| Author | Message | ||
| Kolbjørn Bergsaune (kol)
New Username: kol Post Number: 3 Registered: 1-2003 |
Hi there! Is there somebody out there in the Alembic-world who have some advice about rebuilding an Epic to a fretless? God bless,Kolbjørn | ||
| Adriaan Simons (adriaan)
New Username: adriaan Post Number: 10 Registered: 6-2002 |
Mine was converted by a luthier who carefully removed the frets and inserted strips of darkened maple. You will see tiny little marks where the frets were anchored to the surface of the fretboard. Anyway, the bass still sounds as good as before, if not better. The main issue was with string height. The adjustable nut sits on a small brass base plate. The nut height for a fretted bass is obviously higher than for a fretless, so you want to lower the nut. That's where the base plate gets in the way, because most people will already have it at mimimum height on a fretted instrument. What I understood from Mica is that the base plate can be taken out, but that this leaves the headstock wood veneer vulnerable as the allen screws will rest on wood veneer instead of brass. So if you adjust the nut later on you might see some form of superficial cracking. You can of course file off the excess brass from the underside of the nut, and leave the base plate as it is. And I'm sure you can get a slimmer nut from Alembic, if you ask nicely. To be honest, I haven't put the nut base plate back on my Epic - I'm keeping it in a safe place, of course. I adjusted the nut height after a while because the luthier set it too low, with the strings bending just a little bit over the edge of the fingerboard, and I thought it was giving me intonation problems. I'm happy to say there's no noticeable cracking - yet. Put Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats on it to make it sing! (Message edited by Adriaan on February 11, 2003) (Message edited by Adriaan on February 11, 2003) | ||
| Mica Wickersham (mica)
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 694 Registered: 6-2000 |
When we do this type of conversion, we approach it from a remanufacturing perspective and replace the fingerboard. This is especially important when the existing fingerboard has inlays, since you really don't want inlays on a fretless surface. There are many repairmen that are experienced with inlaying materials in the original fret slots. This is not something that we do, and leave that to the professionals with experience in this area. | ||
| Valentino Villevieille (valvil)
Member Username: valvil Post Number: 61 Registered: 7-2002 |
Welcome Kolbjørn, I have had one of my Alembics turned into a fretless, & I've had it done it to other basses as well in the past. It's pretty simple, as long as you have a good luthier available in your area, as there isn't really any true "rebuilding" to be done. The frets need to be taken out and the slots filled with wood (competently) and that's it. If you like the look of a blank fingerboard then you'd have to purchase a new ebony board ( not cheap) or have the gaps filled with ebony. After the bass is converted to a fretless, the rods need to be readjusted to get the proper intonation ( generally the fretboard should be flat). If you do not have a luthier in your area, I'm sure some of the other folks on this site have first-hand experience with this, and would be more than willing to give you instructions on how to do it yourself. Valentino | ||
| Kolbjørn Bergsaune (kol)
New Username: kol Post Number: 4 Registered: 1-2003 |
Thank you for good help and advice.I have finally found a good luthier to do the work.Looking forward to see the result. Good to have you Alembic folks out there! Kolbjørn from Norway |
