Fretless acoustic mini bass or uke bass with "bwaah"?

Maxra said:

Advice appreciated - I'd like to get started in fretless bass with an affordable fretless mini bass or a fretless bass uke. I love the 'bwaah' sound, and I've heard including some fretless acoustics make that sound on YouTube vids. BUT - the affordable fretless acoustics I see are mostly maybe 32" scale, and the fretless bass uke vids I see don't do much "bwaah". I'm guessing the reasons for that could be that 1) maybe 24" scale basses don't work well fretless and/or 2) maybe bass ukes are often fitted with sticky feeling strings that make sliding into notes difficult.

Do you think that's right or wrong, and can you suggest a solution?

Thanks, Max

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You pretty much need roundwounds (of the acoustic mini bass -friendly type, i.e. bronze or silver-plated copper wound on nylon cores).

For ukulele bass (ca 21"), either the Pyramid 508 201 or Kala KA-BASS-4;

for longer (23-25") scales, Ortega ODW-4, D'Addario XTB3790GS, Martin M4750, La Bella MBLNS Silverbacks;
also octave-down 6-string guitar or extended-range sets like the Savarez LOW640R, Magma TRANSPOSITOR GCT-E (and the rarer-to-unobtanium GCT-BG10, BT5), Ortega OCTA-8NS;

finally, sets of similarly-made strings meant for longer scales (contrabass guitar) like the La Bella CB40 and CB60, Savarez 6CB640R, Pyramid 480 200, RC Strings BJ60 and BJ660, Alice ACB111, Hannabach 841MT (various versions), Fisoma F2714 and possibly others, can be fitted onto smaller-scale instruments.
(The Dragão D038 set is a little too heavy, IMO, for the purpose of jury-rigging it on a parlor bass: I would discard the 110 low E, move the other three up a slot and add a classical guitar A as the new G.)

This is the only video I could find of a fretless ukulele bass with rounds:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nyqm6qiKfH0

Maxra said:

Advice appreciated - I'd like to get started in fretless bass with an affordable fretless mini bass or a fretless bass uke. I love the 'bwaah' sound, and I've heard including some fretless acoustics make that sound on YouTube vids. BUT - the affordable fretless acoustics I see are mostly maybe 32" scale, and the fretless bass uke vids I see don't do much "bwaah". I'm guessing the reasons for that could be that 1) maybe 24" scale basses don't work well fretless and/or 2) maybe bass ukes are often fitted with sticky feeling strings that make sliding into notes difficult.

Do you think that's right or wrong, and can you suggest a solution?

Thanks, Max

Click to expand...

I believe it’s Mwah? Bwahh is a new one.

The rubber strings give me the heebie-jeebies so I can’t comment. Can rubber strings even get mwah (bwahh) regardless of no frets?

I play fretless and have a fretless Uke bass. I don't really get any Mwah sounds out of it. The action is not adjustable and pretty high for the rubber strings. I switched my strings to Metal flats and I would say No Mwah.

Bodeeni said:

I play fretless and have a fretless Uke bass. I don't really get any Mwah sounds out of it. The action is not adjustable and pretty high for the rubber strings. I switched my strings to Metal flats and I would say No Mwah.

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That's a good point: roundwounds alone may not be conducive to mwah without some permanent work done to the saddle (carefully filing down its bottom side is how I guess I'd proceed, if mwah were a paramount goal) and a straightening of the truss rod.

HaphAsSard said:

That's a good point: roundwounds alone may not be conducive to mwah without some permanent work done to the saddle (carefully filing down it bottom side is how I guess I'd proceed, if mwah were a paramount goal) and a straightening of the truss rod.

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Mine came with some of the inlays unglued, ended up getting the thing for free because return shipping was more than the uke. But I reglued them and faired the board. It was my first board leveling and easy on this little thing. Made the neck much better. My action is at 4mm. It could go down a mil with sanding. I just did a little to get the piezo pickup to work better. This is just a goof off instrument for me, but I may work on it. It would be cool to get a more 'fretless' sound out of it. This HB is definitely a cheap entry level Uke, so I have no issues experimenting on it. The plus was the intonation was good. I changed the tuners, they were very bad.