New Year, NBD. First fretless!

So, this year I decided one of my new challenges would be to learn to play fretless. I love that "mwah" sound and it should be good discipline for me to learn to play fretless.

Of course, to do this, I needed a fretless bass. I didn't want to spend too much so I set myself an $800 limit. Going in, I didn't have a strong leaning toward P, J, or modern. However, I did want something with passive pickups. Active EQ OK if I could turn it off. I also wanted one with an ebony fretboard, both because I like ebony and the harder wood is supposed to be good for fretless. (I'd take roasted maple, too, but the only fretless I could find with that is the Sire V5, which literally nobody seems to have in stock.) What I discovered was that unless you want a Tony Franklin or an entry-level Squier, it's really hard to find a fretless right now in the U.S. Something mumble supply chain mumble something.

So I decided to check out Anderton's and Thomann, and when I went to Thomann there it was: a Sire V9 for $168 less than list. Bonus: that made the price $666. Surely this must be the bass for me! (As of this writing, they still have some left at this price. Shipping was like $75 so still under budget.)

I ordered it late last week, and it arrived today—surprisingly quick! I didn't pay for expedited shipping or anything, but UPS was on their game, even coming from Germany. Way to go, UPS.

Here it is:

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I love the quilted top. The brown burst is only OK. When the light's good it looks a bit orange-ish which I like better. While I'm not a huge fan of the Sire V-series headstock shape, I think it looks a lot better when it's color-matched with the quilting and the burst. I like the binding on the fretboard, and I appreciate that the lining for the stops is on the subtle side.

My luggage scale puts it at a pleasant 8 lb 13 oz. (that's 4kg on the nose for anyone outside the U.S.). That's about a pound lighter than I expected so I got a bit lucky there.

Came with flats of unknown brand on it (dark blue silks at both ends—anyone know?); I'll probably put Pressurewounds or Compressors on it soon. It came strung through the bridge rather than the body, which makes sense for flats.

Fortunately, today's weather was cooperative and there wasn't much difference between indoor and outdoor temperature so I didn't feel the need to let it acclimate to being indoors for very long. Plugged it in and it sounds... like a fretless jazz bass. Mwah right out of the box, particularly on the G string. I mostly played in passive, but I futzed around a little with the preamp, and wow, you can get some really weird sounds out of it. Not sure I'll ever use them but some were actually pretty cool, and it's nice to have the option when I want it.

I can tell my intonation isn't very good, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be considering it was the first time I've tried a fretless. How people play unlined fretless the first time I have no idea.

Anyway, more pics attached.

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Thank you!

Ahh, OK. I have pretty limited experience with flats.

 

Honestly don’t know. My M5 also has an ebony board and this looks almost the same (very slightly shinier), but feels slightly smoother, so whatever it is, I don’t think it’s very thick.

 

They make it in a 5 as well.

Yeah, there was just a thread recently about strings for fretless that I read with much interest. I'm not generally a big fan of flats. My other basses have either rounds or pressurewounds/compressors on them. I'm going to give the flats a chance and try those for a while, but unless I come to love them, I'll put pressurewounds/compressors on it.

 

Yes. Pretty standard jazz neck thickness, and Sire does the satin finish rather than the gloss on the neck, so it feels great.

 

LOL. I don't normally name my basses, but if I did, my first thought was actually "Damien."