Fretless aficionados!!!

my first tip: don't rule out round wound strings! good luck with your fretless!

congrats on your new instrument!




edit: clarity

 

Cobalt flats are the perfect "transition" flat in that they share some similar traits tone wise with roundwounds yet offer some of the benefits of flats. I had them on a fretless for awhile and really enjoyed them. I just mixed it up and put rounds on it again and ended up putting Cobalts on my fretted Jazz bass. Great strings for sure.

There are some flats which will be a bit of a shock to your ears in that they won't have near the sustain or brightness/growl you're probably used to. The Cobalts are a great bridge between those two worlds.

 

You don't have to have flats.
And they won't eat up you fingerboard.
You'll have some faint winding marks after a while.

 

Long time primary fretless player - the only time I have had flats on my fretless basses on when I bought them from other people. Give me round wounds ten times out of ten.

 

For feet less bass I like playing rounds that are ultra light gauge and low tension.

D Addario EXLs, Hartke Extra Lights, GHS 35-95s etc. YMMV but this works for me.

 

I like LaBella Deep Talkin’ Bass flatwounds.

 

TI (Thomastik Infeld) flats might surprise you on a fretless -- lots of sustain and rich midrange content and they allow for popping harmonics surprisingly well. I've played GHS Precision Flats, cheap Webstrings flats, different tapewound, half-round, and roundwound strings on fretless before, too (though I confess to worrying about roundwounds eating up the fingerboard).

A lot depends on the bass (strings that work well on one bass might not jibe with another) and on what you're going for tonally and in terms of playing characteristics.

 

Though I wonder when OP is going to read this cause he seems not regularly log in to TB... I agree with all the strings related suggestions above, especially on the roundwound thing.

But for now, might be better for OP to play his new bass with the stock flatwound strings, which probably are D'Addario Chromes, 'till he has gotten used to it. Loads of praises for the Chromes, on fretless as well as on fretted bass. And although the Chromes aren't the most expensive flatwound strings, still they don't come cheap.

OP, more important that you do the usual newly acquired bass checkup routines (neck relief, string action, intonation setups). There are quite numerous bass setup instruction videos on Youtube. But specifically for fretless, I've seen only the one by fretless bass guru, Mr. Gary Willis. You can just do a search of his name. Although the videos of his are somewhat more related to his Ibanez signature bass(es), still we could learn a lot.

 

I’ve been using Fodera Light Medium Nickels on my Fretless. I also like D’Addario Tapewounds and La Bella white nylon tapewounds. I just wish they had more tension.