What strings would you put on a fretless stingray?

[JazznFunk]

It's been done to death already but fingerboard wear on fretless seems to be drastically overstated on this site. One time I let a former drummer of mine (keyword: former) play my fretless for all of 20 seconds, and that alone did more damage to the fingerboard in that instant than a year of consistant playing with rounds ever could, either Roto 66s or GHS nickels. I had one fretless with a rosewood board sound better with Chromes flats rather than any roundwound string I tried, but to me the idea of using something you don't prefer for the sake of preserving the fingerboard is counter productive.

As someone with personal experience with Rotos, PressureWounds, GHS Boomers, GHS and Sadowsky Blue Label flats, and DR Sunbeams, I can tell you for sure that SS Rotos put more wear on on one of my my old Jazz Bass's fingerboard in 6 months' time than any other string has done on any other fretless I've owned. I speak from personal experience when I say that DR Sunbeams have been the best FOR ME so far in my 25 years of playing, for fretless specifically. In fact, my post was in support of rounds over any other string - but nickel rounds specifically. To your overarching point, when using nickel rounds or flats, I've never seen appreciable wear. SS rounds - I have.

 

[zortation]

So far Rotosound 66s are way too bright with no meat to the sound. GHS brite flats are better but way too thumpy with not enough sustain, plus I had to put the B and E string ball ends in a vice to fit them in the tail piece. What would you call the middle between those two?

Nickel roundwounds

 

[GIBrat51]

More specifically a 5 string Warwick pretending to be a 2-band stringray.
View attachment 5407298

Ebony fingerboard so any string wear is a non issue.

So far Rotosound 66s are way too bright with no meat to the sound. GHS brite flats are better but way too thumpy with not enough sustain, plus I had to put the B and E string ball ends in a vice to fit them in the tail piece. What would you call the middle between those two?

Last thread on this specific topic is from 2007 so maybe things have changed since then.
Thank you

Well...
Sorry, but you kinda lost me at "5-String" (all my basses - even the fretless ones - are 4s), so I'm afraid I can't be very specific. One of my fretless basses wears Roto TruBass88 Tape wounds; one wears EB Group IV flats; and one wears La Bella LTF-4A low tension flats. Whether or not you can get any of them as a set of 5, I have no idea... But, I'm happy with all of them, as they seem to bring out the best of the basses that wear them. Especially the bass with the Roto Tapes. But, to be fair, I'm pretty sure that the bass - a '93 Fury Anthem - was expressly made to wear tapes. With anything else, the custom-wound pickups sound... well, awful barely describes it. With the Roto tapes? I've never heard an electric bass guitar sound so much like an upright bass, in my life...
So, bottom line? If it were mine, I would go with light gauge flats, or tapewounds. But, like I said; I'm not familiar with the world of strings for a 5-er...

 

[Ellery]

On the subject of choosing strings that will wear less on the wooden fingerboard,
I find it fascinating someone once insisted to me, I should be using nickel rounds instead of stainless steel, because the softer nickel will wear less on my ebony fingerboard. I could see that making a difference on metal frets, but wouldn't either metal wear the same on wood? It's metal!

 

[akukulich]

DR Sunbeams.

 

[hasbeen]

DR Sunbeams. Nickel, soft, easy on the fingerboard and hands, but will still get a great bit of growl. I played GHS Pressurewounds for YEARS on fretless and fretted basses, and found that they went 'dull' very quickly. Flats are often mentioned to avoid wear, or to try and get an 'upright bass tone vague approximation' - but you will not get the full depth of sound out of the bass without rounds, IMO.

I agree with you. Based on your avatar, I see you also play DB. I do too......was a jazz performance major on DB MANY years ago. IMHO, folks that think they'll get DB tone by using flats on a fretless are kidding themselves. I like your "vague approximation" comment.

 

[hasbeen]

On the subject of choosing strings that will wear less on the wooden fingerboard,
I find it fascinating someone once insisted to me, I should be using nickel rounds instead of stainless steel, because the softer nickel will wear less on my ebony fingerboard. I could see that making a difference on metal frets, but wouldn't either metal wear the same on wood? It's metal!

All metals used to make strings are alloys except in theory, "pure" nickel strings. Being alloys, there are many "formulas" in making that metal, whether it's called nickel, nickel plate steel, bronze, phos bronze, stainless etc. Having said that, in general, stainless is harder than nickel so in theory, it is tougher on fingerboards.

Having said that....again, not all round wound stainless strings are the same in regards to "finish" and smoothness or lack there of. So, that comes into play too.

 

[hasbeen]

Just discovered these recently and am loving them. Very smooth feel for a roundwound.
View attachment 5407741

those are very nice strings

 

[Lo-E]

I appreciate all the suggestions.

I'll probably try some nickel roundwounds as some have mentioned. The GHS nickels sounded great on a fretless PJ I used to have.
EB Cobalt flats are really great but every set I've had wants to rust, it must be some kind of body chemistry thing like how some people have nickel allergies.
I agree with the person who said pressurewounds are too high tension- I found a set I took off another bass and even the first 3 strings I put on were way too tight for what I'd prefer. The 5 string set only comes in one set of gauges so I'd bet the lighter 4 string set would be great on a different bass.
DR Hi Beams are a great suggestion that I didn't consider. I've had luck with the sunbeams in the past though they are on the looser side.
I've never tried tapewounds but I'd rather not file the nut slots any wider on this bass as the brass nut was custom made along with the new fingerboard.

Asking advice aside, it sounds like you have a pretty good handle on this.

Since you’re already familiar with both Pressurewounds and Sunbeams, I’ll offer this with those points of reference in mind:

DR Pure Blues are similar to Sunbeams (round core) but are not quite as flexible or smooth and have more mids. Still more flexible and smoother than a lot of strings.

GHS Pure Nickel are also round core, very flexible and smooth and are strong in low mids. The tension is just a little higher than Sunbeams but much lower than Pressurewounds.

Two brands of nickel roundwounds I’ve also had good fretless luck with are Sfarzo and R.Cocco. Both are smaller companies and not widely distributed and both are hex core but they may be worth seeking out for a test drive.

Sfarzo aren’t nickel, exactly; they’re some funky alloy. They are very smooth but the tension is about the same as D’Addario XLs (which I think is pretty typical of hex core nickel rounds) so a little more tension than round cores. They have an even, warm tone and they seem to break in almost immediately and then last forever. They’re not very expensive but they’re hard to find.

R.Cocco are hex core also, a little more flexible than the Sfarzos and also have a very long life. They have a very even, neutral tone. I like these strings a lot but they’re a little expensive. I’ve used them for years on a custom fretless 5 that has a MM p’up near the P position and an ebony board and they’ve been nothing but great. They’re not as scooped as Sunbeams but they’re almost as smooth and they’re pretty flexible.

Just more food for thought.

Incidentally, I agree with your take on fingerboard wear and have said the same things many times here on TB. I’ve definitely seen fretless boards that were pretty chewed up by somebody but I’ve never found it to be a problem in my own experience.

 

[JazznFunk]

I agree with you. Based on your avatar, I see you also play DB. I do too......was a jazz performance major on DB MANY years ago. IMHO, folks that think they'll get DB tone by using flats on a fretless are kidding themselves. I like your "vague approximation" comment.

Indeed. Yeah, whenever I see people say 'I get a great upright bass tone on my fretless electric' without a lot of other qualifiers, I just shake my head. 2 different instruments, 2 different worlds, 2 totally different approaches to sound and technique. Double bass is so much about that huge chamber of a body resonating - something that electric bass cannot touch.

 

[bassdude51]

What strings would you put on a fretless stingray?

Generally speaking and this statement is by no means "law of the land dogma"...........kind of the purpose of a fretless electric bass is to sound something like a stand up double bass. Perhaps. Sort of. Yeah, many fretless players use rounds. Nothing wrong with that.

But with a fretless, the strings are radiating off of the meat of our fingers and the wood of the fretboard. And perfect intonation is impossible. So, it's a duller and softer sound than radiating off of metal frets.

Thus, if a bassist's goal is to have that "fretless sound"...........why use rounds? But, to each his own and there is no rule or law about it. (Yeah we know, Jaco used rounds.)

IMHO.......flats on a fretless bass makes better sense than rounds. (But what is sense?)

(You can hang me at sunrise for what I said.)

Strings on a fretless 'Ray? Flats. (TIs)

 

[hasbeen]

Indeed. Yeah, whenever I see people say 'I get a great upright bass tone on my fretless electric' without a lot of other qualifiers, I just shake my head. 2 different instruments, 2 different worlds, 2 totally different approaches to sound and technique. Double bass is so much about that huge chamber of a body resonating - something that electric bass cannot touch.

100%

 

[Lo-E]

Thus, if a bassist's goal is to have that "fretless sound"...........why use rounds? (You can hang me at sunrise for what I said.)

Because one player’s definition of “fretless sound” can be completely unlike another’s and rounds sound very different than flats. Just as different on a fretless as they do on a fretted bass.

I, for one, like flats on a couple of my fretless basses but I string far more of them with rounds. Neither option sounds anything like an upright bass but each sounds “right” on its respective instrument and in its respective application to me.

…And nobody needs to be hung at sunrise for having an opinion. Your take on this is just as valid as anyone else’s.