Painted fretless fingerboard?

So, a bit ago I had gotten this unknown bass body from an eBay auction:
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It's painted chrome and thought it would be a fun idea to have everything on the bass be chrome (everything in the pic is stuff I had on hand, am thinking of getting lipstick pickups for it). First thought that came to mind to do this would be to get an aluminum neck, but those can get quite pricy and the pocket on this body wouldn't easily fit premade ones, requiring shims or filling in the gap (granted, as learned from this thread, I think that's going to have to be the case anyways...). I also have recently gotten a rather beat up and neglected fretless LTD B-10 neck that somewhat matches the shape of the neck pocket. My question would then be how viable is it to paint a fretless board and pour epoxy over it? Considering options, since I have also looked into chrome paint, and that stuff ain't cheap either. Having an opinion that I'm crazy for considering this is also viable.
 
Those were definitely contenders for the surprisingly few options for chrome covered pickups. I haven't settled on any yet, but it is a toss up between the Relentless, the RT sig EMGs, Armstrong lipsticks, and MEC. The bass is already routed for passive in mind, so I'm not so sure on the active pickups of the lot.
 
The toughest finish/coating that you can put on a fretless fingerboard is polyester gelcoat. It's more abrasion and wear resistant than epoxy. The best way to paint a fingerboard is to use a hard 2-part polyester gelcoat with pigment added to make it the color of your choice. But, polyester is nasty stuff to spray and work with. Pro-level equipment, spray booth, safety equipment, etc.

Automotive polyurethanes are almost as tough. One option is to take it to an auto body shop and have them spray it for you. They could spray on a chrome-like silver polyurethane and some top coats of clear polyurethane.

Yes, you could spray it with "chrome" enamel and then coat it with epoxy, but that's going to be a lot of work and potential problems. It would be better to do it all in the same paint, a harder paint.
 
You could try chrome rattle can paint on the pickups you already have.

Totally agree with all the comments above on the neck face.
You of course need to prep any surface first to take the paint, should you go that way.
Also rather than a whole aluminum neck, how about just the fingerboard of aluminum?

Good luck,
It should be fun project, can't wait to see what you do with it, great body style too.
 
Another option is a steel fingerboard, like the Charles Berthoud one. It's almost like an "all-fret" bass, and won't sound the same as a normal fretless, though.
For a normal painted board, I think a few European basses or guitars with beech boards tend to get painted, such as Brian May's Red Special.
 
thinking of getting lipstick pickups for it
Chinese lipsticks are usually made with shorter ceramic bars (but sometimes A5) encased in a plastic bobbin, inside plasti-chrome tubes. Full size (3.22") Chinese/bobbin-wound lipsticks work fine for guitar, but for wider bass string spacing, the bobbin needs to be perfectly centered inside the tube. The QC, as you might guess, is not all that great on these. If you've got low output on the E or G, you know why. Remove pickup, disassemble, re-center winding/magnet/tape wad, re-assemble. Worth it for budget builds, and they do sound pretty good.

Novak and Nep-tone use correct A6 full sized bar magnets, in chromed brass tubes, wound directly on the magnet. Great pick-ups. Just like Nathan Daniel used to make.

Duncan marketing says they use A5 in their lipsticks, engineering department says A6... I've never gotten a definitive answer from them. They do sound properly jangly (and quack free), whatever they use.

Armstrong's bass lipstick specs only say "Alnico", but are probably A5, and they are wound very, very hot (10k+). Their guitar lipstick magnets are A5 ("vintage"), or ceramic ("hot"), depending.
 
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@Bruce Johnson That is quite in depth for painting, but after researching a bit, is to be expected. Will definitely have to ask around for professional painters for this then, much obliged for the info!

@T_Bone_TL I may have to look into this if the cost of polyester paint gets a bit too much out of my price range, thanks.

@Dirk Diggler Those pickups were stock ones that my cousin pulled out of his bass to upgrade. I have to agree with him that they sound a bit flat. Not sure what to do with em yet, but I can spend a bit on some nice pickups for this project at least. Thanks for the suggestion though.
As for the aluminum fret board, you know, might not be a bad idea. I tried looking for cases on the wood not cooperating with the metal when it expands/contracts, but surface level google searching hasn't turned up much in that vein other than others recommending stainless instead of aluminum.

@Iristone Had to look it up, but instantly recognized that guy from his youtube channel. Guy is insane! I found the bass you mentioned, seems it is a Le Fay Remington Steele. On their website they mention how they have the stainless board embedded into some sort of industrial material they call "Black". Curious if that makes it easier to work with/assemble.

@rickwrench The Armstrong ones were the ones I was thinking for this, since they are some of the few ones that I've seen that are drop in replacements for jazz style pickups, which this bass is already routed for. I don't think I trust myself not screwing up the finish even more than it already is trying to install back mounted lipsticks like the Dan Electro ones are, heh. I appreciate the options though, thanks.
 
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I had another thought for another option, how about a glass fingerboard?
Interview: Ned Evett Discusses His Fretless, Glass-Fingerboard Guitars and New Album, 'Treehouse'

And yes Stainless would seem a better, though more expensive choice.

Also if you're using non-traditional materials, consider your adhesive to help prevent issues.

I've had success with Gorilla glues when using wood fingerboard on top of CF neck.
My guess would be epoxy might another really useful adhesive.


I was acquainted Ned back in the day and asked about that. He said they (not sure who that meant) tried a glass bass board but bass rounds tore up the material available at the time. Probably early or mid 90s.
 
Welp, the DiMarzio relentless jazzes went on sale on Sweetwater, so I ended up picking up those. They're back ordered, so it'll be a bit before I get them. In the meantime, I have some work to do with this neck. Looks like it sat around at the factory for quite some time and accrued several dents and scratches, not to mention one of the more dried out boards that I've seen.
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Any suggestions on how I should fill these in? Just regular wood filler and sanding? A lot of the chrome painters suggested to have the smoothest surface possible...
 
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I think if you want the surface perfect, I'd steam out any of the dents, sand it all uniform and then coat with a good marine epoxy like west systems or system three. From there you can smooth the entire thing out evenly and know that it's fully encapsulated. It's probably worth a test piece to ensure the paint will bond to the epoxy, or you can use a primer or shellac over the epoxy, but again, test. :)
 
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