Strings for fretless

[maxschrek]

Ken Smith Compressors.

 

[Killing Floor]

TI Jazz Flats give a good bite on fretless if you prefer flats.
The question when someone says "classic"' sound is wide open. Who do you want to sound close to?

 

[Vinny_G]

A fretless Jazz Bass, epoxy fingerboard and Rotosound Swing Bass 66 strings with low action are the original ingredients of the "mwah" recipe, invented by Jaco Pastorius in the 1970s.

But back then, there really wasn't any other brand of roundwound strings to choose from, so I think any rounds will do it. Especially since, as my comrades wrote above, the setup of your instrument and your technique are just as important, if not more.

 

[40Hz]

GHS Pressurewounds and LaBella Copper White Nylons are my two gotos.

The Pressurewounds are the most versatile. The white nylons are the most distinctive sounding. Neither one is better than the other, let alone "best." They're both good choices. Two out of many good choices.

In the past I've also used DR Sunbeams, TI flats, and Ken Smith Compressors on my fretless basses. They're all superb string choices.

Getting the "mwah" effect is easiest with brighter round core rounds. But getting it is actually more a matter of technique than strings. I heard one fretless bassist even get it with a set of Chromes. So it just goes to show even bright flats can work if in the right hands.

 

[smokinjoe]

+1 Pressurewounds. Sound great on my Carvin with ebony. No wear issues after hundreds of hours. Nice tight low B. Set-up is the key. I get the mwah by digging in a little harder. It's not there with normal light touch playing.

 

[40Hz]

Refinish it in twenty years or so if needed, no big deal.

^This! Try to see any string wear on a fretless fingerboard as a badge of honor. It shows that your fretless is getting played.

And yeah, it takes a lot of playing time (as in years and tears) before you'll ever need to get your fingerboard releveled due to string wear.

 

[40Hz]

Anyone who answers with anything besides roundwounds isn't answering the question. You may like flats or half wounds but for classic mwah you need rounds.

Assuming there is even is such a thing as "classic mwah." There's as many mwah sounds as there are players and basses.

About the only thing "classic" about it is the tendency of some newly minted fretless player to overuse it. It's a nice effect when used in a tasteful manner. But it can get really old (classic?) really fast. So less is definitely more when it comes to mwah IMO.

 

[drumvsbass]

My Zon loves TI jazz rounds.

 

[40Hz]

Any decent rounds will mwah well; the secret is a hard board - epoxy, ebonol, etc.

You can also get it on rosewood. It's more about technique than gear.

 

[Pirate Captain]

What about potential damage to the fingerboard?

takes a lot to damage an epoxied board...naked rosewood, I'd worry

 

[Pirate Captain]

Sunbeams

Tony Franklin swears by them...that's good enough for me

 

[ardgedee]

If the surface is epoxied you could use barbed wire without harming the fingerboard. Mwah has more to do with setup and technique than type of string.

I've seen rosewood fingerboards absolutely mauled by roundwounds, but that's not your problem. Use any strings you like.

 

[Thumpin6string]

Rounds without a doubt. Finger board wear on a coated board should not be a problem. My fretless 5 has a urethane coated rosewood board with the nut slots filed down to the board and the action pretty low. It is a mwaaa machine.

 

[Element Zero]

Thomastik Infeld Jazz Rounds are amazeballz on fretless.

 

[JRA]

In your experience, what are the best strings for that classic "mwaaaah" on an epoxied fingerboard?

it's not a string --- it's all the other things first - or- any string works!

setup + some technique = mwah. IME: different strings might 'color' the mwah that you and your setup produce....so choose any 'color' you like!

re: "chew up the fingerboard" = myth! over time, any string + playing will impact frets and/or fingerboards and show signs of wear, but it takes years and it's to be expected (duh!) --- whether on frets or raw wood or coated wood. also: if string marks on your fingerboard bother you = you may be too 'sensitive' to play fretless!

FWIW: my slap-happy fretted friends get their frets dressed/plek'd/replaced more often than i've ever had to address fingerboard wear, i.e., once, in thirty years, and i did the work myself...in less than thirty minutes!

mwah disclosure (all with rounds):
- rosewood boards
- ebonol
- ebony
- poly over maple
- fake woods/composites

 

[arbiterusa]

Rotosound. Mwah for weeks.

What about potential damage to the fingerboard?

There is none. I've been playing Rotos for twenty years now on rosewood fingerboards; there are marks but that's it.

Forty years on my Steinberger (ebonol fingerboard). Marks but that's all.

The potential for fingerboard damage is grossly exaggerated by some to the point where I wonder if they have an agenda.

 

[Diminishedfilth]

I've aggressively used D'Addario nickel XL's on Ebony fingerboards for years without any resulting ruts. Some visible markings, for sure, but nothing you could actually feel.
OTOH, my first fretless had that phenolic material as a fingerboard. Being new to fretless, I was still doing vibrato by bending the strings. That resulted in a lot of waxy dust, and a lot of white string shadows on the FB.
Adjusted my technique, doing "squiggle" vibrato (side to side), plucked closer to the neck to get that beautiful note swell and felt like I was making money.

 

[Sam Dingle]

yeah you need rounds for that. If I get a fretless again I'd throw some rounds on it. I doubt I'd play it enough to ever make grooves in it.

 

[MonetBass]

What about potential damage to the fingerboard?

As others have said, that's not a big concern. You'd have to abuse your bass to get significant wear. If you want 'mwah', use roundwound strings. I prefer Ernie Ball Hybrid nickels on my fretless.

EDIT: If you're really worried about wear, coat the fingerboard with epoxy or CA glue. There are some how-to threads on here about the proper way to do either one.

To which I will counter with EB Cobalt Flats.

Further, it is my experience that 'mwah' is much more a function of setup and technique than strings. Almost any string can be made to mwah on a flat board with low action. Since 1984 I've played Roto 66, 55 and 707, Dean Markley Half-Round, d'Addario ProSteel, Nickel and Chrome and EB Slinky and Cobalt Flats. Adding in some relief and raising the action will kill the mwah from even the brightest of shiny new SS rounds.

On the question of fingerboard damage, it is a real thing. The problem is it is easy to mistake minor wear or other imperfections for mwah. In this sound clip from a month or so ago there is slight wear around the F on the D string (14.5s and 27s onwards). The board was Plekked to perfection in September 2017 and this started happening in April 2021, with daily use.

How exactly does a fretless bass get Plekked?

 

[Aloe]

Anyone who answers with anything besides roundwounds isn't answering the question. You may like flats or half wounds but for classic mwah you need rounds.

my double bass has a lot of mwah with flats (I just need to set the action lower than a typical DB).

isn't the mwah of the double bass classic enough?