Pressurewound and fretless what is your experience?

[bassman_al]

Did some research here but decided to start a thread specifically on pressurewound strings and fretless bass. Everyone seems to think they are easy on fretboards. Got some GHS ML pressurewounds this week. Really like the sound and feel, but they feel a lot closer to rounds than they do to flats, which has me a little concerned about the fretboard, but not overly so.

Care to chime in on how "safe" they are for fretless fingerboards?

Thanks as always, guys!

[Mojo-Man]

Yes these string a wonderful for fretless.
Pressurewounds and TI-Flats are my favorite strings.

[bassman_al]

Thanks for the input. Others?

[SLaPiNFuNK]

Any string is going to have some type of affect on the fingerboard. Round Wounds would be fastest, Pressure Wounds not as fast, Half Rounds and Flats even more not as fast (if that is a proper way of saying it).

If the finger board material is soft, even flatwounds would go through it...

My main fretless bass is unlined Ebony. I used pressure wounds on it for years with very little wear... now I use full round wounds on it, still very little wear but there is some visible.

They are the least aggressive of non-roundwound non-flatwound strings. As long as you do not have the gorilla grip you will be fine.

[soulman969]

My answer would pretty much dovetail the above. I'm not playing a fretless right now but I like the string so much I wouldn't hesitate to use them on one. The wear factor may be greater than a flat but it's a fair trade of for the improvement in tone and playability. JMO

[kesslari]

I like pressurewounds on fretless a lot. I also like rounds. Different basses "like" different strings, or more accurately I like different strings on different basses.

The main thing - fingerboard wear is pretty much a non-issue unless you're playing a truly vintage, irreplaceable bass that you don't want to refurbish. The cost of having a fingerboard planed is about $100 - about the cost of 3-4 sets of strings (I play 5 string, your cost may vary). You might need to plane your board every 5 years if you play a lot. It's a pretty trivial thing in the perspective of other costs of instrument maintenance.

I liken it to car tires. You can get tires that wear very slowly - you will get a ton of mileage out of them. But they tend to be pretty low performance tires. High performance tires wear more quickly.
But if you enjoy having a high performance car and driving it fast, it's probably worth it to you to use high performance, shorter wearing tires - they make the driving experience more fun, even though maintenance costs more.

So play strings for the sound, not to "protect your fingerboard".

[fretlessguy]

GHS Pressurewounds are some of favorite strings, whether fretless or fretted. Yes, it is true that they still will produce wear after a period of time, but unless you play very heavy-handed, this should not be a problem for many years. I have yet to have any of my fretlesses' fingerboards planed or replaced. Then, of course, I have used medium lights or light gauges for years, and I play with a lighter touch than most.
As for fretted basses, they are also less abrasive on your frets as well.

[Sav'nBass]

I just replaced some Phosphor Bronze rounds with some half rounds on my fretless MK acoustic. I like them.. and feel more secure about fretboard wear.. They sound pretty nice..