First time fretless: what strings recommended?

[Bright Midnight]

So I took delivery of my very first fretless bass this morning, a Harley Benton JB40-fl. The bass, pretty cheap, is well made for the price, but the stock strings are made of chicken wire....

I know a lot of players will recommend flat wounds, but which ones? I don't want my bass to sound muffled in any way. I want clarity but not too much brightness, and I don't want very stiff strings.

What say you?

 

[Killing Floor]

I’d try something not too crazy expensive like Roto 77 or Chromes or Fender.

Once you decide you like flats then we can talk about TI but I’d never recommend something that expensive unless you already know you want to play flats.

edit there is no best string

 

[trothwell]

As always, it depends much on the bass itself, how you play it, and what sound you want to get out of it. For what it's worth, I had a fretless Fender Jazz for years, and my favorite strings on it included:

- Rotosound 66
- GHS Brite Flats
- Thomastik Infeld flatwound
- Rotosound 88 tapewound

All of which yielded different, but good, sounds!

 

[GTHintz]

I think you're looking for something like sit silencers or pressure wounds. You might like broken in nickels. I hear that flats feel stiffer than most rounds so you'd probably like broken in rounds. On my fretless I use whatever broken in stainless strings I have saved. I seem to get enough brightness and muahh twangy tones but also a fatter warmer tone that works well for what I like to play fretless on which is usually more mellow and melodic things.

 

[Tubehed]

I like nylon tape wounds on a fretless. Great feel and tone. Won't damage the fretboard.

 

[Yahboy]

Labella Copper white 750c

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Black on Fretless J

 

[Blueinred]

These ^ (LaBella tapewounds)

 

[tindrum]

If you want to sound like most fretless basses you’ve heard on records, etc and to fully get every nuance of the available tone your bass offers use a set of rounds. The fretboard wear thing is so ridiculously exaggerated around here it borders on delusion. I’ve used rounds on fretless basses for many years with ZERO issues as have many, many players here.

Any nickel plated round will work. For an easier, familiar transition I’d suggest using what you use on your normal basses.

 

[Fernando Costa]

I'm lucky because the strings I like are very cheap. I use D'addario EXL 220 in my fretless. These strings have thinner and "tighter" windings, are made of nickel - which has a softer sound than steel ones -, they don't have much tension, they are comfortable for these two reasons. They seem to have the characteristics you are looking for.

 

[Heavy Blue]

I'd suggest a set of GHS Pressurewounds. He plays them on a fretless later in the video and they retain the "mwah".