I thought I'd see someone totally butcher a bass. Was pleasantly surprised to see good craftsmanship.

When you listen to jaco pastorius once

To all those who say, don't bother, buy a cheap fretless....you have no soul! Sometimes is just nice to do things for yourself.

4:52 minecraft piston

6:46 I just heard the lick

I've played bass since "79, but never tried a fretless until a few years ago. I'M IN LOVE! I now have 3 fretless basses (after converting two I had) and my fretted bass collects dust. I had no problem with intonation, because as was said in the video, your fingers already know where to go. Muscle memory takes over.

I fell in love with that finish. It´s like a mirror. Dude you have so much patience I can´t even understand it. Amazing.

That dude at the end is a guitarist. You can tell by the way he plays.

Thank you for the tips. Just made my Squire jazz bass fretless. I used a chisel to pop the frets out, filled in veneer, glued veneer using superglue, trimmed veneer with chisel, sanded using a 220grit sand paper on a long piece of wood plank, painted sanding sealer on, sanded again with 600 grit, checked for bald spots, sprayed satin finish on, bang on.

That was absolutely gorgeous, that super glue finish!? I’ve never seen that before

Came for the information; stayed for the shiny shiny.

Man, why did you put gloss coat on it?! No one will ever want to play this bass because of what you have done... ...because it looks so amazing :D Incredible effort, effect and experience!

6:45 The L I C C

Can I suggest... at 0:45, when you're using the craft knife to loosen the fret, that you push it away from you, rather than pull it toward you? That way, you can be more sure of being able to play the finished guitar with 10 fingers, rather than 8.

This is beautiful. That blond line really looks smart. I like that the lines are still there but only serve the purpose of visualizing the fret point.

I always look for new videos from you .Always great to watch you building guitars Thanks for taking the time to do these videos

Lovely job Bert. I have a friend who had a Fender PJ defretted but he didn't want a lacquer finish, he wanted to keep the softer tone of the rosewood. Recognising that the rosewood would wear away quickly without some kind of protection, especially with roundwounds, the luthier put only the thinnest of sealing coats and finished it matte. It needs to be redone every couple of years but it gives the player the sound he wanted.

I love to see people who really care for their craft .... Well done !

That is the shinest fretboard I think I've ever seen! Great job and craftsmanship :D Well done!

Absolutely beautiful, thanks for this vid, loved the finished product and also the background music.

wow. Great job and thank you for taking the tine to document it on video.

I want to say thank you for the instructive video. I was looking for a way to work on my bass, a Fender Jazz Bass. Your video is very inspiring. I can see the passion that you put in your work. Congratulations!

A welcome interlude, great to see the whole process and a shiny fretless bass ready to create its owner’s dreams in music.

My god .. this was one of the most relaxing videos I've ever watched. I just feel loads better.

Thanks to this video I have made 2 conversions and they went GREAT - loads of work but fretboards looked like made by pro luthiers - both necks I have saved around £150/each in my pocket THANK YOU!!!!

am I the only one who read "a fretless bass conversation"?

Nice work ! I did not expect myself to say this but that super glue finish Idea is just good

Very very impressive, love the perfect gloss finish; you have skill and patience. keep up the good work. Nice video too, thank you!

awesome video tutorial but very unsatisfying demonstration of the playing and sound at the end. other than that I it's marvelous. great job!

An artist at work. I love it.

Almost got tears in my eyes,😊 beautiful craftmanship.. very very beautiful finish.🫶

Enjoyed this. Really loved the music. Very soothing video.

this is so relaxing to watch...

This is really really cool! I would've never thought to use superglue. God bless

Thank you for this methodical demonstration. When you mentioned the "low spots", it reminded me that one of my five string fretless basses has one, where the instrument's model is shown as an inlaid piece at the twelfth fret. On the middle strings (E,A,D), it makes a buzz when I slide a note past this location. Your video gives me the practical solution to this little issue. If I mask around the low spot, a drop or two of superglue should do it!

Nicely done, i did a less perfect job on a cheap bass when i was younger and was pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded

Yeah, remove those prison bars and make your way out to the audibility of freedom!! Great video by the way :D

I de-fretted a Maple Jazz neck years ago and used dark wood putty in the empty fret slots. I sanded the neck to a near flawless finish and used 10 coats of super glue. It had a remarkably hard and beautiful finish after tons of sanding. Nice job mate! Cheers

That came out absolutely beautiful, i would be proud to own it, thanks for posting 👍.

Wow, Beautiful workmanship. Looks like the finish that was on the fretless Pedula Bass's of the 90's. Awesome Sauce.

Very nice job. I was considering a conversion, then took the easy way out and bought a fretless neck. Maybe someday??

Let's practice ice skating on this fretboard

Very cool video and a job well done. I built a bass for my daughter about 9 years ago, and followed the same process including the super glue finish on the finger board. At the time I had found an instructional paper on the super glue process written by Dan Erlewine and gave it a shot. The finger board is still as hard as nails and looks great!

Great job! Preparing to do my second neck this way - this is a great tutorial.

The result is simply stunning congratulations.I was thinking about doing this on a fretted guitar though.Do you think its a lot more work on a fretted instrument or i may as well forget about it altogether?

you are a master!

Great job. Excelent musicians in the music background. I lived your video.

Mooi werk Bert! Ware vakmanschap. Bedankt voor de upload! Fijne feestdagen. Groet, Ray

Can I ask a dumb question: Why use superglue to finish the neck? Wouldn't something like 2-Pack epoxy be tougher? Hmm, that was 2 questions!

Nice Job!!

That is gorgeous! I really have very little use for a fretless bass in the style of music I play. But I love working on guitars and thinking of attempting a defret job on cheap aftermarket neck I have lying around. I've used it to practice various finishes also. Always good to have a couple cheapies around to experiment with. Learning tools.

What a beautifully done finish. Would love that on all my guitars.

I like the fact that he uses veneer instead of wood filler, it really looks better!

6:51 me when i’m home alone

the beginning is quite scary, but when you see the fretboard shinning like glass, it's quite pleasure and amazing

That was really amazing and enjoyable to watch. Thank you.

How is it possible to make something so beautiful? xD

Is superglue gonna be as hard as epoxy laquer?

Lot of work that. Kudos -- came out great.

To watch this your amazing job made me feel so good. Great!

More easy: Use light wood paste to fill the remaining gaps after pulling the frets.... I assure, I have done this 3 years ago with my beatles-bass and it looks still perfect. And there was no risc to damage the board.

I just pulled the frets and left the cuts as a guide for the notes. Took about 5 minutes.

Much more to this conversion than I ever imagined.

Hey Bert, wederom een kunststukje. Altijd een genot om naar je filmpjes te kijken. Heb deze en gene er weer op attent gemaakt. Thnx, Rob

amazing job! I wonder how well the superglue finish is holding up over time

I want to do this to my Ibanez bass so damn hard, also, lefty fretless players are uncommon, so, fretless conversion is added to my cheklist

That is amazing work, very nice.

I once defretted my 1962 Precision Bass. I didn't know they were to become highly sought after! I simply used a household screwdriver and pliers. But I didn't make too bad a job of it. I didn't fill the slots and left the fingerboard exactly as it was and played it as a fretless for about 18months before getting it refretted. I sold it for not a lot of money in the mid 90s---and have regretted it ever since.

Master!

Very impressive but can you make a bassless bass

one of the most relaxing things I've watched

its kinda relaxing :) to see you work :)

The glossy finish looks amazing, I wonder if the cyanocrylate could get cracked by truss rod adjustment?

I had to give up around the time when you took the neck off.

I did that 16 years ago on a Lyon 5 strings and never been so happy. It is still my main bass.

I've been watching this video many times. Because i love his work

personally the really glossy neck just looks weird

what is the superglue for? Is that the protective layer?

You are a true artisan Bert. Many thanks.

the fretboard is so shiny!! I love it :)

And to think that Jaco used a knife to take out his frets on his Fender back in the day...

Please do a tutorial on making a fretless bass fretted please

Awesome craftsmanship!

beautiful. just...so beautiful. and so thorough, too :)

SO I AM CURIOUS ? super glue has no tensile strength when left to dry on a surface so when you get around to having to adjust the truss rod how is the glue not going to crack ?

Anyone else get a dentist vibe from the background music or just me?

beautiful, fine work!

That's a really beautiful job right there

6:46 the licccc

Instructions unclear: my bass guitar is now a nuclear bomb

so soothing to watch

Super cool project, thanks for sharing.

Next video: fretted bass conversion

Great work! I had a fretless Fender P Bass (sold it due to illness). If ever I converted a fretted bass to fretless I would fill in the removed frets with the exact color as the rest of the fingerboard as I feel that having fret markers ruins the fretless bass playing experience. Example, I play upright bass, violin, viola and cello. None of them have fret markers so I play by ear. So I would want the same experience with any converted bass. No fret markers, so I do not look at the finger board to determine my pitch. Use my ears only. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! -Peter

finnishing it was damn satifying. well done

You truly are a Master what a painstakingly job that is, Just Wow!!!

No need to bother with the veneers. I always use "liquid nails" to fill the fret slots and then sand off the excess during shaping.

as i violin player i respect you removing frets

Beautiful! Congratulations!

Beautiful work!