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My first fretless- Cant find flat wound strings??

B

BluesyRocker

Aug 22, 2009
76
0
#1
Heres my first fretless its a cheap bas i wasnt playing much, did the defretting myself, and my first fretless intonation also, has been a learning experience and a test of patience :). Went too 3 music shops in my area today including a guitar specialist and not one had flat wound bass strings. The last shop sold me a set of strings telling me they where flat wounds for $40.00 aud, as I was walking down the street i decided to take a quick look at them, and realised they where regular coil wounds. I went back in and got a refund, some of these shop guys are clueless.
Anyways Im now faced with the possibility of having to drive about an hour into the city just to get strings, pretty ridiculous. Im in Sydney Aus and one of the music shop guys told me its something to do with the imports coming in from america going up too some ridiculous prices or something so none is ordering anything. Ive strung it up with regular strings, just too muck around on it a bit and will probably have too sand the neck again before i put the flat wounds on too take out some minor scratches, but its all fun, Im really enjoying playing fretless, good ear training and forcing me to be more precise with my playing.:bassist:

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#6
Why would you want flatwounds on your fretless anyway? :ninja:


Oh, and roundwounds won't tear up your fingerboard as quickly as you think.

By the time they will show their marks you'll already be an experienced fretless player.
Maybe ;), you'd at least had enough practice on it.

And by the time your fingerboard becomes unplayable because of the rounds... you can easily have saved up for a new bass when your a grandpa with more disposable income.

:ninja:


:p

SAY YES TO ROUNDS
 
#8
René_Julien;7930776 said:
Why would you want flatwounds on your fretless anyway? :ninja:


Oh, and roundwounds won't tear up your fingerboard as quickly as you think.

By the time they will show their marks you'll already be an experienced fretless player.
Maybe ;), you'd at least had enough practice on it.

And by the time your fingerboard becomes unplayable because of the rounds... you can easily have saved up for a new bass when your a grandpa with more disposable income.

:ninja:


:p

SAY YES TO ROUNDS
Click to expand...

Huge +1!
Get roundwounds, they sound better, they cost less, and they are available at your music store.
 
#11
It depends. Do you want the "electric fretless" tone with lots of mwah accentuated my high mids and highs? Or, do you want a more double bass tone with deeps lows and warm, woody detail in the low mids and mid mids and soft upper mids and mellow highs. If you want the first tone, SS rounds or nickel rounds are the only way to go. If you want the second tone, you can get there in varying degrees with tapewounds and flatwounds. Pressurewounds and Groundwounds will be in between.
 
#14
Ryan Mohr said:
It depends. Do you want the "electric fretless" tone with lots of mwah accentuated my high mids and highs? Or, do you want a more double bass tone with deeps lows and warm, woody detail in the low mids and mid mids and soft upper mids and mellow highs. If you want the first tone, SS rounds or nickel rounds are the only way to go. If you want the second tone, you can get there in varying degrees with tapewounds and flatwounds. Pressurewounds and Groundwounds will be in between.
Click to expand...

+1
 
#16
Even here in the US, it's sometimes hard to find strings. Took me forever to find some nylon flatwounds for my Carvin fretless 5'er. Only place I could find them readily available was juststrings. Guitard Center didn't carry them, and wouldn't order them for me either. :hmm:
 
#17
TheMutt said:
Even here in the US, it's sometimes hard to find strings. Took me forever to find some nylon flatwounds for my Carvin fretless 5'er. Only place I could find them readily available was juststrings. Guitard Center didn't carry them, and wouldn't order them for me either. :hmm:
Click to expand...

going to a guitar store to buy strings these days is like going to the news agent for the news. go online... and welcome to the 21st century.
 
#18
When I first got a fretless ( a 6 string )I was told that I should only use Flat wounds...if you think it's hard getting flats, try getting a 6 string set. The only 6 string set I could find at the time were Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats. After forking out £50 per set twice I realise that I could save £30 per string change by getting really good round wounds which sound better (IMO) and after a few changes of strings have saved enough money to have the whole flipping finger board replaced if need be! As It happens 5 years later of playing just round wounds the ebony finger board is hardly marked let alone damaged....choose your strings on sound not because someone with bad technique ruins there own finger board.
 
#19
TVBBass said:
When I first got a fretless ( a 6 string )I was told that I should only use Flat wounds...if you think it's hard getting flats, try getting a 6 string set. The only 6 string set I could find at the time were Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats. After forking out £50 per set twice I realise that I could save £30 per string change by getting really good round wounds which sound better (IMO) and after a few changes of strings have saved enough money to have the whole flipping finger board replaced if need be! As It happens 5 years later of playing just round wounds the ebony finger board is hardly marked let alone damaged....choose your strings on sound not because someone with bad technique ruins there own finger board.
Click to expand...

well thats a load of crap because unless you're really hard on your strings and break them all the time you should be able to play the same set of flats for at least 2 years, or even longer (as many have).
 

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