I have a fretless with a rosewood fingerboard

[SquierBender]

What do you suggest that would be as close to flatwound smoothness, but would be decent for slapping.
And then, the brightest sounding of that variety.
THKS

[coolrunner989]

Light gauge Chromes or some kind of dead nickle string, take your pick.

[Tommygunn]

I would suggest nylon tapewounds. Flat like flats and bright like tapes

[squashedOpossum]

Yep, light gauge Chromes would be your best bet.

[Meatrus]

Bit of a tough one as a fretless bass doesent sound "all there" (to me) when slapped anyway. I always use a fretted bass for slap, and a fretless for....well fretless stuff! I would not recommend Roto Trubass (tapewound) for slap, they are great for finger style but slap combined with fretless isnt good with them (I have them on my fretless). I would get some smooth Nickels and try em (JTE will be hear in a minute to tell you not to worry about the wear (: ).

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by SquierBender

What do you suggest that would be as close to flatwound smoothness, but would be decent for slapping.
And then, the brightest sounding of that variety.
THKS

Well I would suggest not trying to slap on a fretless...but if its what you want? I presume you are not willing to put up with neck chews with stainless rounds which would be optimum.

So what I use are ground wounds. D'Addarios (they call them half-rounds) are my favorite. GHS makes "brite flats" as they call them too. That is as bright as you can get in a string totally flat on the outside that won't chew your fingerboard.

You can get just a tiny more bit of brightness with just a minor bit of neck chews with GHS pressure-wounds. They are rounds put through rollers to flatten them. Not quite flat but still much smoother than rounds.

Also I've heard that the thomastik-infeld flats are very bright but I've never used them. Expensive.

[Jools4001]

Originally Posted by Tommygunn

I would suggest nylon tapewounds. Flat like flats and bright like tapes

I wouldn't recommend nylon tapewounds for fretless. I tried some nylon rotosounds on mine about 20 years ago and hated them. They sounded dull and lifeless, great if you want your fretless to make a dull thump but no sustain at all and harmonics were just hard work. That wasn't the main issue for me though, the nylon always felt sticky and actually got uncomfortably close to giving friction burns to my fingertips on slides.

If the OP wants bright, I'm with the "stick whatever roundwound strings you want on it and to hell with the wear". I've had a rosewood boarded fretless for 10 years now with roundwounds on for much of the time (has Elixir's on now) but virtually no wear. IMHO wear on a fretless board is mostly down to technique and incorrect vibrato pulling the string across the board like you would on fretted is the fingerboard killer.

Contrary to some advice, you can slap on a fretless. Of course it sounds different but players like Pino Palladino and Bakhiti Kumalo use it to great effect

[JHRyan]

Originally Posted by Jools4001

If the OP wants bright, I'm with the "stick whatever roundwound strings you want on it and to hell with the wear". I've had a rosewood boarded fretless for 10 years now with roundwounds on for much of the time (has Elixir's on now) but virtually no wear.

This seems a little suspect as within a week of getting my fretless (with an ebony board) there was extremely noticeable wear that I was not okay with. If I had kept playing with round-wound steels on my fretless the neck would be utterly destroyed by now.

As for the OP I suppose it would depend on how much you expect to be playing your fretless. A couple songs for gigs every now and then and you could probably get away with just using whatever strings you prefer on a fretted and everything would be fine. If you're going to be playing 8-10 hours a day for several years than I would advise against anything other than tapewounds simply due to the amount of wear your fingerboard will see.

Originally Posted by Jools4001

I wouldn't recommend nylon tapewounds for fretless. I tried some nylon rotosounds on mine about 20 years ago and hated them. They sounded dull and lifeless, great if you want your fretless to make a dull thump but no sustain at all and harmonics were just hard work.

More than likely this was from the interactions of the entire system (tone woods, electronics, strings, bridge, pickups etc) rather than the strings in and of their self (could be specifically the rotosounds as well I suppose...). I've been using LaBella's tapewounds for quite a long time now and I'm not sure anyone would consider the sound I get out of my bass as being lifeless and/or dull. Certainly not as bright as steel rounds would be, but I honestly don't think I would want it to be that bright.

[Kalyptic]

Get a slap plate put on the end of the fretboard, its a little piece of metal that gives it the sound of frets when slapped.

[JTE]

The physical act of slapping is going to impact the fingerboard no matter what the string is made of. You'll get wear at the end of the board (except perhaps if you do use a slap plate- it might help with the impact, but it's primary function is to get the metal-metal contact). Bottom line no matter what you do, is to use the strings that sound right. Mark the fingerboard wear to the cost of doing business.

Bass simply aren't that precious that one should compromise the sound for the sake of the instrument. That's putting the cart before the horse in my opinion. If you like the sound of a fretless with a rosewood board and Rotosound RS-66 strings, use 'em. Expect to replace the fingerboard sooner than if you like the sound of DR Sunbeams (my favorite strings for fretless BTW), but the sound is paramount.

It's a musical instrument. Therefore its function is to create sounds that allow you to express the music. Hence, the sound is more important than the instrument.

John

[fretlessguy]

Well, I Think I'd leave the slapping to a fretted bass. But, if you insist, then try GHS Brite flats or GHS Pressurewounds. They are not quite as brite as you would like, but they wouldn't devour your board.
I'd just go ahead and play what you normally do and not worry. Get your fretboard coated and be done with it.

[Tim Skaggs]

You can do some business with these folks and then you can use barbwire for strings if you want.

http://www.woodwiz.com/epoxy/