Oil finish fingerboard then eh? Have you consider CA glue. If you like Mwah! Super hard finish can easily produce it. I’m not a tone wood guy but for Fretless it’s the opposite. Fingerboard materials or finished will determine the tone of your bass.
1 Like
Yeah … of course I want the “Mwah”, cause everybody says I need it 
( A friend of mine always made a “mwah” sound when she gave me a kiss on the cheek. I hated that! But for bass I want it ^^)
Not sure about the CA glue coating though. Some like it, others don’t.
I think I will go for the solution without a coating first. If it does not sound great, I will try a coating.
But first I’ll make it fretless … and then possibly replace the PUs (for active ones), bridge and tuners. And the knobs, of course
1 Like
Have you heard the Mwah yet?
1 Like
Next week, if the Bass Gods allow for it.
Today I’ll get the veneer and start fitting .
I’ll take it sloooooowwwww…
EDIT Also, I discuss the project at zzzee Zzzzeerrmaaan forum first, before showing results here … as some people at BassBuzz tend to be very emotional on this thread.
Now zzzze Zzzzermans discuss six different way to glue the verneer into the fretboard - very funny
Wood glue is the way to go. As if it were specifically created to glue wood 
Also don’t forget to degrease the fingerboard prior to gluing anything, as no glue will work on an oily material.
3 Likes
Yeah, I also favour wood glue!
But there is a heated discussion about wood glue vs different other kinds of glue on zzze Zzzerman forum, so I wanted to give the others the chance to be right (or likely: wrong).
No harm in doing some tests. Living is learning.
To remove the frets, I kind-of soaked the fretboard in oil, to keep it from splintering (as described in the Rockinger manual: Das Rockinger Manual | | Rockinger Guitars). I couldn’t use a soldering iron, as I was afraid to destroy the plastic binding. And removing the binding would very likely destroy it.
It worked out fine, but now it’s very oily.
I considered fracking my fretboard, but put Isopropyl on it instead, especially in the gaps. Some said I should use Acetone, but I have a bad feeling about that one!?
Any reason to not just use dilute soap and water (sparingly) and let it dry well?
Also since you have removed all the frets this is a good time to plane or radius-sand (or both) the fretboard. A binding will be a PITA for that though.
1 Like
No … just didn’t know about that
Good idea … but too late anyway!
I ordered this for radius sanding:
It fits my fretboard 100%.
I hope that the binding will not be an issue, as it is on the same “plane” as the fretboard itself.
We’ll see…
Usually in fret jobs, after removing the frets they plane the fretboard flat to radius and then sand it to finish.
Pretty sure they remove the binding and rebind for that though. Sanding it over the binding seems like a bold strategy.
1 Like
Hahaha, yeah!
But I looked at the binding. It is glued on perfectly. You can’t feel a gap between the neck and the binding. HB did a phantastic job with the neck!
I would never get it back to that state if I remove the binding and put it back after sanding.
I just hope that I can sand the binding as clean as the fretboard.
We’ll see!
1 Like
@terb would know better than I there, I am pretty new to bindings.
1 Like
This is what the binding looks like:
I don’t see any issue for sanding. But I am happy for any input!
Ok, this is the result of the test.
I sanded quick & dirty down to 320 grit sandpaper - I didn’t have anything finer than that.
That’s how it looks like:
I’ll stick with plain and simple wood glue!
Reason: everything feels good, but I don’t have to sand the wood glue so “hard” until it’s good. You can still see traces of the superglue (middle) where the wood glue (left) already fits.
The hard glue (right) is ok, but you can still easily see traces there.
This means that with wood glue I don’t have to sand as much material off the fretboard to get the same result.
Combined with the easier processing, I see no reason to use anything other than wood glue!
no issue in my opinion
good choice !
1 Like
Yeah, zzzee Zzzermans always complicate things. That’s why they lost the war!
But it made me curious, so I needed to find out myself.
an experiment is always a good thing, especially if it leads to the right choice in the end
2 Likes
Yeah! Got the wood glue today. Only thing missing is the radius sanding block (Amazon is delayed).
While waiting, I took the time to have a look behind the control plate of this bass.
Hey, there is space enough for a 9V battery!
That means, I will exchange and replace pickups, just for fun.
- Pink’s hot will get new active EMG PUs
- Ronin will get the DiMarzio DP126 from Pink’s Hot
- Minty-Minty-Mint (the fretless) will get the EMG GZR from Ronin.
Yes, I know, the EMG GZR on the fretless might be the least obvious choice.
But I think the active EMG P/J will be the best sounding PU. So that goes to my main bass. The DP126 were my favourite, and will go to my park&travel bass. And what’s left over is the EMG GZR, so that will get to my nice-to-have fretless.
I’m sure that the EMG GZR is better than the stock PU, which is ok-ish but not great.
Looking at your project and the number of changes you have in mind, I’m wondering why you’re not looking into a “0” fret concept - would it make sense ?
2 Likes