Nice surprise in my inbox this morning…some pics of my first “serious” bass guitar. It had a good sound (of the instruments I could afford at the time) so I purchased it and gave it a go with frets. After a bit, I consulted with a friend who was a luthier as to how to remove the frets. I went home, made the tools I needed with some power tools in the garage. I found a beater guitar at a yardsale and practiced pulling the frets on it. Once my skill was pretty consistent, I then moved on to converting this bass into a fretless.

It’s had a lot of changes over time that were all done DIY…new electronics, better shielding, new pickups. And now it resides with a new owner…one of my former students, who keeps it in good shape.