Fretless fretboard and mwah

[Cullen G]

It was suggested I move this here from another part of the Forum. Thanks for any help.
I need fretless fretboard help and info. I am having a new fretless 32 inch scale bass designed. This will be a first for me. It will be and Ebony Jazz neck, and I have chosen to have purple heart lines across it. Here is my question, there seems to be a plethora of information on the internet, and probably just as much misinformation, about the famous "MAWH" sound so desirable on a fretless bass, and tips to achieve this sound better. The one I'm interested in is, that a glossy as possible epoxy fretboard will help get you there? I need to know just how important this is. Because I do not want a glossy fretboard if possible. My question is this, if you made a hard epoxy or super glue fretboard but sanded it back to Satin, would it still be considered better for achieving this? Please educate me as much as you are willing to about this. This bass is going to be satin finished. I really can't imagine a high gloss neck working very well with that. Thank you so much for any advice.

 

[Element Zero]

I’ve owned 2 fretless basses. One was epoxied and the other was not. I found that the overall setup of the instrument ie neck relief and action, technique, round wound strings and eq was far more responsible for creating mwah.

 

[India_Sierra]

The setup and roundwound strings are most important. The coating on the fingerboard is just the ticket to get you over the line.

In saying this, I should add that I currently own a Manne custom 6 (unlined, unfinished ebony board) and a Pedulla Pentabuzz with the famous polyester coated ebony board. Both 'mwah' to a wonderful degree. Both are maple neck through with solid flamed maple wings, so the woods are actually fairly closely matched in that regard. I would opine that both basses have an insane amount of sustain but the Pentabuzz has a little more high end 'glassiness' in it's 'mwah'. The uncoated ebony of the Manne is a little warmer and darker with a slightly softer attack and decay.

I've had a number of other fretless basses, some which really had 'mwah' and some which didn't. Things like my old Alembic Epic had loads of 'mwah', some others didn't. I had a Zoot fretless with a solid maple body and a graphite neck, and that thing just didn't really mwah at all no matter how I tweaked it. The 'mwah' is, I feel, part and parcel of having a very straight neck with low action little relief. It allows the string to sit very flush with the 'board and gently expend it's energy in sonorous vibration, whereas as a higher action may just make the note fart out once the initial 'thump' is spent.

My preference is for a finished board but part of the issue you may find now is finding a technician capable of actually shooting/spraying a board to the sort of finish you desire. Check out the Pedulla thread for recommendations of luthiers and technicians who can provide this service. Mike Pedulla was IMO the undisputed master of this type of finish but he has now retired.