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Fretless fingerboard leveling

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  • #16
    Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

    Originally posted by Mincer View Post
    Also, I can't imagine it would be a lot for someone to make a new fingerboard out of whatever exotic material you want. It just has to be harder than the windings of the strings.
    I just saw a guy with a board fretted up to the 12th, then fretless after that. He put a veneer over the fretless portion, making it have the same action all the way up. Pretty cool.

    I’m researching adding an extremely low fret to the very end of my Warwick’s board. Nothing that can actually be fretted, but to give slapping a little more definition.
    “I can play the hell out of a riff. The rest of it’s all bulls**t anyway,” Gary Holt

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    • #17
      Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

      Originally posted by JB_From_Hell View Post
      I just saw a guy with a board fretted up to the 12th, then fretless after that.
      Venom

      The things that you wanted
      I bought them for you

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      • #18
        Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

        Originally posted by Clint 55 View Post
        Venom

        god, I love Venom. theyre the greatest live metal band ever in IMO.
        “For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” Yvonne Chouinard

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        • #19
          Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

          They rule!
          The things that you wanted
          I bought them for you

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          • #20
            Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

            So... time for me to feel like a dumbass.

            I just figured out how to adjust the Warwick’s bridge properly. I’d been using the saddle inserts to adjust the action, not realizing the entire thing moved up and down. After reading the manual and doing a little sanding, it’s playing and sounding even better. And now my absurdly low action is a hair over 2mm on the E at 12, a hair under 1.5 in the G, and it sings.
            “I can play the hell out of a riff. The rest of it’s all bulls**t anyway,” Gary Holt

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            • #21
              Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

              Wow, thats pretty close! Glad it is sounding better!
              Administrator of the SDUGF

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              • #22
                Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

                Back to roundwounds.

                My P Bass was too bright and clanky with SIT Power Wounds, so I swapped the strings between the two. Yeah, there’s a little more buzz on the Warwick now, but the rounds sound and feel better. Plus, the P is now way more Iron Maideny. Win-win.
                “I can play the hell out of a riff. The rest of it’s all bulls**t anyway,” Gary Holt

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                • #23
                  Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

                  Didn't someone used to make "pressure" wounds? They had a profile between a flat wound and a round wound.
                  I would probably just use flat wounds to keep from chewing up the fretboard. Unless of course it's made of some sort of synthetic. Or ironwood.

                  Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

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                  • #24
                    Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

                    GHS makes a string called Pressure Wound, and a bunch of others make strings that are similar (D'Addario Half-Rounds, SIT Silencers, etc...). I'm a big fan of the Silencers. Smoother feel than rounds, more punch than flats.

                    Worrying about the wear on the board is about the same as worrying about wearing out frets. The marks on my 21 year old Warwick's board were significantly wider than the strings, and obviously the result of someone bending strings. If you play it with good left hand technique, meaning no death grips and doing vibrato/slides up and down the neck instead of across, the wear is pretty inconsequential.

                    All this stuff is personal preference, and I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong, but I've noticed that the same guys who say not to worry about wear are the same ones who advocate setting the action as low as possible. Makes sense to me, and the bass is stupid easy to play and sounds great that way.
                    “I can play the hell out of a riff. The rest of it’s all bulls**t anyway,” Gary Holt

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                    • #25
                      Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

                      Two things, when I set up a fretless I adjust the neck with no relief. You get a nicer buzz that way.

                      And open strings are supposed to buzz. Look at an upright bass, the strings sit on the end of the fretboard.

                      As far as leveling the fingerboard; I’d get a long leveling beam (you can buy them from a few places) and put some 150 grit sand paper on it. Adjust the neck dead straight. Take a pencil and scribble some graphite over the board, then take long strokes with the beam. You can see where you sanded because the pencil marks are gone.


                      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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                      • #26
                        Re: Fretless fingerboard leveling

                        This is a pretty easy fix. You just need a couple different tools to do it. First, make sure you neck is completely straight. Then get a leveling beam with some double-stick sandpaper on it.

                        Mark the fretboard with a pencil and sand across the fretboard evenly until all of the pencil marks are gone. Then repeat that until your fretboard wear disappears. It sounds like a daunting job, but it's pretty easy with the right tools.
                        "In the hair metal days, I didn't want to learn how to play guitar for the girls. I wanted to make noise and make people mad."

                        -James Hetfield

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