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Mwah-ha-ha . . .

#41
Good advice here. Lower action nut, bridge, or both, hard fingerboard....but there is real magic in playing fretless without the mwah. It's always there when you want it. Besides slides I like to summon it with vibrato. I prefer flat chrome strings on mine.
 
#42
So much good stuff from everyone, I really appreciate the responses!

Many suggested checking the nut: it's super low and has the grooves in the rosewood behind it to keep the strings low.

Also a lot of suggestions to lower the action even more. I did this and now there is some mwahish sound, but also slight buzzing that sounds a bit like distortion. It's not the same buzzing like from neck bow: that ugly, burpy, sound killing buzz you get on the low or high fret positions. More like a fuzzy, distorted mwah sound.

Anyway, I'll keep messing with it. It's different than I expected. Maybe it won't be the sound I wanted but the sound I need or something.
 
#43
My first fretless didn't mwah much at all but I didn't care because the BL at the time hated mwah. I sold it (along with other basses) when I retired. Then I started piecing together parts basses and got hooked on building fretless basses in the last few years.

My two builds with the most mwah are the two with Ebony fret boards (the others are rosewood and pau ferro). But I still cannot get the "in your face mwha" of the pro fretless soloists. Although I get very close, for now it's enough. I don't think I want that much mwah in a live band situation anyway. But it sure would be nice to have one that mwah'd at every note played.

BTW I agree on the great mwah after the 7th fret area.
 
#44
I had the same issue with Brice 35" 5 strings from Rondo, good 13-14 years ago...
Someone says - lower the strings... I did not care too much, since, I did not use it in public. It was cheap experiment with things, I was not very familiar with...
Anyhow. when I put Chromes, started playing with the strings, thing stared to come to life. I can tell you - one twist on the screw of string heights can make it or not. It is that sensitive. It takes time to make it sing.
Second thing - pluck it with the side of the finger like upright bass somewhere around 1/2 of the length of the string.
Third thing - lower the pickups a bit. Since pickups hold the string of singing (feedback, kind of thing). I found that every instrument is different and takes time to know it. There is no general instruction, except to experiment and find the best option.
 
#45
dmac1961 said:
I would look at the nut. It's not uncommon on factory basses to have the string slots left a little too high.
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Haven't read the whole thread so i hope this isn't redundant. When i got my fret less P/J from Rondo it was suffering from lack of Mawh and i could feel every plastic fret insert. After much (very much) sanding i ended up with a smooth neck (as a bonus it now has a compound radius) without feel from the fret lines. Sound was much improved but really came to life after lowering the nut a lot! Also i coated the board with several very thin coats of Tung oil. YMMV.
 
#46
I had the exact same jazz, and was not happy with the same aspect. Also had a EB Stingray 5 fretless that you could play all day with different strings and it did not sound like a fretless. Set up is critical, but I think there are some basses that don't sound like we envision a fretless to behave. I have a Zon Sonus with TI flats on it that satisfies that need. If you can play available basses in your area I believe it is much more productive than ordering and playing Russian Roulette with what you get shipped.
 
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#47
I feel the need for an addendum because I wouldn't want anyone to read this and think these mim fretless Fenders are no good.

I put on some new strings, lowered the action to almost buzzing, set the controls to bridge only with about 50% tone, and have been more deliberate with my hands and now I'm getting beautiful, glavin flavin mwah out of it. In fact, the more I play the more I'm enjoying it. I'm getting some tones I have never been able get out other fretless basses. Definitely a keeper.

In this case there was nothing inherently wrong with the bass. As most suggested, it's all in the setup and technique!
 
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#49
Lujon said:
I recently bought a fretless bass that has NO mwah sound (not my favorite word but best way to describe it). It's a 2008 mim jazz bass with rosewood fingerboard, roundwound strings, nice straight neck and low action but it sounds exactly like a fretted jazz. I like the sound of a jazz bass but I already own a fretted jazz and bought this because I was looking for the sound of a fretless jazz bass.

This is the fifth fretless bass I've owned and all the previous ones had the sound one would expect from a fretless. I'm more perplexed than bothered by it, I'd really like to figure out what's different about this one. Any ideas?
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I own a few fretless basses lined and unlined and can’t imagine how you can’t muster even a little Mwah.

Remember that Mwah isn’t produced by bending the notes as on a fretted bass. Your fingers need to move from the headstock to the body (longitudinal) rather than across (transversely) the neck.
 
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#50
Well since this thread was raised from the dead, and I am the OP I guess I can update that the problem has long been solved. I replaced the neck with an allparts neck with ebony fingerboard and the bass instantly sounded amazing, it’s got mwah coming out the mwahole. Wasn’t the setup, the strings or the pickups. The other neck was just a dud.
 
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#55
Yeah mwah gets talked about on the DB side some as mostly a setup especially neck scoop issue. So it makes sense that the more virtuosic electric fretless stuff often gets lots more mwah flavor in general thanks to the help lower string height and flatter fingerboards provide to the player. It's a standout sound for sure.

With fretted basses having a somewhat related setup issues thanks to fret buzz, seems like one could EQ out some of the more pronounced mwahness when unwanted, or hit a volume boost but pluck less aggressively? Then a compressor after to make it all more forgiving, and then an envelope filter for a hulk mwah transformation, and then a synth for subharmonic subwoofer filter sweeps...and a fog machine with limelights and a trampoline to launch from onstage. MMMWWWAAAHHH!!!!!!!
 
#56
Joe Nerve said:
That's what I was about to suggest.

I have an acoustic that I had lots of different strings on. No mwhah... just a thumpy sort of sound that wasn't incredibly inspiring. I had a set of nylon tapewounds laying around, threw them on, and mwwwwWOW! Its like a completely different bass.
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Well, yeah. I dont play fretless, but tapes are definitely the go-to for an ABG.
 

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