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Fretless: sound difference between Ebonol and wood?

F

FretLassie

Jun 12, 2024
10
27
#1
When I bought my first fretless bass two years ago, the local music store only had one in stock, which I tried out. It was love at first sight, and I bought it immediately.

It's a Fender Squier Vintage Modified Jazz Bass and has an Ebonol fingerboard. I'm not entirely satisfied with the "mwahbility" and wonder if it would make a bigger difference if the fingerboard were ebony instead of ebonol.

What is the difference?
 
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#3
FretLassie said:
When I bought my first fretless bass two years ago, the local music store only had one in stock, which I tried out. It was love at first sight, and I bought it immediately.

It's a Fender Squier Vintage Modified Jazz Bass and has an Ebonol fingerboard. I'm not entirely satisfied with the "mwahbility" and wonder if it would make a bigger difference if the fingerboard were ebony instead of ebonol.

What is the difference?
Click to expand...
The string swell that creates "mwah" doesn't have anything to do with the fingerboard wood, it's mainly about the setup. You want a combination of a fingerboard as straight as reasonably possible and the string height as low as reasonably possible -- what will dial this in best depends a lot on your instrument and the strings you use. I can get more "mwah" than I want with TI Jazz Flats on a relatively soft wood fingerboard -- the action is fairly high for a fretless because the strings are low tension. With higher-tension strings I can straighten the neck slightly, bring the action down quite low and get "mwah" on the same instrument.

The frequencies that emphasize the "mwah" are largely in the mids. Bright strings, bridge pickup, maybe a modest boost around 400-700 Hz if you use EQ. With a proper setup, the "mwah" is still there without those things but you're not going to dial in that Pino/Jaco tone that most people think of or want when they pick up fretless.

Ebony is one of the hardest woods commonly used in instrument building, it's why they're used on the fingerboards of violin-family instruments, for the bodies of clarinets and bassoons, and so on. I can't find a datasheet on ebonol but since it was designed to replace ebony I would expect it to be of similar hardness.

Having a harder fingerboard will lead to a brighter tone, but a lot of fretless bassists dislike ultra-hard boards (the ones coated with epoxy, poly or cyanoacrylate) because the tonal balance sounds off to them -- then again other bassists seek it out.
 
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#4
I owned one of these and they had “mwah” for days, provided you used roundwound strings.

I also changed the pickup to Dimarzio model J’s - I don’t recommend for this bass, they’re darker than the original pickups, so much of the fretless tone is lost. You want a wide range pickup, or just keep the original.

Also, don’t bother upgrading the bridge to a BadAss II.

Keep it stock, and change the strings - something bright or full range, and roundwound. They *will* mark up your fretboard.
 
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#9
My fretless basses all have epoxy-coated ebony fingerboards. I could have just skipped the epoxy coating, because ebony is very hard, as woods go. But I really prefer the pronounced brightness, sustain, resonance, tonal definition....and yes, mwah that I feel an epoxy coating provides. While I've never played an ebonol board, I assume its qualities would be very similar to ebony - but with maybe not quite as much brightness, sustain, resonance or tonal definition as an epoxy coating. YMMV.

MM
 
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#10
I mean, I wouldn't be too surprised if there was a slight audible difference - all other things being equal (of course, the point is that "all other things" are basically never equal). But yeah, a softer wood might yield mwah with more mids emphasis, while a harder wood might yield more treble overtones in the mwah. Maybe, In Theory. But in Theory, Theory and Practice are identical. In Practice, however, they are not.

Whatever., I can't hear it in any case.
 
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#11
Mystic Michael said:
My fretless basses all have epoxy-coated ebony fingerboards. I could have just skipped the expoxy coating, because ebony is very hard, as woods go. But I really prefer the pronounced brightness, sustain, resonance, tonal definition....and yes, mwah that I feel an expoxy coating provides. While I've never played an ebonol board, I assume its qualities would be very similar to ebony - but with maybe not quite as much brightness, sustain, resonance or tonal definition as an epoxy coating. YMMV.

MM
Click to expand...

bholder said:
I mean, I wouldn't be too surprised if there was a slight audible difference - all other things being equal (of course, the point is that "all other things" are basically never equal). But yeah, a softer wood might yield mwah with more mids emphasis, while a harder wood might yield more treble overtones in the mwah. Maybe, In Theory. But in theory, Theory and Practice are identical. In Practice, however, they are not.

Whatever., I can't hear it in any case.
Click to expand...
Hah! Case in point! Makes sense, someone hears it. Maybe I will if I coat the neck on a fretless I already have and know. (Have one that is actually due, finally, after 30 years, but I'm going with super glue rather than epoxy. Still hard though.)
 
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#12
You need to check the string height, especially at the nut. The Squier nut height is usually set for fretted necks. You need to lower the nut height and get the strings closer to the fingerboard to get the mwah sound. Have a luthier who knows about fretless bass setup do this. The above posts are correct in that setup is the main factor in mwah. Good luck.;)
 
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#13
Dana R Gregory said:
You need to check the string height, especially at the nut. The Squier nut height is usually set for fretted necks. You need to lower the nut height and get the strings closer to the fingerboard to get the mwah sound. Have a luthier who knows about fretless bass setup do this. The above posts are correct in that setup is the main factor in mwah. Good luck.;)
Click to expand...

I have a Sire fretless, and I think the nut is also cut for fretted. Any insight as to nut slot depth measurements off the fretboard one would want?
 
#17
Ender_rpm said:
I have a Sire fretless, and I think the nut is also cut for fretted. Any insight as to nut slot depth measurements off the fretboard one would want?
Click to expand...
Read the post I linked earlier in this thread. It's a topic that's discussed occasionally in the Luthier's Corner and setup/repair forum.
Ender_rpm said:
I appreciate your scientific approach XD
Click to expand...
Empiricism is one of the foundations of the scientific method!
bridge.gif
 
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#18
I've always found neck stiffness, string type, set-up (esp. neck relief and action), pickup type & placement, EQ and (of course) technique are all much bigger factors in fretless tone than what particular wood is used. One aspect of the fingerboard that does seem to matter is finish hardness. In general, a board coated in urethane will sound more lively than raw wood.
 

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