Hellzero

The Sadowsky VTC is a direct replacement preamp, so it might be interesting too, just like a lot of John East dedicated models as said before: https://www.east-uk.com/product-category/j-style/?v=d3dcf429c679 Check the J-Tone as it seems to be what you're looking for. John is always there and you can talk directly with him to get exactly what you want. And the volume potentiometers not doing much is quite typical for a Jazz Bass. 😉

Not really a prototype, but a 1992 model, when the design was still not (quite) definitive. There's also its sibling fretted version that was sold for peanuts a few months ago, but needed a lot of work that João Godinho in Luxemburg did under Christophe Leduc remote supervision.

My brand new Leduc U-Basse 6 Fretless Custom ordered a bit more than 5 years ago was delivered to me by Christophe for my ... birthday. What a self gift ! I'll post way better photos later. The specs are: One piece Brazilian mahogany body. Red cedar patented floating sound board, Set in Canadian hard rock maple neck, 128 years old Brazilian rosewood thick fingerboard, Luminlay's as dot positions markers as well as on the 3 quilted maple knobs, Macassar ebony bridge as well as the 6 tuning knobs, Original Q-Tuner magnetic pickups, Fishman BP-100 twin piezo pickup at tuned locations under the sound board, Fishman PowerChip preamp buffer that allows "stereo" splitting or "mono" mixed output with a stereo or mono cable, Blend of the magnetic pickups, volume of these, volume of the twin piezo, Weight is 3.490 kilos.

This French guy makes some amazing instruments and he can play them too !

If the truss rod tool you ordered doesn't work, this one will: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grover-8020-Autoharp-Tuning-Hammer/dp/B0002F7IEE/

My favourite "cover":

Literally extraordinary. Thank you for sharing @Rich !

On a record where I used to play a fretted and a fretless bass depending the track, afterwards it's hard to tell which is which as I was able to play the fretted Leduc U-Basse in such a way that it sounded like a fretless and the fretless Leduc Masterpiece was sounding like a fretted bass under my fingers on dole tracks So it can work both ways @Linus27. 😉 @Rayman : You could try the Fodera round wound nickel strings on your fretless as they are really excellent, but hélas quite expensive. I stopped using them because of that.

This is the string packaging that is patented, in fact! 🤦🏻‍♂️ https://patents.google.com/patent/US8839952B2/

I tried a few sets on my fretted basses. The 4 strings set was engaging, that's why I bought a fiver and a sixer set, and there came the utter deception: both B strings were dead sounding and C string was really dull and I also had a weaker sounding A string in one set. Cheap, but not reliable and the patent they pretend to have doesn't exist at all. I came back to the good ol' Elixir's.

This link is working correctly : https://aliexpress.com/item/1005003985410165.html

You don't have to have Facebook (I have no Facebook account) to lose your time watching videos or other useless things there Douglas. 😉

So no need for a logo. Do you have some sense of humour?

Thanks a lot @Linus27 and it confirmed I don't like fretless P-Bass hollow tone, but that's only me, and it's only a question of personal taste, so no need to start a war here. 😉 Thanks a lot for your tone examples.

Strange notion of fake... Are you Chinese? 🤦🏻‍♂️

Exactly what I said earlier, the shielding is not grounded... The bridge must be grounded too.

To me this is the ugliest colour ever, it's like going to a funeral home, it doesn't make me feel good at all. ☹️

I really the first fretless tone on each example (A1, B1 & C1) @Linus27. The #2 is too hollow sounding for my taste and #3 is quite similar with more upper mids. So what are the strings on this #1 bass please?

This is a CNC machined bass and it's an amazing instrument!

The Thomastik Flatwounds will be a major improvement over the dull monel strings as they are flatwounds that sound more opened than anything else in this category, but if you're looking for harmonics, you'll have to go roundwounds. If you have a bit of patience, as they need to break in and it takes some time, try the Rotosound's RS66LD, they have all you're after. That said the Labella White Nylon's are the best nylon strings for fretless as they don't sound plastic like all the other proposals in the nylon range (and they are roundwound inside the nylon). You could also try the Elixir nickel plated and of course coated as they won't mark the fingerboard and sound excellent on fretless basses. That said start unplugged with the strings and once you've found what you like, let the thunder get alive.

Ground the shielding, the problem will be solved. It's a more than common issue with badly made shieldings.

Is the copper shielding grounded?