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Hi fretless bass players,

I have bought a new fretless bass,a Musicman Bongo Fretless with Pau Ferro Finger board.
It comes with a set of Ernie Ball Flats. I don't like the feel and the tone of the flats.
My other fretless bass have D'addario XL strings and I love the tone of the nickel rounds.

I'm worry about the fretboard wearing in this bass.

Do you think that the D'addario Half rounds will sound close to a nickel round wound?

What brand of round would be more gentle or leave less wear to a fretless Fretboard?

Regards,

Have you tried searching this board for information on this subject?

I have been right where you are now. Flats feel good, save your neck from being chewed up, but are lifeless and hard to intonate (plus way more tension). Roundwounds have great harmonics but squeek when sliding and they also chew up your fingerboard in a hurry. I have gone both routes and settled in the middle. Yes, halfrounds. D'addario's to be exact and I haven't looked back. Do they sound as bright as roundwound? No, but pretty close and the tradeoff is worth not chewing up my fingerboard and no irritating finger squeeks when sliding and using vibrato (which are the great things that separate us from regular bass players and make the fretless bass an instrument of it's own). Hope that helps.

La Bella Deep Talkin' Quarter Rounds. Smoother than rounds and plenty of mwaah. A little more $ than usual but worth it.

I use DR Black Beauties on my defretted bass that has a rosewood fingerboard. I run a low action and am real easy on my basses.

Elixirs aren't too bad, but the end up looking like they need a shave after a little while.

There's also the squashed round wounds like GHS "Pressure wound" and I think Roto Sound also has some.

And Nickel rounds would be less aggressive than Stainless.