Series I short-scale fretless conversion

[el8ed]

I just closed on the purchase of a 1979 Series I short-scale with the intention to turn it into my dream-fretless. I am planning to do 3 major things to it and would love any advise or input to avoid potential pitfalls.


1. Fretless conversion
I have a very capable luthier in town who will do all the heavy lifting on the project. Remove frets, install light wood fret markers, level fingerboard, CA coating on fingerboard, install new Alembic strings (oval wound), setup adjustments


2. String spacing
I have owned a Series II short-scale for the past year and absolutely love it. It has a very narrow neck 1.5”/2.0” with the resulting very tight string spacing. I have small hands and play with a very light touch, so this suits me quite well. The new bass has standard short-scale neck dimensions and the wider string spacing associated with it. I will give myself a good amount of time to see if I like the wider string spacing and if changing back and forth between the 2 basses confuses my fingers or not. I am prepared though to have the new bass changed to the same string spacing as my Series II, hoping that the wider neck itself won’t bother me.


3. Re-locate the PU-selector
I like where the PU-selector on the SII bass is and am contemplating to move it on the SI as well. My only concern there is drilling the additional hole, but I guess my luthier could take care of that easily enough.


I also plan on polishing all the brass pieces before handing the bass to the luthier to have her look her best after the conversion.
I’d appreciate any input and thoughts.
Cheers,
Oliver

[pauldo]

Sounds like you have put a lot of thought into it and have great plan.

There are others here who are wiser… they may have insight into relocating they PU switch as well as polishing your brass bits.  Some (all) brass parts have a ‘clear coat’ on them and polishing removes that clear coat and allows for a patina to set in… for some that is not a bad thing.

Paul (who dreams of owning a fretless Alembic)

[edwardofhuncote]

Maybe keep it for a while and play it as-is before you alter it.


I don't see anything wrong with changing a bass, even an Alembic that you're going to have from now on, but if you aren't even sure the string spacing is going to work out for you, [red flag] then personally I wouldn't go to the expense and trouble until I was. Refretting a defretted bass isn't that hard, but plugging holes is another thing. Wood is forgiving, but only to a point. Again they aren't necessarily mods I would be against, just make dubble-dawg sure this is the bass you want to mod. It's a Classic Alembic after all.


Congratulations on a nice bass. That one bounced around for a while, good to see it found a home.  [/color]

[el8ed]

Thanks guys! Concerns duly noted. I’ll definitely take my time before handing it over for surgery.


I (naively) thought that changing the string spacing would not be a big deal, new nut, new grooves in the bridge saddles—voila!-- but what do I know… 

[hieronymous]

Changing the string spacing is reversible - I would say get a blank nut and replacement saddles and try that first. I have a Fender P with the same nut width as another P, but the strings are much closer together - I like it! But you have to try it for yourself.

If you can't adjust to it, then put it back to "stock" and pass it on in your continued quest - if you like it, then do the fretless conversion.

Actually, I should have worded that all as what *I* would do. Best of luck with the project!

[keith_h]

We are all different. I have smaller hands and prefer the wider classic taper to the point I had my Series I built with it to match my Brown Bass. Like others here I see nothing wrong with modifying an Alembic if the owner wishes to.

I'm with Harry on the string spacing. I would try the blank nut and saddles to see if you will like the tighter spacing with the existing neck dimensions since this is easily reversed.

If you are considering relocating the pickup selector due to the pointer knob hitting your hand and causing damage you might want to try a round knob first. I went with option B in this store listing, https://alembic.stores.yahoo.net/pointerknob.html  , when I had my Series I built and it stopped the hand damage the pointer knob caused when slapping.

I can't speak to the defretting as my fretless was built from the ground up. When I was discussing it with Susan she did not recommend using ghost frets. She said the different wood types can result in bumps/ridges as the woods swell and contract at different rates and can cause changes in tone as you move on the neck. I don't know if this would be a consideration for the type of coating you are planning to use but is worth asking about.

[gtrguy]

Take a bunch of before and after pictures, especially the bridge before taking it apart to clean it. It has metal pins that only go in one way. You can usually see the ridges on the one side where they bottom out in the side rails. I took a small punch and turned down the end to exactly fit into the rail hole to tap the pins out with.

[el8ed]

I really appreciate all the thoughtful and insightful contributions, cheers!

On the string spacing issue I will take my time finding out if it is even an issue at all. Ideally my fingers don’t mind and I leave good enough alone as-is. If it turns out to be a concern I will heed the advise given here.

The PU selector move might not happen at all because I don’t see myself using much slapping on a fretless—can’t completely rule it out though, so I may cross that bridge when I get there.

At the moment I am praying for a speedy and safe journey for the bass from up north to see in person what I've gotten myself into.