This is a Squire Bronco 30 inch scale bass that has been converted to a fretless finger board. I became interested in playing fretless bass and tried a 34 inch scale fretless. After a few months of practice and a gig or two in decided to look for a short scale fretless because the 34 inch scale was too big for my reach. I could not find an affordable short scale fretless so I decided to get an affordable fretted short scale and do the fretless conversion myself. I have done enough guitar work that this task did not scare me. The line of Squiers by Fender are good quality instruments so I chose the Squier Bronco. Here is what I did:
* Pulled the frets and filled the slots first with wood glue and then a light urethane coat and then fine wet sanding. The finger board feels nice and smooth. Not a perfect pro job but completely playable with no problems fingering the notes.
* I used a soldering iron to lightly burn side markers at the fret locations. This was very helpful to get correct tuning while fingering
* The factory pickup had a very thin sound. I was disappointed in this so I replaced the pickup with P bass style pickup from a Fender American series bass. This improved the sound very much. I routed the body and cut the finger guard to accommodate the new pickup. The mounting screws for the pickup probably need replaced for more fine adjustment of the pickup height - I practiced and played out with it as is.
* I replaced the bridge with a higher mass bridge that I had in my parts bin. Probably helps the sound.
* I stained the edge of the all white pickguard to give the guitar a little more impact visually.
* I put a decal on the head from one of my favorite breweries (Bad Martha's).
The upgrades I made can be seen in the pictures. I also posted a picture of a factory fresh Bronco for comparison.
I spent a couple grand on a beauty of a short scale fretless so I guess this experiment was a success!