Project fretless

[patman]

I have a poorly de-fretted p-bass clone that a friend of mine found...he asked if I could make it so it played, so that he could keep it at his house for visitors to use.

What would you use to fill up fret slots, given this instrument is not really worth inlaying wood strips into the fret slots? epoxy?

I was thinking of filling the slots with something? and doing a quick level on the fingerboard, and calling it a day.

[Pilgrim]

I have a solution that worked great for me.

Made a trip to my local craft/hobby store and found a saw with a blade .022 wide.  Found polystyrene strips .020 wide.

Chased the fret lines with the saw - cut the polystyrene into small blocks, slightly larger than the fret slots and super-glued it in the slits.  Trimmed the excess with a razor blade, than sanded lightly.  The styrene sands more easily than the fretboard, so you won't change the radius of the fretboard.

I added one coat of tung oil over the fretboard, which made it look nice.

If the owner can live with visible fret lines, the plastic styrene is non-compressible and EASY to work with, and you can invest minimal time in a good result.

The result:

[patman]

What were the plastic strips called, or what was their use? (i.e. if I go to a store what am I looking for?)

[Highlander]

Think Revel or Airfix kits... sort of stuff hobbyists use for custom mods on aircraft kits, etc...

[Pilgrim]

In the hobby store, there was a rotating rack of styrene strips that are used to construct model buildings, etc...and they're all labeled by thickness, down to the thousandth of an inch!  Pretty common stuff for model-builders. 

I think most of the stuff is made by these folks:

http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/

Check this page for a near-overwhelming list of the dimensional styrene strips they offer:

http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/Strips.htm#Dimensional%20Strips

If you have a hobby shop, stop by and I bet they can point you right to the stuff.