NGD - Converted Fretless Guitar

[Demeyes]

I picked up a cheap used guitar from a classified ad last week. It was a Harley Benton Les Paul copy. That's the thomann budget homebrand. It's a bolt-on and I'm not sure what woods it's made of. It had a few small problems so I got it pretty cheap, none of the issues we're too bad and I had the right parts to sort it out.
I decided to convert it into a fretless because I've been wanting to try one for ages and haven't come across any. I'd done a conversion with a bass before using wood filler that turned out ok so I followed the same process.
I ended up leaving the first 5 frets intact so that I could use it for open chords and then the rest is fretless for lead lines.

Here's some pics



I ended up putting some 12's on it tuned standard because I read the heavier strings will help with sustain. The final result was worse than I expected but not unusable. The wound bass strings are ok and sound alright, they have a bit of that fretless twang that basses have. The treble strings are really poor though, they have no sustain at all so it makes it hard to carry a melody well.
I'm thinking about getting some flatwounds for this as they are supposed to go well with fretless stuff and they'll be less damaging to the fretboard. I've also thought about getting something to coat the fretboard with to harden it and help with sustain but I'm not sure if I will yet.

[Josh]

A lot of fretless guitars use sustainers to get sustain. It's just the reality of the teeny strings up top.

[Chris]

Very cool. I like the idea of leaving the first few frets "normal" as well!

[Demeyes]

Originally Posted by Josh

A lot of fretless guitars use sustainers to get sustain. It's just the reality of the teeny strings up top.

Yeah, I'd read about the lack of sustain but it's much more of a problem than I thought it would be. I had hoped for something I could do slide like lead lines or Jeff Beck style stuff on but that's not happening right now!
I have an ebow that I used on it for a few minutes but it's not the best because it's slow to change strings. I should spend more time with it though and see if I can get better at using it.

Very cool. I like the idea of leaving the first few frets "normal" as well!

I had planned on doing a full fretless conversion but when I got the guitar I decided to try leaving a few on it, I can always go and pull the rest of them if I want to.

[Stitch]

Toughening up the fretboard is pretty much essential to make the strings sound better. The fretted end is fine (since the frets are the sounding node) but you'd be best to cover the rest of the fb in epoxy and let it set hard to give you a rigid sounding node.

Flatwounds will damage the fretboard less but will also sound even warmer and duller than the roundwounds on it just now. Go for them as a stopgap if needed, but definitely look into hardening the fingerboard.

How are you finding changing from fretting hand to fretless hand? The swap in finger placement I always found very hard...

[Demeyes]

Originally Posted by Stitch

Toughening up the fretboard is pretty much essential to make the strings sound better. The fretted end is fine (since the frets are the sounding node) but you'd be best to cover the rest of the fb in epoxy and let it set hard to give you a rigid sounding node.

I know I should be doing the epoxy thing, I've read about it before. It should protect the fretboard and help with the sustain. I'll probably end up doing that but I'm not sure what I should be buying for it? Is this the right kind of thing? new J B WELD MARINE cold weld Epoxy Resin - Made in USA | eBay Is this the same stuff? TWO PART EPOXY RESIN SUPERSTRONG BOND QUICK DEL UK | eBay I wouldn't know how much I'd need to do a neck wither. I'd probably do the bass and guitar necks around the same time.

Originally Posted by Stitch

How are you finding changing from fretting hand to fretless hand? The swap in finger placement I always found very hard...

I don't really tend to move from one to the other much when playing. There's a pretty noticeable volume difference so it sounds strange to switch in the same part. The fretless thing does take some getting used to, I find myself doing a lot of vibrato and fretting with a slightly different part of my finger to get a cleaner sound. The pitch thing isn't as bad as I thought but I've been playing fretless bass for a few months already.