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I'm new to the fretless scene. I've just converted my Spector NS-2B to a lined-fretless (no epoxy on the rosewood fingerboard). This was my first attempt at any type of luthier work (let alone something of this magnatude). I have to admit, the result looks and feels pretty good, but it just doesn't have that "mwahh" tone that's so characteristic of fretless basses. I have it strung w/ D'Addario light-gauge, Chrome Flat-wound strings. Could it be the strings?? Any wisdom would be greatly appreciated!!

Yep....wrong strings.

If you want that growly mwahh sound you need to use roundwounds. All my fretless basses have them, wouldn't use anything else. I use D'Addario XL170's on both my Fender and Carvin fretless.

Flats are good if you are looking for more of a upright sound, but for the punch and the growl.....rounds.

And I know you will ask, "Won't that wear the fretboard down faster"

Yes it will, but I would not worry. I've yet to have any fretboard work done on my basses.

Bassclef is right, D'Addario Xl roundwound are killer strings, I've been using them in the last 7 years...anyway, I found that also DR strings are really nice, so I alternate between them...also, RadioFreeRich, if you want a growling sound, in my opinion you could cut some high frequencies from your amp and add some low (but without too compression) and a little bit of mid...this should crash some heads!

NickBass & BassClef...thanks so much for the info! I use DR Lo-Rider Medium steels on my fretted NS-2A's....they're awesome! Do you recomend using steel or nickel-plated roundwound? I've also considered coating the fingerboard w/ an epoxy. I've done some research and found that most brands of coating epoxies will lose their high-gloss sheen after sanding and buffing. Can anyone recomend a brand of coating epoxy that can be sanded and buffed to a high-gloss finish? You guys are the best!!

I would stick to nickel rounds. Steels may eat up the board too fast....

Rounds rock for fretless

I use Rotosound 45's, love the growl they give me

Roundwound nickel are recommended, in my experience they work great also for fretted bass...

bassclef wrote:I would stick to nickel rounds. Steels may eat up the board too fast....

Are nickel rounds that much kinder than steel rounds? What sort of damage can you expect from them on a MIM Fender Jazz fretless? I've been using flats for a couple of years and the fretboard is still looking very good, playing every week.

Well, in my case it's just a personal taste , I love the combination of roundwound nickel strings and my palisander fingerboard, it just sounds great! Anyway, I love also steel strings , but I use them on the fretted bass 'cause in my opinion they sound great for slapping (my favorites are D'Addario)...I don't know about an hypothetical damage, I'm not so expert, but many players told me that steel strings may do something to some fingerboards...

The wear of the fretboard simply depends on your playing. If you dig in hard, the fretboard will suffer more than a situation when you're using a lighter touch. On my MIM jazz, you can see really well after 2 years of playing on this bass that the strings are 'worn' in the wood. It takes a afternoon of grinding to get this leveled.

Well, the hardness of my playing depends on the context, maybe I dig a bit harder when I'm soloing or when I'm playing some "heavy" fusion (like Uzeb or Tribal Tech), but on the fretless many times I like to have a softer touch, when I play smooth jazz or straight ahead I like also to play nearby the neck to have a sort of "URB sound"...

Arjen wrote:The wear of the fretboard simply depends on your playing. If you dig in hard, the fretboard will suffer more than a situation when you're using a lighter touch. On my MIM jazz, you can see really well after 2 years of playing on this bass that the strings are 'worn' in the wood. It takes a afternoon of grinding to get this leveled.

Surely the wear depends on how much you play rather than how hard you play.