# Converting From Fretted to Fretless



## Konfyouzd (Nov 13, 2009)

What is the best way to go about doing this? I want to convert my SR305 to a fretless. I had considered the Jaco method: Remove the frets with *something* (what do you suggest?) and epoxy the board, then smooth and blah blah blah blah...

Has anyone done this (guitar or bass) before? Can you shed share some helpful hints? 

GRACIAS


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## SargeantVomit (Nov 13, 2009)

Yeah it's pretty simple, touch a soldering iron on each fret to melt the glue holding it in then slowly lift it up from one side. Try not to splinter too much. After you do every fret, buy whatever colour woodfill you want, you can try and match the fingerboard or you can contrast for fretlines. Fill in each fret and let it set for 24 hours. Then sand the board smooth working your way up to ~400 grit. I left my board natural, but if you want to do your fingerboard like Jaco he just used a paintbrush and boat epoxy. I've defretted 3 basses with great results every time. 

The only bad thing is the side dots on the fretboard will be between frets and not on the fretline like most fretless basses are when you buy them.


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## MaKo´s Tethan (Nov 13, 2009)

this help.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 13, 2009)

is there any kind of metallic material i could fill the lines with so that it would appear to be fretted but still feel fretless? and if you leave the board natural is there any potential of damaging it assuming you use flat wounds?


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## SargeantVomit (Nov 13, 2009)

Those fret pliers can be bought at pretty much any hardware store, you can't use them like they show on the picture though, you still need to lift one side at least a little before grabbing on with it or you can risk marking up the fretboard by trying to dig underneath the fret. 

There's no risk of damage leaving the fretboard as is if you use flatwounds or halfwounds. 

You wouldn't want to use a metal material to fill the holes. You would have sonic differences across the fingerboard and you'd never get a smooth level fingerboard either. I used white vinyl to fill them once, it worked well and was bright white. Looked nice and clean, but it was easier to do the woodfill and I liked the feel of that one better as well.


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## cycloptopus (Nov 13, 2009)

Nice, KJ. Fretless is sickness. Good luck on the project.


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## SnowfaLL (Nov 20, 2009)

I recently converted a cheap Turser strat (guitar) into fretless, honestly I didnt care about it being a clean job, so I took a knife to lift up the edges then pliers to pull out.. There was lots of chipping, but I just filled it all in with epoxy, waiting to do the final sanding soon.. I actually havent worked on it for 2-3 months but someday it'll be all epoxy'd and stained dark, so hopefully it wont look as bad..

I dunno if I suggest that method, but uh its always an option if you dont want to go out and buy specialized tools


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## TheRealDanielJ (Dec 4, 2011)

how would you suggest lifting the frets before using the pliers? and how do you not chip the fretboard?


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## espman (Dec 4, 2011)

TheRealDanielJ said:


> how would you suggest lifting the frets before using the pliers? and how do you not chip the fretboard?


 Heat the frets with a a soldering iron, and a bit of solder to aid in heat transfer. That'll loosen up any glue that's in the slot so you can grab the fret, and pull it out quite easily.

Side note, please look at the date of the last post, this thread is almost 3 years old now.


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## TheRealDanielJ (Dec 5, 2011)

espman said:


> Heat the frets with a a soldering iron, and a bit of solder to aid in heat transfer. That'll loosen up any glue that's in the slot so you can grab the fret, and pull it out quite easily.
> 
> Side note, please look at the date of the last post, this thread is almost 3 years old now.



yeah i noticed that, i wasn't all that hopefull to get a responce, but i thought i would take a try at it, thanks for answering me


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## SirMyghin (Dec 5, 2011)

espman said:


> Heat the frets with a a soldering iron, and a bit of solder to aid in heat transfer. That'll loosen up any glue that's in the slot so you can grab the fret, and pull it out quite easily.
> 
> Side note, please look at the date of the last post, this thread is almost 3 years old now.



Not all frets are glued in at all, many are pressed in. Nice necro bump though.


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## Explorer (Dec 5, 2011)

RealDaniel - A great source of information on all things bass-related is TalksBass.com. Like SS.org, the internal search is a little bit... limited, but you can use Google to find many discussions about fretted/fretless conversions.

I suggest you search for "site:talkbasscom fretless convert OR conversion" to find applicable discussions.

Good luck!


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## Murdstone (Dec 6, 2011)

I've defretted 4 basses so far, and none of them actually needed the soldering iron part. I just use a sharp knife and get it under the corner of the fret on the far side of the neck to pry it up. Once the corner's up I slowly wiggle the fret out with pliers. The fretboard won't chip if you go slowly. Once they're all out just fill the slots with wood filler - use something light if you want the lines to stay. Sand it flat, and you're good to go.


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## Newbie Brad (Jan 16, 2012)

Buy some body trim wood binding before you start the job, use it to shove into the empty slots along with the epoxy. Then do all the same steps to finish but you'll have nice fretlines on your fingerboard where the epoxied body binding wood is. You can use any color binding you happen to find. Pretty easy. Flip to unfretted.com if you need to look over the steps.


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## AxeHappy (Jan 17, 2012)

I was just about to link to Unfretted. I've de-fretted two of my guitars, 1 acoustic (a real crappy guitar anyways so okay if I ruined it) and 1 electric (which I also stripped and am using to practice finishing techniques...which is making it take quite a while to be re-assembled) that I got for free, using the informtion from Unfretted.

Here is a direct link to their "project" page:
Unfretted - Fretless Guitar Resource.


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## Newbie Brad (Jan 17, 2012)

If all goes to hell, you can put on a new fingerboard or have it done for you.


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