Covette fretless string ques.

[munch62]

I have just purchased a Warwick Corvette std fretless.
The bass has the factory roundwounds.The ques. I have is,will roundwound harm the fretboard?On all the fretless basses I have owned in the past I have used flats.
The rounds sound great,gigged the lasted two nights with just the fretless.Great slap tone,and that sweet mwah
the sound you just can't get with flats.

Thanks,
Jeff

[bassteban]

This is a contentious subject for many. The extremes of the opinion/experience scale range from *Don't even consider it, it will destroy your fingerboard in minutes* to *I've used rounds on my fretless for 37 years and haven't begun to scartch the surface*
MY experience: Rounds on a lacquered maple FB+a fairly light touch(horizontal vibrato & a bit of slapping)=not much wear. I have planed fingerboards before so I'm not worried about a little bit of wear; the sound comes first for me.

[toomanybasses]

My Corvette has a rosewood FB and I had the same concerns and the FB did show begin to show wear. I than ran a set of GHS Ground Rounds on the Corvette fretless and the bass sounded the same as the factory strings. I am now running chromes this trip.

[john-boro]

I own the same bass - wonderful instrument. I generally prefer flats for string noise reasons, but a fretless really seemed to emphasise the sort of clacky plasticy sound of flats. The difference I think is that with rounds, you can set it up so that all along the neck, just the peak of each round 'bump' is hitting the wood - that's mwah. With flats, can't get that - it's either no mwah at all, or the plastic, damping sound of the whole string hitting the neck.

I've noticed little grooves in the neck from not much time at all with rounds. However, when you think about the amount of wear that will be needed before it affects playing (really quite a lot) and the sound of rounds that as you say, you can't get with flats, it's not really an issue. As others have said, playing gently and changing your vibrato will help.

[munch62]

Thanks for the repy guys.

-Jeff