Fretless Basses with Ebonol Fingerboards

[KPJ]

I am looking for input from players who have fretless basses with ebonol fingerboards. I know that are a few production models (Kingstons, Curbows, Ibanez GWB35 and EDA900, Squire VM, etc) and some replacement necks (Mighty Mite) out there so there should be some people who can provide some field reports, as it were.

How do the boards hold up to roundwounds? Any wear issues? What type of maintenance do you do to the board? I have seen recommendations of auto polishing chemicals to keep ebonol clean and shiny. How is the sound? If you use flats instead of rounds, do you get a bright mwah sound still?

I am looking at getting a new fretless and I want a durable fingerboard that will allow me to obtain a bright, singing fretless tone when I want it. I am weighing all the possible options such as ebony, epoxy or polyurethane coating, acrylized hardwoods and synthetic materials. I am just looking for real world input in regards to ebonol in this thread. If you can offer a comparison of ebonol with one of my other choices, that would be great also.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Ive never used it, but wouldnt mind an EDA fretless, so did have a bit of a look into it.

A benifit of ebanol is that deadspots are nearly none existant (apparently).

 

[BassyBill]

I've had a fretless with this material for 2 years now (Status graphite neck). Played regularly, no wear issues at all, zero, zilch, none, nada. I think it's one of the best choices for a fretless.

I've been using Dean Markley Fretmasters on it - these aren't cheap over here, but they're nice strings. Roundwound, but burnished slightly over the fingerboard section to allegedly reduce wear. That said, they feel pretty much like regular roundwounds to me (I have Rotosounds on most of my other basses).

I ought to mention here that my last fretless was a Yamaha with rosewood fingerboard that I used roundwounds on for 5 years without a problem. Maybe my style on fretless just doesn't cause a lot of wear, I dunno.

 

[KPJ]

Thanks for the input so far.

Playing style may have some bearing on wear as well. My current fretless has a rosewood board and I use flats on it, mostly because it has a piezo bridge and I just don't like the amplified sound of roundwounds through the piezo, too much finger noies! I recently cleaned my finderboard and restrung my bass and I actually found a little divot from where one of my fingernails dug into the board! No idea how I did that! Rosewood seems to be a little too soft for me!

 

[spade2you]

You shouldn't have that kind of problem with ebanol, though with a piezo, I'd think you'd want your nails really short. I made the mistake of sliding and not trimming my nails properly, which made an ugly zipping sound as I was sliding.

 

[oldfretless]

I used rotosounds on a p bass with a rosewood neck for over 30 years and there is wear, but not that bad. Now I use a Pedulla with the hard finish and I will never go back. It changes the sound, and the feel.

 

[KPJ]

I used rotosounds on a p bass with a rosewood neck for over 30 years and there is wear, but not that bad. Now I use a Pedulla with the hard finish and I will never go back. It changes the sound, and the feel.

Could you elaborate some more on the differences?

 

[brian v2.0]

i had a kingston that i played for about 2 years with stainless rounds on it and the only real wear was some mior grooves at the very end of the board. i dug in pretty hard and never really had a problem... until some heartless soul stole it.

 

[sb69coupe]

I've got a Mighty Mite ebonal neck and really like it alot, especially for the price. I used rounds on it for a short time, but now am using flats and I don't see any wear issues at all. The ebonal is very hard, and provides a brighter sound than uncoated rosewood.

 

[KPJ]

What do people use to clean and maintain the ebonol?

 

[BassyBill]

Just a quick wipe down after playing is all my fingerboard generally gets - maybe a little more thoroughly when I change strings.

 

[Deacon_Blues]

I bought a squire fretless with ebonol fretboard last Monday. The ebonol is clearly much harder than rosewood, and should last much longer. I don't expect to see any significant wear from roundwounds on my new bass in several years.

Before I bought this one, I borrowed a friend's fretless P (from '73, IIRC) that has a rosewood fingerboard. When you see how thin the fretboard is on that one, it's clear that it has been worn pretty badly as it has been ground probably several times.

A plus with the ebonol is that you can get a cool slap sound on it too, even though it's a fretless. Sounds very old-school with only mids and high mids instead of treble frequencies, but it's a really thick and powerful sound which I like. I think it requires pretty new roundwounds to get it, though.