Flatwound V roundwound on a fretless

[Leen2112]

I've been using flatwound strings on my overwater fretless since the guy i got it from said it was what it needed. I just can't get to grips with them. I'd try using roundwound but I wouldnt want to trash the fretboard even though its an ebony. Or am I being too [color=#222222]Cautious?What do other fretless players think?[/color]

[color=#222222]Cheers Leen.[/color]

[Stacker]

Ebony is pretty hard and you probably not damage the board as much as you would if it were rosewood. Why not try half-rounds/ground-wounds, such as Status Hotwires?

FWIW, I run flats on some of my fretless Jazzes and rounds or groundwounds on others. If you do go the ground-wound route you may have to get the board planed after a while but that could take years before that would need to be done but it depends on how much you gig, I'd guess.

Edited October 4, 2012 by Stacker

[BigRedX]

My oldest fretless bass is almost 30 now. It's got what looks like a rosewood board and has spent most of it's life strung with Nickel round-wounds. Before I bought it, it was previously owned by a fairly high-profile session bassist and has had plenty of use. Fingerboard wear is minimal. By all means use flatwounds if you like the sound, but IMO those who are afraid to use roundwounds because they think it will damage the fingerboard are being over-cautious.

[philw]

I've used round-wounds on my fretless Wal for most of its 29 year life and its (ebony) fingerboard has had a bit of subtle attention on just two occasions. An Overwater with an ebony fingerboard will probably outlast you whatever strings you use.

P

[pierreganseman]

Yeh, use round wounds.. I never got this "OMG I am gonna need a new fingerboard soon"... You'll literally need YEARS to even maybe just need something to be done. Just use rounds ... better sound, and don't be scared, ebony is hard....

[Leen2112]

[quote name='pierreganseman' timestamp='1349432877' post='1826182']
Yeh, use round wounds.. I never got this "OMG I am gonna need a new fingerboard soon"... You'll literally need YEARS to even maybe just need something to be done. Just use rounds ... better sound, and don't be scared, ebony is hard....
[/quote]
[quote name='philw' timestamp='1349375629' post='1825530']
I've used round-wounds on my fretless Wal for most of its 29 year life and its (ebony) fingerboard has had a bit of subtle attention on just two occasions. An Overwater with an ebony fingerboard will probably outlast you whatever strings you use.

P
[/quote]
[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1349372722' post='1825472']
My oldest fretless bass is almost 30 now. It's got what looks like a rosewood board and has spent most of it's life strung with Nickel round-wounds. Before I bought it, it was previously owned by a fairly high-profile session bassist and has had plenty of use. Fingerboard wear is minimal. By all means use flatwounds if you like the sound, but IMO those who are afraid to use roundwounds because they think it will damage the fingerboard are being over-cautious.
[/quote]

Thanks folks, I'll try the rounds........never liked the flats anyway. If anyone is interested there is pictures of this green overwater on the overwater facebook page.

Cheers.

[SoVeryTired]

What about tapewounds? I'm not a fretless expert at all but the one I borrowed had tapewounds to get a compromise between roundwound tone and fingerboard protection - sounded pretty good to me.

[BigRedX]

You should experiment with different types of string if you can afford it. But... if you like the sound and feel of round wound strings then anything else is unlikely to be an adequate substitute.

And all the people going on about wanting to protect their fingerboards, what are they made of? Balsa?

[drTStingray]

Attached is a pic of the pau ferro fretboard of my fretless Stingray (1993) - it is quite swirled around 14th fret and 3rd fret areas by previous owner use of roundwounds and particularly, has a bit of a ridge between 12th and 15th fret under the G string (from extensive use of groundwounds by me). As a result I moved to flatwounds - I tried lots of types but have settled on Ernie Ball Group 3 flatwounds (100, 80, 65, 45). These give a great sound and the bass has tons of mwah - and they have similar tension to roundwounds (some flatwounds seem to have huge tension which affects playability for me).

I have used this bass as a main gigging bass in a couple of bands so has had a lot of use - but it does show that roundwounds will (in Jaco's words) eat your fretboard - especially if you use the bass on a regular basis for performances. I just didn't fancy having to have expensive work done on mine, which has a great figured birds eye maple neck and fretboard, too often.....it's not cheap to do either.

[attachment=120202:basses 001.jpg]

Edited October 5, 2012 by drTStingray

[Lfalex v1.1]

My old fretless Columbus Jazz had a rosewood board. Round wound strings murdered it.
However... My Stingray 5 fretless had a Pau Ferro board, and that held up just fine with rounds on.
Ebony is harder still, so you should be ok with rounds. Nickel ought to be more forgiving than Steel, just like it is on fretted instruments.

[Mog]

Fingerboard wear will also depend on technique and string composition. A lot of vibrato and a heavy hand coupled with abrasive rounds will mark your board. I wouldn't put something like Roto's or Blue Steels on my fretless as they are very abrasive compared to something like XL's or Elites.

[3below]

I find TI flats on my fretless have plenty of zing and twang. I have made a fretless Ric suffer badly using roundwounds many years ago, not an Ebony fingerboard though. Keep an eye on the board and if wear starts becoming an issue think string choice again.

[voxpop]

I use round wounds on my Shuker fretless with ebony board. If it had a rosewood Board I would use flat wounds to preserve the finish.

Not had any problems with round wounds on the ebony as its a very hard wood.

[Darkstrike]

I'd only consider flats or tapes on a fretless for tone. I do have a set of TI's on my Roscoe, brilliant sound, and all the mwah I want.

[Jools4001]

I have a '94 Patrick Eggle Milan V and I didn't like it much as a fretted bass, but the bridge pickup always sounded fretlessy even when it had frets - so I took it to Martin Petersen who took the frets out of it's rosewood board. I've always used SS rounds on it.

It's just undergoing a fingerboard true up now, and getting epoxy coated so that it's a bit harder wearing, but it took 15 years to get to the point where the fingerboard was worn enough to need attention - and that includes at least 5 years where it was played for around 2-3 hours per day as my main bass.

One of the key things is to use vibrato up and down the neck (like a cellist would) if you pull the string across the fingerboard as you do on a fretted bass, you'll wear it out much quicker. I've never worried about it that much though, if you think about it, if you use stainless rounds on a fretted bass it'll probably need a refret after 10-15 years hard use, so a fretless needing it's fingerboard truing isn't much different

[Spoombung]

I had roundwounds on my Wal fretless for nearly 30 years. It hasn't had a service since 1994. The strings do chew a bit but I'd rather that than the dull, lifeless thump of flats.

[wateroftyne]

Flats are only dull and lifeless if you EQ 'em like that.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1349801726' post='1830748']
Flats are only dull and lifeless if you EQ 'em like that.
[/quote]

True. But they still don't sound like round wounds.

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1349807249' post='1830840']
True. But they still don't sound like round wounds.
[/quote]

Didn't say they did.

Edited October 9, 2012 by wateroftyne

[risingson]

I prefer roundwounds on fretless, I think they bring the sound of the fretless bass alive, something I don't think is as achievable with flats IMO. Personal preference. I string my fretted P-Bass with flatwounds as I prefer the solid low end that the strings can provide on a track.

[EMG456]

I see this question come up regularly on various forums and I must admit I just don't understand the problem.

It's a musical instrument - i.e. a tool for making music with. If you like the sound of roundwounds on the fretless then there's not much more to be said - use roundwounds. Sure, the fingerboard will mark a bit but it'll take a while for it to become serious enough for it to affect the functionality of the bass. When it eventually does, have the fingerboard dressed again. Continue until there is no fingerboard left and then have a new one put on. I would rather do that than use flatwound strings on my fretless basses because for me, there is just no comparison in the sound.

On the other hand, if *you* like the sound of flatwounds on the fretless, use them. Just don't allow what should be purely a musical choice to be influenced by worries about wearing out the fingerboard. All things get worn if they are used. Treat it as a badge of honour and remember that the more worn your fretless fingerboard gets, the better the player you will likely be!

Cheers

Ed

[ezbass]

^^^^^^ This.


I have 2 fretless basses, one with rounds and one with flats. All bases (ahem) covered.

Edited October 11, 2012 by ezbass

[fretlessguy]

i have a Carvin 5 string fretless that has an ebony board. I've used all manner of strings through the years on it (it's a 1997 model) and it shows very little wear on the board. If it were a rosewood I might be a little concerned, but not since it's ebony. Stay away from steel strings, which can be quite caustic to boards. If you go round, then use nickel light gauge strings, which increase the "mwah" sound and are smoother than steels to prevent wear. When using vibrato use it like a cellist or violinist would do, which is vertical with the string and not sideways like a guitarist. I have never had to have the board planed or serviced in anyway except for it's yearly lemon oiling.
So.....if you really wan't to use roundwounds, then I would say have a go with them.

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='EMG456' timestamp='1349912727' post='1832305']
I see this question come up regularly on various forums and I must admit I just don't understand the problem.

It's a musical instrument - i.e. a tool for making music with. If you like the sound of roundwounds on the fretless then there's not much more to be said - use roundwounds. Sure, the fingerboard will mark a bit but it'll take a while for it to become serious enough for it to affect the functionality of the bass. When it eventually does, have the fingerboard dressed again. Continue until there is no fingerboard left and then have a new one put on. I would rather do that than use flatwound strings on my fretless basses because for me, there is just no comparison in the sound.

On the other hand, if *you* like the sound of flatwounds on the fretless, use them. Just don't allow what should be purely a musical choice to be influenced by worries about wearing out the fingerboard. All things get worn if they are used. Treat it as a badge of honour and remember that the more worn your fretless fingerboard gets, the better the player you will likely be!

Cheers

Ed
[/quote]

Precisely so.
My mileage varies to a lot of peoples, and whilst I can play a fretless and make it sound okay, I don't like the balance of fundamental/harmonic output from a 34/35/36" scale instrument.
So I sold my SR5 fretless, and am saving for an EUB, in the hope that that'll deliver the "tone in my head", or at least something closer to it...

That probably will have flats on it. the SR5 had rounds.

[leftyhook]

[quote name='philw' timestamp='1349375629' post='1825530']
I've used round-wounds on my fretless Wal for most of its 29 year life and its (ebony) fingerboard has had a bit of subtle attention on just two occasions. An Overwater with an ebony fingerboard will probably outlast you whatever strings you use.

P
[/quote]
My Wal is 29 years old too and I wrecked the fingerboard (ebony) within a couple of years using rounds.
nasty growls in several places.
Bu I get the feeling I used to grip too hard due to using inferior(volume) backlne.
Personally I will never use rounds again on a bare fingerboard.