well it's still in the rotation and keeps popping up in my feed.  the price goes up and the description gets sparser each time around.  the seller(s) rotate as well.  no mention of the dead LED strip.  good luck to all!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/188121003008?_skw=alembic&itmmeta=01KJZ95CYRNH2W6JZKVF4QRH9W&hash=item2bcce2b400:g:vR0AAeSwmrdpqKBe&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA8GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xDcUInqnq84nxHpkXGfhhXYlT3PV8ONxm4O7Ym7Oc9KjNOYG29gmxLksBBi9tEHjPvNzUpfX24gVVTOi9Qw5zQU8rPxtqmSnRsHHpkUw18znWB4bLSJy327HZQbceq5k7nvS%2BJnIk%2FG%2FSWQUkbzU1ya0K2Lgkz0s0TPAQ%2FOsvZb3MffqmXnlJmutEzBA8WBTgoMEOFA40LsJjs2pit%2BWAB5%2F64zYMu%2BOS5DdOca0abWBr5M75QaCaB%2Bp%2BLtBe%2BfiBtGZN0WIgXyjeWvKU%2FI%2B15%2FDUhp0E5eqr0DcsrAnQ210g%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8zPlemXZw

I would think a whole new fingerboard would be the way to go if yer gonna convert a fretted Alembic to fretless. I had my aluminum neck Kramer converted to fretless in the early 90s, but that's just got dot inlays, so the strings don't touch them. The guy that did the work was a former Hamer employee. He filled the slots with a concoction of maple sawdust and wood glue which I thought was cool.

Alembic would just replace the whole thing. Back in 2016 when I was planning my Custom fretless, Mica warned me to be mighty sure, because replacing that fretless fingerboard wasn't an inexpensive thing to do after the fact. I was pretty-darn... enough that I had even a custom inlay in mind.

I'd try my best to talk someone out of it, but if I had a customer who was bound and determined to have me do a fretless conversion on an Alembic, particularly one with the pearl oval inlays, I would extract and replace them with wood. The fret slots are easy enough to fill and flush up, but unless you go with very easy-to-see lines, you need to move the side dots too... and that's a tedious drill-out. Not impossible, but easy to screw up too. (how tight are your butt-cheeks in a dentist chair?) Yeah, I'd inlay some pretty wood ovals. American white holly's hard enough if you can find it. Maple or cherry maybe. I'd simply look for something that had enough contrast to show up against the ebony but hard enough to not wear.

Why all that trouble? Because those pearl ovals will have an effect on any glissando that occurs on or near them. It will not sound like the wood around it does.

Nothing I've mentioned here can't be reversed, by the way. It ain't easy or cheap. Easier than replacing the entire fingerboard. I don't know if it's cheaper or not. Much easier to buy a fretless. But if you just gotta' have it... totally do-able.

yeah i'm pretty sure i've never owned a fretted bass that i hated enuff to have a fretless conversion done to it.  it'd be kinda like gettin  yer favorite dog fixed.  just won't be the same afterwards.  and that applies to the females as well  fyi.

sure glad i already own a high end fretless. even tho it's a four-string.  keep thinking that a high end 5iver's gotta pop up one of these days before i croak.