Fretless G&L nuts

[BobaMosfett]

When I got my (new) fretless L-1500 a few weeks ago, I noticed that the string slots were a little high. I thought that on fretless basses they could be almost level with the fingerboard. At least they were like that on a fretless yamaha I used to own.

I don't have specialized tools, but I did have an old set of stainless steel strings lying around, so I managed to lower them a bit. Feels better now, but they could be lower still, I think.

Two questions:
Am I right in thinking that nuts on fretless basses can be, or are supposed to be lower?

And what's your experience with fretless G&L's?

Thanks,
Ray

[sunbeast]

I've yet to play a fretless G&L, but you are correct about the nut height. When you play an open note, the distance between the bottom of the string and the first position on the fretboard should be roughly the same (just slightly higher if at all) as the distance between the bottom of the string and the second postion while fretting at the first position. Its essentially the same on a fretted bass with an ideal nut setup, except that you are measuring to the top of the frets vs. the actual fingerboard... I've found the nuts on all the newer G&Ls I've owned to be cut unnecessarily high, so it doesn't really surprise me.

Karl

[quickervicar]

I cut the nut on my Moses/G&L "Frankenless" with a couple of files from Stewart-MacDonald and used a business card slid under the strings as a height gauge. I knew that fretless nuts are low, and it seemed crazy-low at the time I was doing it but I had checked several other fretless nuts & that is where they were. Now it mwahs with the best of them.

Remember--more mwah/growl = lower cut. More clarity = higher cut. You can always go lower, but you can't go back.

[unclejane]

Originally Posted by BobaMosfett

When I got my (new) fretless L-1500 a few weeks ago, I noticed that the string slots were a little high. I thought that on fretless basses they could be almost level with the fingerboard. At least they were like that on a fretless yamaha I used to own.

I don't have specialized tools, but I did have an old set of stainless steel strings lying around, so I managed to lower them a bit. Feels better now, but they could be lower still, I think.

Two questions:
Am I right in thinking that nuts on fretless basses can be, or are supposed to be lower?

And what's your experience with fretless G&L's?

Thanks,
Ray

Yes, the nut should be lowered the way sunbeast said. New nuts are always too high so you can file them down to the height you want...

the only thing I'll suggest about the fretless is to ALWAYS get the pau ferro WITHOUT the inlaid plastic lines. Reason being, no matter how well done the inlay job is, the damn things WILL eventually start coming out due to just the natural aging of the wood and its shrinking/expanding over time.

When they start coming up you have a real mess on your hands of buzzing and etc. I just got through with this nightmare on my tobias 6 string which had the inlays - I put an epoxy finish on it to try to treat this and it's fine now. But it's also worthless now too Fortunately, I don't play that bass very much and only play my L2000 these days.

My L2000 is a pao ferro (ebony board) with the jazz style neck (I believe it's the #8 neck) and that's totally the way to go. I run the thinnest guage roundwounds I can find on it (Daddario's, .95 guage I believe) which gives a very aggressive, staccato sound when plucked over the bridge pickup.

Mine has surprisingly little muaah and it sounds more like a fretted bass, which is what I prefer (this is probably due to the ebony board as rosewood gives a little more muaah I think).

But like I've said before, it's the closest thing to the magic wand I've ever owned....

LS

[Temcat]

Originally Posted by unclejane

Mine has surprisingly little muaah and it sounds more like a fretted bass, which is what I prefer (this is probably due to the ebony board as rosewood gives a little more muaah I think).
LS

I have an ex-fretless G&L L-2500 (ghost-lined) which I refretted specifically because I had come to dislike the "almost fretted" sound: it can be handy sometimes, but in most cases IMO defeats the purpose of a fretless.

But later I heard from several people that they managed to get a good mwah from their L2K/L2.5K, so I suppose the reason lies largely with the setup (action too high) and pickup config. You can get more mwah with the bridge or neck pickup soloed (or rarely, two pickups in single-coil mode) and "almost fretted" sound with two pickups.

An ebony fingerboard should not prevent you from extracting the mwah out of the thing: I have a fretless Warwick Corvette with an ebony board and it mwahs like crazy.

[unclejane]

Originally Posted by Temcat

I have an ex-fretless G&L L-2500 (ghost-lined) which I refretted specifically because I had come to dislike the "almost fretted" sound: it can be handy sometimes, but in most cases IMO defeats the purpose of a fretless.

But later I heard from several people that they managed to get a good mwah from their L2K/L2.5K, so I suppose the reason lies largely with the setup (action too high) and pickup config. You can get more mwah with the bridge or neck pickup soloed (or rarely, two pickups in single-coil mode) and "almost fretted" sound with two pickups.

An ebony fingerboard should not prevent you from extracting the mwah out of the thing: I have a fretless Warwick Corvette with an ebony board and it mwahs like crazy.

Here's a quick clip of my L2000, screwing around with it using my boss loop station. This is with the bridge pickup only in parallel mode, preamp on bright.

it almost sounds like a fretted with very little muaah on the notes generally.

If I could make a fretted bass sound good I'd play one but I can't . I prefer the fretted sound tho so this is a happy medium.

LS