Strings for fretless

[getBAK]

I've been through a bunch of different options with fretless and strings. Pretty much anything you can imagine from stainless rounds to ground-wounds to flats.
Nothing has the Muah like the D'Addario Tapewounds. It just jumps off the neck

For the record, I did wear out a fretboard running Stainless Rounds on a fretless. It took about 10 years on a touring bass.

 

[Hasty]

I've used GHS super steels and TI Flat Wound Round Cores. I got great tone on both but prefer the feel of the flat wounds.
I feel like how I play the bass makes the biggest difference.

 

[groovepump]

He nailed the recipe. Good round wounds are the beginning but that mwah sound is all in the set up and plucking hand. Actually, I'm a little surprised that the subject of setting up a fretless isn't discussed more often. In my experience a fretless is much more sensitive to set up than a fretted instrument. The nut will typically need to be filed down (or lowered if you have a Warwick), the neck will need to be just a touch off perfectly flat and the strings need to be as low as possible. The "mwah" sound is the string changing length as it vibrates against the fingerboard. That won't happen if you set it up like a fretted bass. My fretless instruments are set up so low that a minor temperature change will cause them not to ring properly. Then I rest my thumb on the end of the fingerboard and pluck the strings in front of the neck pickup #mwah
Setting intonation is a PIA since you can't really play a perfectly fretted note. You will need to use harmonics (not sliding ones though )

YES!!!!

 

[Deleted member 165050]

I believe, and I'm fairly sure that I'm correct, that Tony Franklin uses rounds on bare ebony, and has done so since the 80s (or longer)

DR Sunbeams to be precise. His fingerboards are probably replaced every few months. Just kidding

It all depends on the player, the kind of player who wears frets with rounds will do the same to an unlined fretless board. Whereas those of us with delicate and artistic lightness of touch will barely scratch them.

 

[dkelley]

DR Sunbeams to be precise. His fingerboards are probably replaced every few months. Just kidding

It all depends on the player, the kind of player who wears frets with rounds will do the same to an unlined fretless board. Whereas those of us with delicate and artistic lightness of touch will barely scratch them.

I played with a very heavy touch, including slapping, chording, and playing all over the neck, from early 88 through roughly 1997 on my fretless, uncoated, wood board. Only ever used rounds. Only just started to get issues you could see, feel and heard by that last summer I owned the instrument. Fix was couple hundred bucks, but I bought an alembic instead. Strange, but true story.

 

[SC Bassboy]

DR Sunbeams to be precise. His fingerboards are probably replaced every few months. Just kidding

It all depends on the player, the kind of player who wears frets with rounds will do the same to an unlined fretless board. Whereas those of us with delicate and artistic lightness of touch will barely scratch them.

Side note: I chat with Tony on Instagram from time to time. He's very friendly and always happy to talk shop with fellow bassists. We had a long conversation about SWR recently.

 

[SteveCS]

Whereas those of us with delicate and artistic lightness of touch will barely scratch them.

That's a pretty harsh sweeping assumption.
Here's an alternative position. Having played a perfect board for a few years and heard (and shared) how initial deterioration affects the sound, even with my light touch, I've a notion that perhaps much a lot of what folks refer to a mwah actually comes from fingerboard imperfections and 'early-onset' damage. And of course the denyers will always deny.
YMMV

 

[Deleted member 165050]

That's a pretty harsh sweeping assumption.
Here's an alternative position. Having played a perfect board for a few years and heard (and shared) how initial deterioration affects the sound, even with my light touch, I've a notion that perhaps much a lot of what folks refer to a mwah actually comes from fingerboard imperfections and 'early-onset' damage. And of course the denyers will always deny.
YMMV

Sigh. My statement was ironic.

Re fingerboard imperfections, in my opinion I could get mwah out of a steel surface smooth to the nearest micron. But then I am superior in almost every way where fretless playing is concerned.


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That was more irony btw...

 

[A1955Harley]

The reality is the sound comes from the fact the string contacts a wood surface and can vibrate a bit different then one that is set against a firm metal surface (the fret) I like flatwounds on mine but also will use Fender 100% nickle roundwounds and DR Sunbeams & Pure Blues. Each have their own sound. I have an Ibanez SR300E with D'Addario flatwounds on it. The SS flats on this bass give the bass a lot of mwah and the tone is unreal. The strings are probably 8-10 years old. I am kinda like James Jamerson when it comes to strings. Once they sound the way I like them nothing it going to get them off that bass.

 

[fretlessguy]

My current fretless strings are Fender and GHS Tapes.

 

[WG Plum]

+1 on Cobalt Flats. Easy on the fingers, easy on the board and produce great mwah with low action and a favored bridge pickup.

Another vote for Cobalt flats, though Sunbeams are lovely too.

 

[fokof]

Any decent band new round wounds will do.
Roundwound is an absolute must.

Use a soft touch and vibrato will get you more Mwhaaa than changing strings.

But neck/construction has a lot more to do than strings IME.