Do roundwounds damage a fretless?

[pdeon99]

I have a beauty custom fretless 5 (by Mike Kinal). It came with roundwounds, and I can see tiny indentations from the windings starting to mark the fretboard. (a) Should I change to flats? (b) If so, which flats? I'm considering "Rotosound Jazz Bass 77" Monel Flatwound at the moment, but (a) is the bigger question.

[tplyons]

It's a matter of feel. With proper technique, roundwounds won't do too much damage to a fretboard.

Regardless, both flats and rounds will eventually kill a fingerboard, just depends on the amount of pressure.

[RHFusillo]

I'd say that it depends on the sound you're after. Roundwounds give a very different sound than flats on a fretless. Do you want the brighter, more singing tone that roundwounds give? If so, then stick with the rounds. If you want a darker, thumpier tone, then change to flats.

If you stick with roundwounds, you could protect your fingerboard with an application of epoxy resin, a la Jaco Pastorius. I had a friend who preferred the sound of roundwounds on bare ebony and who figured that he would periodically sand the fingerboard on his bass (it was a fairly thick slab of ebony) to keep it smooth.

If you decide to change to flats, I would recommend Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats (which I started using because I like their upright bass strings, now I use them on almost everything), or one of the hybrid "compressed" or "ground wound" strings.

[elros]

I played roundwounds on my Acacia fretless for seven years. And that was my main bass (my only bass most of the time). I could see light marks on the ebony fingerboard, but could not feel any wear.

So I recon it shouldn't damage yours either. What wood is your fingerboard made of?

[pdeon99]

It's a rosewood fretboard.

[James Hart]

Originally Posted by pdeon99

It's a rosewood fretboard.

anything metal is stronger/tougher than anything wood.... the act of playing your bass will wear out fingerboards.

learn to use only the minimum down force needed by your 'fretting' hand to make the note ring

vibrato with the length of the string NOT the BB king / Eric Clapton across the string style

Keep in mind that most boards will "Score" with rounds rather fast... that isn't even close to actually wearing it out, just marks.

If you like rounds an want "safer" give D'addario Half-Rounds a try. They are the closest to round sounding flat type strings I've found

[fretless Bob]

dont worry about it, i got a sei fretless with a rosewood board and i use rounds on it, there is a little bit of wear but nothing to worry about for ages, so if you are after that tone then use them, maybe you should stick to try some nickels though, tha will help prolong your board life even further as they are softer.


Dave

[Puru]

Originally Posted by James Hart

If you like rounds an want "safer" give D'addario Half-Rounds a try. They are the closest to round sounding flat type strings I've found

Not that I've compared lots of strings, but I like the D'addario half-rounds also - sound good on fretless, little wear on fingerboard, reasonable price.
I use D'addario roundwound nickel on my fretted, they sound great too.

[andrewd]

i'm the second owner for a Cort fretless, and there are very noticable marks in the board from roundwounds. I just put on some new roundwounds. I would have preferred to try some half rounds but these were free.