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NBD! First Fretless :)

#41
Bought my VM Fretless Jazz a year ago. The Bass came with factory rounds which were nice. I switched over to Chromes after a few months. Like the Chromes better.( Doing a lot of old school R&B, funk, etc.) The Ebanol fretboard is very tough. Satin neck has a nice feel -similar to my Stingray. The DD pickups sound pretty good to me too.
Congrats -these Squiers are very nice!
 
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#44
I have that bass, and I use D'Addario Chromes. Mine was modded with '62 RI pickups, a brass nut, Wilkinson tuners and a nicely figured tort pickguard. I replaced the add-on Fender American '62 RI electronics with a Santellan Sounds jazz bass harness with a series/parallel selector. Gonna put the '62 RI electronics in another project. Those basses are very much sleepers, and are very malleable, tone-wise.
 
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#45
Welcome to the world of fretless. I joined in 1993 when I bought a Godin Accousticaster with an ebony board. Round wound strings playing in church 30+ times a year and the board is still in good shape. A light touch is all you need - just enough for good tone. I tried stainless once for about a week - didn't care for the sound or the stickyness. Tried flats once, didn't like the tone. Love the mwaaa and bloom.

Once you get comfortable with your intonation try playing around with being a few cents flat and sharp in relation to the band. It is interesting how such a small change can affect how you sound while still sounding "in tune" (enough for live music anyway).
 
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#48
Congrats! Very nice bass - a perfect starter for fretless and one that can carry you far past "starter" status. The EMGs will be a big improvement over the stock p'up, so you should be set for a good, long time.

I'm not going to address the fingerboard wear issue at all, since that horse has been beaten hard enough in countless other threads (many of which I beat upon a bit myself).
I've played fretless almost as long as I've played bass (I started FL only six months or so after buying my first fretted bass) and I mostly use rounds. I've found any nickel round to work pretty well, but I find the DR Sunbeams to lend themselves particularly well to FL.

A couple of years ago, I started messing around with Ken Smith Compressors and I like them quite a bit, There's a set living full-time on my FL Stingray. I find these to be somewhere between flats and rounds, but much closer to rounds in feel and tone. Nice.

I've never warmed up to 1/2 rounds (ground wounds). For me, they were always the worst of both worlds, but they have a devoted following so there must be something to them I'm missing. I certainly wouldn't steer you away from them just because I didn't like them. Try 'em and see what you think!

I only keep two of my FL basses strung with flats: a P-bass and a Rickenbacker. On the P-bass I've used Ernie Ball light-gauge flats for years and on the Ric I use Thomastic-Infelds.
I would recommend the Ernie Balls to you if you're just trying flats for the first time. They're not very expensive, they have a nice even tone and they are not very high tension. I found them easy to adjust to after playing rounds for many years. I did not have the same luck with Chromes or LaBellas. It's not that those are bad strings; they're great strings, but the tension takes some getting used to after rounds and the light-gauge Ernies were closer to what I was used to. The TIs are very expensive and have a very mid-heavy tone and very low tension. They're great also, but kind of an acquired taste for some folks. For a good starter flat (for your good starter fretless) I suggest Ernie Balls. Just my experience, of course!

Enjoy the fretless journey!
 
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#51
Have not waded through whole thread…if you dig rounds, then agree that DR Sunbeams or Smith Compressors are worth trying if you want the round wound zing and to minimize board wear.

BUT…my favorite strings of all time, on fretless, are the Sadowsky Flats. I have them on my fretless five, and every time I play this axe, I marvel at the tonal range I can pull out of these. Not as slappable as rounds, but that's not why you have a fretless in the first place! Otherwise, very sensitive to touch and right-hand placement, capable of blooming like an upright, or cutting like mad, with a bit of judicious eq or appropriate hand technique. My fretless has a single MM pickup, and if I pluck down by the bridge, with a mid-range bump, I can get a pick-like attack, that sounds like the 1980's. I've otherwise used DR (Like them also, but thumpier), different La Bellas, TI Jazz Flats, Chromes (do NOT dig them…)…the Sadowsky flats rule.
 
#53
Congratulations on such a handsome and good sounding bass. You have done well, and I like those black knobs. :bassist:
I have used many string types on my fretlesses through the years, and have enjoyed these. TIs sound great
on fretlesses. I played a fretless Jazz not long ago that had D'Addario Chromes that had plenty of mwah for a flat.
Very impressive sound. I use GHS Pressurewounds on my fretless P Bass, and they give you mwah like a round and easy on those phenolic boards.
GHS Tapes are really interesting strings as well. I have a set on my 5 string fretless. My suggestion is to use a set of strings you use regularly and
start from there first. Happy Fretlessing!
 
#55
Ih
bassbenj said:
It's only an Epic (an entry level Alembic). It's a fretless 6 and yes it is awesome. I saw one in the local bass store and fell in love and ordered a fretless version. Only thing is mine is flamed maple which back then when I saw it I thought was awesome, but the next alembic that replaced the one in the store was burled walnut which was even MORE awesome yet, but too late for me get one. Today flamed maple is sort of standard. My main regret was I didn't pay to get the marker LEDs on the neck. The brass markers get dark over time and you can't see them well on a dark stage. So you have to sand and varnish them to restore them. LEDs would have been the cat's meow. Has GHS Ground Wounds on it.

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oh, my, sweet lord! Soooooo cooooool! Entry level alembic? Having an alembic speaks for it's self
 

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