New Fretless Maple-topped Bass

[Justin Tugaoen]

So here's a bass I finished fairly recently:

34" scale fretless, with flamed-maple-topped alder body
Flamed maple neck with fretless lined wenge fingerboard, with LED side markers
Fender precision pickups, passive tone and volume controls
Tru-oil satin finish

I worked on this bass simultaneously with the short-scale bass I previously posted and made the same drilling mistake with the pot holes-thus the inlays. Turned out very well I think, although I wish I skipped the inlayed fret lines-I never look at them and it clutters the fretless look; although from a short distance they're hard to see. I like this fretless so much I've started a new 5 string fretless and another 4 string fretless (and thinking of de-fretting my MIM Fender jazz!) I guess I'll need to start practicing and getting used to no frets!

[James Tonguet]

very nice work , love the inlay

[Jim Bonnell]

Beautiful work James. I think the inlays came out very well. I agree with you on the fret inlays. I like the simple look of a bare fingerboard. It all looks great. Any pictures of your truss rod access without the cover? I would like to do the same on my next build and would appreciate any tips you can give. Excellent job!

[Hans Bezemer]

Cool!

[Warren May]

Nice work. Great way to cover a mistake.

[Justin Tugaoen]

Hi Jim.. Here's a closeup of the truss rod access. It's not really necessary since it's a bolt-on (think Fender strat), but it's convenient, allowing adjustment without having to take off the neck first. I basically routed it out using the template, then made a thin matching maple cover to fit. I beveled the edge to make it easy to lift off with just a finger. Then I put in magnets and mating washers. That's it! Simple and easy. Good luck! Btw, the magnets are from my kids' Magnetix toys- as soon as I heard of them being recalled because of kids having serious intestinal injuries from swallowing them, I took a hammer to all of them and saved the magnets (very useful around the shop)

[Jason Rodgers]

I worked on this bass simultaneously with the short-scale bass I previously posted and made the same drilling mistake with the pot holes-thus the inlays. Turned out very well I think...

I dunno, man, it looks really cool. I think you just made yourself a trademark feature.

[David King]

I don't think you'll regret the lines on a fretless. I never look at mine until I need to and by then it's usually very reassuring to know I'm on the right note.

Did you stain the raw wood before the tru-oil or did you mix stain into the oil? It looks great whatever you did. A closeup of the inlays would be nice.
Wenge is one of my favorite sounding fretless fingerboards.

[Justin Tugaoen]

Oops! Sorry my pictures posted upside-down! (I swear they had the correct orientation on my computer). David, I'm glad to hear that those fretlines will come in handy after all. I haven't played with it enough yet to get anywhere near comfortable with intonation, but it should come with practice. And thanks for commenting on the wenge; I've actually been wishing I had just used ebony for the bass (I think black looks so cool), but now no regrets-it does have a nice tone to it (can't compare; I've never tried an ebony fretless).
As for the colors, I just applied the Colortone stains directly with a piece of cotton- black first, sanded off, repeat, then the blue stain, sanded and repeated. Then I applied the Tru-oil , prob around 10 coats, steel wool in between. I'll try to take a closeup of the inlay later.