yeah, very cool and nicely done !
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That looks really good - did you use just “normal” spray paint?
You inspired me to change the body of one of my basses from glossy black to matte black, maybe even vantablack-like…
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Wow that’s awesome. Can I send you one of mine for you to do conversion? 
This is a good fretted bass but I know that it would be an epic Fretless. This is the project I’m planning.
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You guys are all very kind! This was a fun project and I learned a lot. The yellow was spray paint. The black was acrylic paint. The top coat was polycrylic which is just what I had on hand. I forgot to mention I put Ernie Ball Slinky flats on it.
There are definitely things I would do differently if I were to do another one. But really I just wanted a fretless bass without having to pay for it and a fun art project and I accomplished both.
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That’s a beautiful bass Al!
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Great job on the artwork, man! I love that 
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I think you’ve inspired me to refinish my fretless Squire. It’s an ugly burst and for it cheap cause of a chip out of the back of it so refinishing wouldn’t hurt anything. Good holiday downtime project me thinks.
Did it take you long to come up with the concept of design? This is where I get hung up. Soooooo many options.
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I had it taken apart and sanded before I knew where I was going with the design. And even when I was choosing the paint I was pretty sure I wanted yellow, but I almost went with pink. Give yourself a deadline if you have to.
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that’s how we learn !
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Shit I have a dismantled Pacifica that has been 15 minutes from a complete conversion (HSS → HH) for months now. Need to just finish it 
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Can you be more specific? What would you have done differently?
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Of course. I’ve been meaning to make a post about what I would do differently.
First, I would have check the straightness while sanding. In my mind I was thinking it would just be fine because it’s fretless. But I did end up with some fret buzz towards the pickups because I didn’t sand as much on that end is the fingerboard.
Everything else is paint related. I was really happy with the primer and the yellow paint. I took my time there and got decent coverage with no runs. But to do the dragon I did an image transfer from a laser printer onto the bass. How I did that was I added a layer of polycrylic to the whole body and while it’s still wet you place the image you want ink side down on the wood. When the poly dries you wet the paper and can scrape or rub or brush the paper off and the ink is left imbedded into the polycrylic. I did not wait long enough before removing the paper and it messed up that first layer. But I did manage to get all the paper residue off. Then I was able to paint over the image with my acrylic paint which, I think, turned out pretty good. Then I did not wait long enough for that to dry before brushing on my next layer of polycrylic so the black paint streaked into the yellow a little bit. Doing it again I would have waited for the paint to dry and then sanded it down smooth so the brush strokes were less prominent. I then put a few layers of the poly down.
The bass looked pretty good at that point, but I wanted a smoother, more smoothe? Finish. I waited a day for the poly to dry and wet sanded it with 600 grit then 1500, then 2000, then buffing compound then polish. I went a little heavy on some edges and burned through the finish in a few spots. I’m not too mad about that though. It just gives it a worn look. All in all I’m happy with how it turned out. And I’m not losing sleep over my mistakes. It was a guitar that I never played and now I plan to play it pretty regularly. If I had not painted the dragon on there I would have used a harder spray on finish which is what I plan on doing on the next one.
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No, I sanded mine by hand. I just should have used a straight edge to make sure it was flat. That picture was from a post @terb saw on Facebook.
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This is not a bad idea actually. Just use the Orbital sander and sand the frets all the way to the fingerboard and leave the visible line but fretless. Hmmmm! I might want to give that a try.
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You go first 
I would be afraid to sand too much from the fretboard.
Removing the frets, just like @Paul_9207 did and filling the gaps with wood fill feels much more risk free!?!?!
I am still in the process of deciding if I convert one of my short scales to fretless, change the colour of the bass to very very dark mat black or (my favourite) do a P/J to Humbucker conversion.
Winter is coming - it’s project time
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Removing frets and wood fill is the way to go but I just had a “Forged in Fire” canister Damascus moment, why not just grind it out😂
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Has anyone ever tried planing instead of sanding? I’m pretty sure that’s how traditional upright bass/violin/cello fingerboards are made.
Also sanding is very unpleasant and annoying and planing is very meditative and satisfying.
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Like this?
Wouldn’t that take a lot of unnecessary wood from the fretboard?
Like this
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