Strings for Fretless

[Oopsdabassist]

I think this counts as a technical issue, I blagged a cheapo fretless neck from Dave Vader (Cheers Dave its spot on) which I am bunging onto an old Squier P. Its my first foray into fretless and I have NO idea what sort of strings I should be putting on, all comments and tips welcome

Cheers folks!

[Panamonte]

Obviously it's a matter of horses for courses and ultimately it depends on your personal preferences . For what it's worth I put TI flats on my bitsa jazz fretless and they do the trick for me. Initially I'd suggest you try any strings you have to hand, see if they give you the kind of sound you're after. If they do - great. If not, then at least you'll have better idea of what you want more or less of. EQ is very important too - boost the mids and roll off the bottom end if you want to accentuate the 'mwah'.

[debwilliams]

I bought some Rotosound Jazz flats last week and I'm very happy with them.

[Dave Vader]

that particular neck has always had a fondness for fender 9050 flats, it had rounds on for a bit, but it didn't like them much.
Cheap, bright and plenty mwaaaaahy enough.

[Oopsdabassist]

Thanks for the replies, I was just a bit worried the original strings might chew up the fretboard, so I guess my query should have been a bit more specific, are flats kinder to fretless boards? I've never used flatwounds before so have no idea

[Dave Vader]

yep, they don't chew the wood as much so you don't have to sand it all out very often (like I had to on that neck)

[Oopsdabassist]

Ok so my question SHOULD have read, what are the best flats for [s]metal[/s] newbie

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Oopsdabassist' timestamp='1343388838' post='1749943']
Thanks for the replies, I was just a bit worried the original strings might chew up the fretboard, so I guess my query should have been a bit more specific, are flats kinder to fretless boards? I've never used flatwounds before so have no idea
[/quote]

Flatwounds won't cause as much wear to a fingerboard, but at the same time they won't sound like round- or ground-wound strings, so if that's the sound you want you'll have to use the right strings.

Having said that, the amount of wear is dependent on how abrasive the strings are plus how soft the wood of the fingerboard is. I have an Overwater fretless that is almost 30 years old. It's been strung with nickel round-wound strings for most of its life. The fingerboard is marked but not yet worn enough to require attention.

[ead]

My personal favs are the TI JF344s but for half the price I think the Fender 9050 CLs are really good too.

I've not noticed any significant wear from flats yet (my longest serving f/l was in my possession for around 3 years strung with flats).

[Beer of the Bass]

I really liked TI jazz flats on the last fretless I had. Obviously, they don't have the bright treble of roundwounds, but they're not traditional sounding flatwounds either as they're open sounding and lively in the mids and have good sustain. They felt and sounded sort of like a miniature version of the TI Spirocores I have on my double bass, which is a good thing IMO. They're fairly low tension, but I like that on fretless.