I’ve seen that done. I think I’ll try it.
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what is “CA glue fingerboard” ?
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I am guessing cyanoacrylate used to seal the fret holes? Weird. Might work though. I’d probably use epoxy instead.
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So far so good. After heating the first ten frets prior to removal I just tried prying up the corner of a fret with a razor blade and it popped right out and then I pulled it out the rest of the way with a regular pair of pliers. Saved a ton of time.
After I pulled the frets I rolled the seam down with a socket. As you can see in the pictures it laid the popped up edges back down pretty nicely. Then sanded with 220 to remove scratches that I made years ago learning how to dress frets.
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or good’ol Titebond wood glue with white wood inserts
but the cyanoacrylate is maybe used to create a hard surface over the fingerboard ?
@Paul_9207 very nice job ! not sure to understand how you got rid of the wood scraches all along the fretwires ? the result looks excellent
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On the German bass forum people have used wood filler successfully.
This guys seals the entire instrument with super glue. it’s inexpensive and dries very hard.
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Interesting, I’d have guessed white wood moves differently enough from the hardwood to cause problems. Can’t argue with empirical success though!
Weird. I wonder how brittle it is.
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That’s was a tip from @autumnsdad1990 I ran a razor blade along both sides of each fret to prevent bad blowouts from pulling the frets. I think it worked too as that is as far as any blowout went.
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oh yeah, great idea ! thanks
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crazy technique. I believe that Jaco Pastorius did the same on his JB. don’t know how brittle it can be and how it handles trussrod settings over time.
You better really nicely degrease the fingerboard prior to applying super glue over it !
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Yeah it’s really interesting. Not sure how it compares to normal sealants or why to choose it over them.
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Here is my question. Does the fingerboard of a fretless bass really need a durable seal? Especially if flatwound strings will be used. Will the strings wear down the fretboard significantly? If not then a normal sealer should be fine?
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Here is where I am at the end of the day. Frets out and body and fretboard sanded.
I will probably do some more sanding on the body tomorrow, around the edges. And I’m going to pick out paint for the body. Probably a yellow of some kind. Most likely buttercream but maybe something brighter. And I’m still debating between wood filler or glueing slits of veneer where the frets were.
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This is one of the best one I’ve seen on the conversion. I want to do it just like this. 
Obviously the guy does not have 3 young children and seems like have all the time in the world too.
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it seems a better idea to me
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Could also use this as an excuse to upgrade the tuning machines, and while they are out, sand down the headstock to paint to match the body.
And make a cool Cure decal to put on it and clearcoat over 
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Decided to not change the headstock at all. I figure I’m going for a yellow paint with black hardware look so the black headstock should look good still. I was going to glue veneer into the fret slots, but ended up just filling them. Sanded the fingerboard down after 220, 400, 600 then oiled it. Nice and smooth.
I bought some yellow paint for the body. Need to get primer tomorrow and hopefully I have time to spray it.
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