Uneven Fingerboard--Fender Squire Fretless P Bass

[swingtoneman]

I have a Fender Squire P Fretless bass made in Indonisia which has a black fingerboard issue. When the strings are off and the truss rod is in a neutral position there is a slight
up-bow, and near the end of the fingerboard part of the fingerboard has a slight 'hump'. I have two 9.5" radius blocks--one 10 1/4" long and one 5" long. Questions are:

a) Do I keep the the truss rod in the neutral position to sand the fingerboard? (I have read that some like to have a slight down-bow before sanding). Your views on this?

b) Use the 5" radius block to remove the 'hump' at the end of the finger board--then obviously use the 10 1/4" radius block to complete the fingerboard?

C) What do you use to mark the top of an ebony fingerboard? Would you use a white pencil / chalk /or something else to mark the top of the fingerboard.

Your expertise is most welcome.

[lammie200]

Up is down. Down is up. End is near. Near is end. You should post pics to see if someone can help, IMHO.

[AllanAllen]

It doesn’t matter where the neck sits without strings on it.

What is it like with strings?

[swingtoneman]

Hi AllanAllen

With strings on--height screws adjustment on the bridge is high--the strings touch the end of the fingerboard on the part mentioned in my post as the 'hump'--the so called 'hump' is about 4" long from the end of the fingerboard--then the bow in the fingerboard starts. The truss rod appears to work OK both right and left turns but does not cure the problem. A photo would not help as difficult to see the problem, but I will post a drawn picture later.

[AllanAllen]

So it’s a ski jump? Can you adjust the truss rod enough to fix the issue? Honestly, you’ll probably want to move this over to the Talk Bass forum.

[swingtoneman]

Below is a picture I drew of the problem with the fingerboard--better explained than a photo. I assume that I can straighten out the fingerboard with the radius block?

[lammie200]

Have you tried pushing back on the headstock (from the front of the headstock face to the back of the headstock face) while tightening the truss rod? Sometimes a neck needs that extra force to get the truss rod tighter.

[deacon Mark]

You have confused me to the max. Get the neck straight perfectly if you can before you string up the bass. Then string up the bass and tell me what is happening? In the end it is a fretless bass and can be sanded to achieve what you need, and I assume it is not really expensive so no harm in doing what needs to be done.

[AllanAllen]

Is the truss rod totally loose? That’s not a good way for a neck to be without string tension.

I would really hesitate to sand anything. While you could have a lemon, Squire doesn’t have a repetition for sending out unplayable instruments.

You can probably take it to a guitar shop for a free inspection. A photograph of the neck would really help.

Don’t do anything permanent and irreversible until you test out the easy solutions.

[AllanAllen]

Hi AllanAllen

With strings on--height screws adjustment on the bridge is high--the strings touch the end of the fingerboard on the part mentioned in my post as the 'hump'--the so called 'hump' is about 4" long from the end of the fingerboard--then the bow in the fingerboard starts. The truss rod appears to work OK both right and left turns but does not cure the problem. A photo would not help as difficult to see the problem, but I will post a drawn picture later.

You could put a reverse shim in the neck pocket. Think of 1/2 a business card with 2 holes for the top/far neck bolts to go through.

This will lower the break angle, giving room at the neck heel and then tightening the truss rod will flatten the rest of the neck.

Could work. A shim in a Fender pocket is nothing unusual.