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HG Thor Epoxy Fretless for Bass & Guitar |
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Epoxy coatings on most types of fretboards since 1980, originally inspired by ideas expressed in
a '77 BP interview with the late great Jaco Pastorius*. Fretboards are defretted,
fretlines inlaid, then carefully leveled/prepared. Worn and grooved fingerboards can be
redressed to look like new. Inlay artwork is available. Professional highest grade epoxy is applied using specialized techniques and tooling developed over years of R&D. Epoxy coating constructed by layering and then brought to a very musical, beautiful and uniform mirror gloss. Much attention is paid to entire fingerboard linearity. Edges will not delaminate and are carefully dressed to blend with the neck finish. Low action is possible. This hard epoxy surface can last a lifetime, even with roundwounds. Epoxy thickness is hard enough to protect the wood, but designed to allow the neck woods to resonate naturally with plenty of nuance. Sustain is greatly increased due to reduced friction, as compared to the inherently softer fingerboard wood. The resulting tone is articulate and rich in partials with increased "mwah" and swell. Plucking hand technique combined with a tweak of the tone knob alone can control a large spectrum of tonal variety. © 2007 |
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Xavier Padilla: "The
effect epoxy produces in the sound ...is amazing: everything is brighter and all details come out clearer.
As an instrument, I feel like the bass becomes more sensitive. Vibrato, which is essential
in fretless playing, becomes more responsive, as if the rotating movement of the
finger upon the string was now better "heard" by the neck. I would say that with
epoxy coats on the fingerboard a fretless electric bass still gets a woody sound, but with
a new element that brings it closer to that of a grand piano." (Mr. Padilla toured,
wrote and recorded with the Gipsy Kings 2000-2005 and is a pioneer in music notation
and bass design.) |
Frets and Fretlines: There are a number
of options to select from. Frets are carefully removed and inlay applied. Favorites include
maple veneer or black vulcanized sheeting. Other woods are available. Nuts: The nut must be removed in order to properly install an HG Thor Epoxy Fretless coating. In the event a nut will not be gently coaxed out of its slot without breaking, options available are: bone, plastic, delrin, micarta, corian, Graph Tech, or anything you would care to provide. |
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An example of a famous name
signature fretless with a stock polyurethane coating, undergoing treatment with final result: |
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Low action is possible on many basses. Here 3/64"!
Inlay restoration/new:
We are authorized installers for Audere Audio products plus carry a complete line of Fender pickups and accessories and other famous name brands such as Bartolini and Nordstrand etc.
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©1998-2007 HG Thor Guitar Lab and Harris G. Thor. All rights reserved. No reproduction or redistribution of text, pictures or sounds on any part of this site without written consent. * |
In addition to being hard and polished,
the epoxy surface is very planar and uniform. This
allows low action and fine tuning of desired amount of "mwaa" effect. Simply dial in your
favorite sound with the tone control! |
