First fretless. Do I go for flats?

[rickdog]

I'm curious about putting these on my stingray (FL). I Love the tone of rounds- can you just leave these tapewounds on indefinitely like flats?

I find that they slowly lose brightness... they don't sound bad but after a few months they don't sound fresh like new either.

That's for the Gold White Nylons. I think it's something like a phosphor bronze wound string under the tape, and eventually moisture gets in there and when I see that they're starting to get a little green shade to them I think about ordering another set

 

[Alphabass 89]

I find that they slowly lose brightness... they don't sound bad but after a few months they don't sound fresh like new either.

That's for the Gold White Nylons. I think it's something like a phosphor bronze wound string under the tape, and eventually moisture gets in there and when I see that they're starting to get a little green shade to them I think about ordering another set

I find the tapewounds have long life but the metal core of the string will eventually come through the nylon coating (tape). Should be changed before that.

 

[GIBrat51]

I've bought my first fretless bass, an ESP LTD B-205SM. It's B stock so I imagine it will arrive with the manufacturers string choice on it which would be D'Addario XL 45-125. The website doesn't say, but I assume they're round wounds.

Here's my question. Should I stick with those or something similar, or do I want flats? I'm thinking about Sting in The Police and Pino back in the day doing his fretless thing. If I want those kind of sounds, can I just use anything? Or should I definitely use flats or rounds?

I'm not really in the habit of telling people what to do, so... I'll just say: use the strings that give you the tone you want - and, make your fingers happy..
Personally? I have 4 fretless basses; 3 of them wear flats, of various gauges and brands - and one wears tapes. Why?
Well, out of 27 basses in my "Herd", 2 basses wear tape wounds; one wears round wounds; and all the rest wears flats. I much prefer flats; not only because that's what I've played for 50+ years, but because most of what I play sounds better with them; most of what I play was originally recorded with them - when it wasn't recorded on an upright; and primarily, because I have badly damaged fingers. Playing rounds is like running my fingers up and down a very aggressive wood rasp. The one bass that wears rounds, does so because that particular set (TIJR 324 Jazz Rounds) are the only strings that make that bass sound like a bass. But, if they didn't? That bass would wear flats - or tapes... So, which fretless bass wears what?
- Birdsong Fusion. It came to me with Birdsong's "standard" strings; D'Addario's long scale only ECB82 "Chrome" Flats. Even though Birdsong basses are 31" scale... They sound good, and they seem to fit, so... I've no reason to change them...
- Schecter Stiletto Studio 4FL. It had EB Group IV Flats on it from the factory. On this very active fretless? Hard to think of anything that would sound better...
- G&L Kiloton Fretless. A Custom Shop bass, since it's a lefty. It had some kind of rounds on it to begin with; they lasted as long as the initial function check. I replaced them with La Bella LTF4-A Low Tension Flats. With the Kiloton's hot humbucker pickup? They tame it very, very well - and sound great, too...
- Canadian-made Fury Anthem fretless. A custom bass from the one man shop of a mad genius. It's pickups were made to work with tape wound strings Only, and to sound as much like an upright bass as possible. With a set of Rotosound TruBass 88M's? It does just that...
So... bottom line? Don't worry about what others say you should use. Use the strings that make your fingers happy - and sound good doing it...

 

[GTHintz]

My favorite sounds on fretless come from broken in stainless steel round wounds. Stainless steel tends to go from bright and crunchy to fat and growly as it breaks in. That's when I really enjoy them. Fresh nickel gets close to this sound but honestly steel just holds its tone longer. Les Claypool of Primus uses steels on his fretless basses and sounds great. I would advise you to try Labella RX stainless, Dunlop Stainless steel, Rotosound swing bass 66, Dean Markley Blue Steel, or DR Fat Beams. All of those have a beautiful tone on fretless and will give you lots of variety to find a tone you like.

 

[andymac]

If you want rounds, and are worried about your fretboard, I would put in a vote for coated rounds (e.g. DR Black Beauties). IME they don't mark or wear the fretboard, at least no more than flats would.

I would also note (as someone else did earlier, sorry, lost track) that tapewounds have a lot of variety in sound and feel. For example, LaBella tapes feel and look like nylon strings, whereas Fender tapes are more or less coated rounds (the tape is very thin).

 

[Swamp_Ronin]

Got the white/gold tapes. Wow! They are great. I love that jaco/pino rounds sound, but these have plenty of mwah and clarity. They sound good, feel good, and look cool. Thanks for the recommendation TB.

 

[woodyng2]

After years of having Labella white/copper tapes on my fretless Tune bass, I recently put on a set of ghs balanced tension nickle rw.
Really not sure if I’m going to keep them on, I’m missing the smoothness (feel and sound) of the tapes.
The ghs are very smooth feeling for roundwounds, though.

 

[Lefty Joe]

So much great information and experience. This is why I am a member here. More responses welcome!

I've played literal decades both fretted and fretless with rounds; the one time I had my fingers on flatwound strings, it felt weird. Playing fretless with rounds felt more rebellious anyway, even as they dug grooves into the fingerboard. And I was using roundwounds anyway for my main bass.

FFWD to a couple years ago, and I bought a Dean acoustic bass (the kind that looks like a big guitar) for home practice. On a whim, I bought a set of flatwounds for it. Holy smokes! No more fingerburn, and my wife remarked on how much better it sounded. It became a lot more fun to play.

This prompted me to put flats on my fretless Yamaha -- and incidentally buy better pickups for it. Perhaps this helped; perhaps the roundwounds were necessary to punch some character through the cheaper pickups I had before.

I still use roundwounds on my mainstay (active) bass, but it's flats on the (short-scale) acoustic, and flats on the fretless (passive) electric.

 

[Thom Fioriglio]

For roundwounds go with DR Sunbeams. If you want flats then Ernie Ball Cobalts.

 

[Swamp_Ronin]

Had the white gold flats for about a week. I like them a lot. Not the magic tone of rounds though (sunbeams).

Also, those tapes cause an annoying grounding him now

 

[GIBrat51]

Had the white gold flats for about a week. I like them a lot. Not the magic tone of rounds though (sunbeams).

Also, those tapes cause an annoying grounding him now

Well...
In my experience with tape wounds? You shouldn't have a grounding issue, unless 1) your bridge is not grounded, or 2) you strung the bass thru-body. Over the years, I've had various kinds of tapes on a few different basses, and - top loaded? Never had a problem. My early '90s MIK Rogue VB-100 violin bass, has worn Roto TruBass88M tapes for 15+ years now, with no grounding issue whatsoever. However... my custom made, '93 Fury Anthem lined fretless bass does have a very slight grounding issue with it's Roto 88 tapes. Which I can't really fix, since it's thru-body only. And, it's custom-wound pickups were intended to work with tape wounds only - as I found out to, the pain and suffering of my ears... But, the hum is hardly noticeable, unless I turn the amp's gain waay up. Which, since the bass is intended to sound as much like an upright bass as an electric bass guitar can, is not something I generally do...

 

[Ggaa]

DR Fatbeams