Building a 6 string fretless bass from scratch?

[saresu.bass]

How would you design a 6 string fretless bass of ur dreams from scratch?

I'm in Indonesia, I have a well know local Luthier (he doesn't understand English much though) and local wood: ebony, mahogany, maple and all sort of wood that I have no idea exist from all over Indonesia.

I'm no expert in how a certain choice of woods with a certain choice of pick ups with a certain choice of design would make a 6 strings fretless bass sound in a certain way.
So please share ur thoughts or if there is already a thread or somewhere I can find information please hit me.

I want a tone something like Les Claypool CT bass, but also the tone of Jaco on Joni Mitchell's Hegira album. Of cous with the Mwawww sound.
So I can switch from a Fat, Heavy, dark sound to a Mid, bright, sweet Jaco's like sound if u know what I mean...
I play pizz, tapping, slap, Jaco's harmonics and fake harmonics stuff, Wooten double thumb techniques.
I want strings action very low.

I'll post pics of the project as it gets going.

Thank you.

 

[saresu.bass]

Anyone? Please.

 

[bassbenj]

Well, for me, mahogany is my favorite body wood and it's what I'd choose for that. My Alembic fretless 6 string is mahogany and I love the feel/tone/playability etc. of that bass. But that is my choice. Basically harder heavier woods tend to sound brighter (like ash) and softer woods sound mellower (like alder) and really soft woods (like basswood) sound even more rolled off which usually takes some electronics to compensate (as in bongo bass) in my opinion. Other side of coin is that bright woods are heavy and make for heavy bass. Rolled off woods make for lighter bass.

For fretless I very much urge an ebony fingerboard. It wears very well and has excellent tone. For super Jaco tone he coated the fingerboard with epoxy. I would not do that unless you are REALLY sure you want that sound. To me the ebony-mahogany combo (which is what my alembic has, duh) does the job VERY well.

String choice is important in fretless and rounds will chew even an ebony board. But if you want that bright sound you have to put up with that. My favorite string is GHS ground wounds (or d'addario half rounds) about as bright as you can go without chewing the fingerboard. I have a couple basses with flats too, but I prefer the brighter ground-wounds. Rounds sound great but neck-chews freak me out!

As for pickups and electronics. Who can pick for you? I'd go at it like this: Do you like the old school sound of a Fender Jazz bass? Or do you sort of like the more modern sound of an Ibanez? And that more or less runs the range from passive Jazz bass pickups all the way to fatter modern active sound of humbuckers. We can't tell you what tone you prefer and even worse, the tone/feel of a fretted bass may not carry over well to a fretless. So bunky you are on your own and good luck!

As for slap tap and double thump on a fretless...well that stuff is really designed for fretted basses. If you really want to slap a fretless sometimes people add a metal strip at the end of the fingerboard for the strings to hit. As for low action, be aware that on a fretless mwah is controlled by the action height. I just adjusted the action on my G&L L2500 fretless (Ebony board, Ash body) and thinking it should be low as possible was really disappointed at the sound that came out! In the end I had to raise it back up (though not quite as high as it was) until I got the tone I wanted out of it. Just how it works.

 

[saresu.bass]

String choice is important in fretless and rounds will chew even an ebony board. But if you want that bright sound you have to put up with that. My favorite string is GHS ground wounds (or d'addario half rounds) about as bright as you can go without chewing the fingerboard. I have a couple basses with flats too, but I prefer the brighter ground-wounds. Rounds sound great but neck-chews freak me out!

First of all, thank you for ur reply.

By mentioning GHS groundwounds you mean the GHS pressurewound, I found GHS has set only up to 5 strings, the M7200-5 Medium 36.5" winding. So what do u use for ur C string?

As for pickups and electronics. Who can pick for you? I'd go at it like this: Do you like the old school sound of a Fender Jazz bass? Or do you sort of like the more modern sound of an Ibanez? And that more or less runs the range from passive Jazz bass pickups all the way to fatter modern active sound of humbuckers. We can't tell you what tone you prefer and even worse, the tone/feel of a fretted bass may not carry over well to a fretless. So bunky you are on your own and good luck!

I like the sound of Carl Thompson Rainbow bass, so I think of a pair of EMG + the BQS sytem. Any thought on this?

 

[bassbenj]

First of all, thank you for ur reply.

By mentioning GHS groundwounds you mean the GHS pressurewound, I found GHS has set only up to 5 strings, the M7200-5 Medium 36.5" winding. So what do u use for ur C string?

Actually I've used GHS rounds, groundwounds, pressurewounds and flats. GHS is sort of my "standard" string. (Never the best, but always good enough!) Gournd wounds are my favorite because they are bright as you can go without chewing the fingerboard. pressure wounds are brighter still and chew a little bit but not nearly as much as rounds. But I sort of gave up on them because to me they had a kind of weird tone! I've always meant to try Ken Smith pressure wounds (also made by GHS) and see if they are better (people rave about them) but I've never got around to doing that yet. As for 6 string sets. Usually the local Guitar shop has individual C strings in the various types that I can add to a 5 string set to get a 6 string set. Sometimes he doesn't so then I have to buy the individual strings online. There are some places that have individual C strings. I think the last set of GHS flats I had do that because the store only had a 5 string set.

I like the sound of Carl Thompson Rainbow bass, so I think of a pair of EMG + the BQS sytem. Any thought on this?

Well, lots of people really like EMGs. I'm not one, but so what? On the other hand I had a bass I modded with EMGs and the BQS system and while I wasn't too hot on the picktups (thought they were too bright) on the other hand I REALLY liked the BQS system. I never should have left it in the bass when I sold it!

 

[Jon Moody]

First of all, thank you for ur reply.

By mentioning GHS groundwounds you mean the GHS pressurewound, I found GHS has set only up to 5 strings, the M7200-5 Medium 36.5" winding. So what do u use for ur C string?

As a point of reference, GHS groundwounds are actually our Brite Flats.

Pressurewounds are actually "rollerwound," where the final cover wire is run between two rollers, thus flattening it slightly (think oval-wound).

We do offer a PWB28 that you can use to make a 6 string Pressurewound set; I know Jason at Bass Strings Online has them, as do the folk over at Just Strings.

 

[saresu.bass]

As a point of reference, GHS groundwounds are actually our Brite Flats.

Pressurewounds are actually "rollerwound," where the final cover wire is run between two rollers, thus flattening it slightly (think oval-wound).

We do offer a PWB28 that you can use to make a 6 string Pressurewound set; I know Jason at Bass Strings Online has them, as do the folk over at Just Strings.

Im looking at them now. Thanks