Need a help for fretless bass decision

[Fretless370]

Thank you, so SR500F is 475 USD and SRF700 is 790 USD, the range is 315 USD, is the price between them worth to have a SR700 or there is not much diffirencies between them and should I go for SR500F, what do you think ? If you know and experience with SR500F or Cort B4FL, can you share it please

I have 3 Ibanez fretless basses (370F, 370EF, 500F) and Love them all. Short and sweet, I would try the 500F and go from there. I say this because you are going to notice a difference between the size of necks. Your MM's is beefier than the Ibby's. Also, some don't like the string spacing on the Ibby's but I have smaller hands so they work well for me...

 

[AndyPanda]

I picked up a Might Mite fretless neck in the classifieds here. And it is a very nice feeling/playing neck with a polished ebanol fingerboard. And they aren't very expensive.

If I were you I'd grab a Squier (J or P - whatever you prefer) and a fretless neck. Then you have a bass you can easily switch back and forth - fretted or fretless.

 

[Aidil]

I have 3 Ibanez fretless basses (370F, 370EF, 500F) and Love them all. Short and sweet, I would try the 500F and go from there. I say this because you are going to notice a difference between the size of necks. Your MM's is beefier than the Ibby's. Also, some don't like the string spacing on the Ibby's but I have smaller hands so they work well for me...

String spacing among those 3 fretless basses you've mentioned are the same standard 19 mm string spacing (at bridge) as most 4 string basses from any brands out there. So, there shouldn't be any issue.

Among OP list of fretless basses, only the SRF705 has tighter (16.5 mm) string spacing, since this one is a 5 string SR bass. But it seems he is leaning more towards the 4 strings (SRF700 or SR500F).

Anyhow... tight string spacing shouldn't be issue in fretless, since it would be least likely to be played with slap and pop technique (although it could).

 

[zontar]

I have an SR500F and I like the SRF700.
Yes I am a big Soundgear fan--the necks are great and the bodies are will balanced.
You may feel differently--but I wouldn't pass them over--at least to try out & see if they suit you.

 

[JohnnyTog]

I have an SR500F and I like the SRF700.
Yes I am a big Soundgear fan--the necks are great and the bodies are will balanced.
You may feel differently--but I wouldn't pass them over--at least to try out & see if they suit you.

Thank you, I tried SRF700 and I am very impressed but I couldn't chance to try B4FL and SR500 because they are available online, Cort B4FL's date of made 2013 and Ibanez's date of made 2010 and they are selling as brand new, so you can imagine how fretless popular in my country

 

[JohnnyTog]

I picked up a Might Mite fretless neck in the classifieds here. And it is a very nice feeling/playing neck with a polished ebanol fingerboard. And they aren't very expensive.

If I were you I'd grab a Squier (J or P - whatever you prefer) and a fretless neck. Then you have a bass you can easily switch back and forth - fretted or fretless.

Thank you for your opinion, I was looking at Squire and I couldn't find new or 2nd hand and that kind of option isn't available for me because creating time for playing bass is really hard for me

 

[BassJuju]

I had a Ibanez SRF705 and really liked the way it felt and played. However, the electronics were a total disaster. The piezo was fuzzy most of the time, there were multiple dead shorts in the wiring, and the components internally were defective. Ibanez could have not cared less and did nothing except stall on doing any kind of repair. I learned during this time that most experience this level of problems with the SRF70X and I could have paid to get it re-wired or whatever, but choose to return it. GC let me do so outside of the 45 days and I happily returned it. One thing is for sure, I will never purchase another Ibanez of any kind. I considered the Tony Franklin Fender and almost pulled the trigger, but really wanted it to be a 5. I ordered a Kiesel and it should be delivered in the next few weeks. I also looked strongly at the Sire basses. There are lots of folks that have good things to say about them, but I really wanted to buy an American made product. If I had to do over again, I might order the TF P-bass. I might still.

 

[Aidil]

Thank you, I tried SRF700 and I am very impressed but I couldn't chance to try B4FL and SR500 because they are available online, Cort B4FL's date of made 2013 and Ibanez's date of made 2010 and they are selling as brand new, so you can imagine how fretless popular in my country

Compared to those years, Cort and Ibanez have changed few specs of their recent B4FL and SR500F productions. While maintaining the pickups, they have given both model new preamps.

 

[JohnnyTog]

Hello everyone, thank you for your all ideas and opinions. It helped me a lot, I looked at secand hand market and I found a Marcus Miller V7 Fretless Alder for 310 USD, he said that he is musician and he used the bass only for one record and after that, he just put the bass to corner and the bass is almost waiting 6 months for new owner. I am going to see it for tomorrow he is near where I am working and I'll check and If the bass is looking good I'll buy it for that price, I am very curious for your opinions and advices specially you Aidil you helped me alot on this path. Thank you

Here are the pictures of bass.

 

[Aidil]

good luck with your journey to fretless world

 

[MixBass]

I find the ibanez gary Willis bass pretty good around that price point as well.