Never had a fretless bass before, but I just ordered one and it comes stock with round wounds on it. Since I don’t like rounds, I will be replacing them with flats. Do flats sound any different on an fretless vs fretted? Are there any sound clips available that will demo any differences? Can anyone tell me what tonal differences I should expect?
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Fretted and fretless sound…
- Thread starter unclebass
- Start date
It's the same difference as on a regular bass.
Rounds sound more punchier and sharper with more overtones/higher frequencies. If you're looking for a Jaco sound, you want rounds. That sharp, crispy sound doesn't last forever though. Over time they will start to sound duller.
Flats are warmer, with a lot less overtones/higher frequencies in them. As they are already quite warm, they usually don't lose as much in tone over time.
Some video's showing rounds and flats on a fretless:
Of course you will sound differently depending on your technique and the bass you use, but these video's demonstrate the string differences nicely.
Hope that helps.
-edit- typos
Rounds sound more punchier and sharper with more overtones/higher frequencies. If you're looking for a Jaco sound, you want rounds. That sharp, crispy sound doesn't last forever though. Over time they will start to sound duller.
Flats are warmer, with a lot less overtones/higher frequencies in them. As they are already quite warm, they usually don't lose as much in tone over time.
Some video's showing rounds and flats on a fretless:
Of course you will sound differently depending on your technique and the bass you use, but these video's demonstrate the string differences nicely.
Hope that helps.
-edit- typos
Last edited:
Over in the fretless club, tapewound strings have been suggested to have the string smoothness but a 'sharper' sound like roundwounds. I haven't tried them myself, so take this comment with a grain of salt.
I use rounds on mine. I think you get more "mwah" from rounds. Flats are more "thumpy" but these are all generalizations of course and very subjective.
probably not if you want details: too many variables.
glad you're into a fretless, however, i know you'll have fun! congrats!
In my admittedly limited experience with fretless basses wearing flats? My answer would have to be: if you play the fretless with the same technique you play your fretted bass? No, there's no difference - that I can hear, anyway. But, if you play your fretless bass like most people think you're supposed to play it? Then, Yes; there's a difference. But, it's a difference in the...style? of the tone. The basic tone is the same, with or without frets. Whichever flats you like on a fretted bass? You'll almost certainly like them on a fretless.
Currently, I have 3 lined fretless basses, and 2 of them wear flats. The odd one out, wears Roto TruBass 88M Tape wounds. It's a 32" scale, '93 Fury Anthem, that was built by a mad Canadian genius - by himself, in his basement - to wear tape wounds, and to mimic an upright bass as closely as possible. And, believe me - he succeeded. Especially if you play it like an upright bass. I originally put short scale TI Jazz Flats on it, and the sounds it made were... well, I hope I never hear those noises, ever again. Anyhow...
The other two? One is a '23 Custom Shop G&L Kiloton lined fretless. I quickly removed the rounds it came with, and replaced them with a set of La Bella LTF-4A Low Tension Flats that I'd bought for a different bass - but never used. The other bass is a '24 Schecter Stiletto Studio Fretless that I've had for about 10 days now. It's factory Ernie Ball Group IV Flats are not yet broken in, but I'm pretty sure they won't get replaced any time soon...
Although both the EB Group Flats and the La Bella Low Tension Flats are flats I'd never played before, I can't imagine they'd sound any different on a fretted version of the basses they're on now. Especially if I used the same playing technique on them. But, that's the really nice thing about a fretless bass; you can play it like a fretted bass; or, you can play it like a fretless, with all the "Mwah" and slides you want.
So... yeah; put whatever flats you like on that new fretless - and just... play the snot out of it...
