I had looked very actively for a fretless bass for quite some time, and had only played two that I had actually liked - a Zon Legacy Elite and a Fender deluxe. Naturally the zon was way out of reach financially, and I figured I could make a "fender" jazz bass for less. So I did.

I ordered the body and neck from Warmoth. The body was 130$, which was marked down from 180$ or so, and the neck was 150$. I bought the p.u's from some guy used in Detroit. I used Minwax "Wipe-on Poly" for the body finish, and it is quite nice (i.e. it looks good and prevents MOST scratches". I had some piano refinisher put a clear urethane finish on the neck, and used Formby's polymerized tung oil for the fretboard finish (I don't wan't to deal with any fretboard repairs).

Overall, I love this bass, partly because I put so much damn effort into it. Of course it isn't perfect. The neck has a dead spot (I thought Warmoth's were supposed to be perfect in that area) and I needed to do a neck shim - the action was about 1.5 cm off the higher end of the board (no kidding). Easialy fixed with two dimes placed at the end of the neck pocket.

Now for the sound. It sounds wonderful. With the tone rolled off a litte, you can get that classic Motown sound, and of course with the bridge pu soloed, you can get a pretty decent Jaco tone (guess you don't need rounds for that). Everything is very warm, punchy, and it has that silly "mwah" that Bass Player is always ranting about.

Right now I'm using Ernie Ball flats, which actually produce a brighter tone than brite-flats. Consequently, it is a little more difficult to play. The strings feel sort of sticky, and before the neck shim, anything past the 12th fret was very difficult to play. I put baby powder on the strings to remedy that, a little trick I learned from an Ashbory player.

Construction	90%
(the neck needed to be raised with 2 dimes)
Playability	95%
(after the neck shim)
Appearance	100%
(looks like a fancy custom bass)
Sound	100%
Value	85%
(Warmoth could make the parts a little cheaper)
Overall	100%
(I have to love it)