't pull the frets he ground them down,leaving the tang in the 
    fingerboard.
    -Bill

    What about buying a fretless neck from Stew-Mac or equivalent?

I've gotten rid of the bass in deal for a CZ101 synth. 

I decided to get rid of the bass *before* did something drastic..

;^)

In any case I had considered a Stew-Mac fretless neck, since
they are available at a reasonable price. The downside was 
that (I think!) they were true fretless necks w/o any dot markers
and also they would need a nut made for it, which I haven't the
skills (or the tools) to cut.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.