www.FretlessBass.com

hey, i just put tape wounds on my friend's bass cause he wanted to try something diffrent. i really like how they feel under my fingers and they have a great voice. very loud acostically. we'll see what my friend thinks when he picks it up tomorrow. just wondering if anybody else has some experince with tape wounds? do they get better with age like flat wounds?

i know some guys on this forum have said you should have matching fretted and frettles bass if possible. i think it's ok to have all fretless as long as at least one has flat wounds. ; )

i really want to try gut strings but first i'd need an acostic...

The black tape wounds are excellent for fretless! They sound great and feel the smoothest of any string I have played.

To me they have a voice closer to the upright bass. I have used them on several basses over the years and keep a set ready to go should I want them again. Like any string they lose a bit of high end snap as they age. They will suddenly unwind on you if the string really wears to the point that a winding/wrap is broken.

What I don't like about them is the lower tension.

Re: having a fretted on stage.
If I could only have one bass it would be a fretless, but I find that the fretted sound is often preferred by the people I play with, so I bring one. Perhaps I am pandering to these guys and should tell them to "shove it" when they want the fretted bass. It's really about supporting the music as a bass player. I don't play fretted to please myself, it's for the music and the audience. Maybe I should be more self indugent.

Re: Gut strings.
A facinating idea! Any electric bass with optical P/U would do what you propose. So would one equipped with piezo P/U.

hell yes you should be more self indulgent!!!

there's a nice 32" acostic bass for $250 i want to get and defret. haven't found guts for bass guitar yet, but maybe guitarron strings would work.

someting else to try would be silver wrapped gut's on an electric.