Doing Things Wrong

Fretless Basses

Projects with fretless necks.

Neck - Fretless


This is the biggest of the Audiovoxes, weighing in at a full 12 pounds, with a 36" scale. The neck is a Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba) floorboard over maple, with a straight cutout headstock. There are over 100 marker dots. The body is veneered masonite over solid plywood, with Danelectro-style Tolex binding. There are also strap buttons, this instrument can be played vertically or horizontally.


This one is almost identical in construction to the Danelectro-style - masonite over chambered plywood body, masonite pickguard. The neck is purpleheart over maple, with plastic fret lines. The soundhole merely serves as a pickup mount, and the pickup was just insurance against never getting the intended piezo system to work. Eventually, I did get it to work, the piezo is incorporated in a modified bridge, and sounds great. 30" scale.


This fretless sounds really cool, and is super-easy to play, as you no longer have to stretch your hand unnaturally just to make ordinary patterns. It is set up with flats I found in the junk box. Can anyone tell me what kind of strings have blue thread leaders? The intonation fell right in, which is surprising considering the bridge was previously set up for 25.5" guitar strings. ( Actually, how important is intonation on a fretless anyway? )


The glue is all dry, time to flatten out the blank. I clamped a piece of scrap wood at the edge of the bench for a stop, and laid the blank up to it on some padding. This will stop it from shooting off when the belt sander hits it. I sorted through all the vacuum cleaner parts I have collected over the years, and finally made an adapter to hook the sander to the little shopvac under the bench. Then I put on a new 80-grit belt, and went at it.

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