Questions about fretless

[slawie]

I use Rotosound 77's monel flatwound bass strings.
I get a serious amout of mwah without compromising the fretboard with round wounds seeing as I have a rosewood board.
 
slawie

[darkstar01]

I've always used rounds on my fretless basses and I've never had any serious issues with them eating up my fingerboards. I don't particularly care for flats on a fretless (unless it's an upright), as they just sound kind of dead to me. Just my totally unhelpful and opinionated 2 cents.

[tmoney61092]

Well I guess I'm just going to try both flats and rounds to see what sounds best for me, thank you everyone for your help, this is why I love this club! All great people willing to help
 
~Taylor

[edwin]

I like the sound of roundwounds on a fretless so that's what I use. My fretless is a David King 5 and it's got a bloodwood fingerboard with an epoxy finish which has been on there since the mid 90s. For years, it was my main bass, with hours of play every day. I realize this is different from playing on an unfinished board, but I think in a lot of cases, wear from the strings is overstated.  
 
I also think that you should do what's best for the tone and if the fingerboard is a decent slab of wood, it will stand resurfacing every so often. I've played with bluegrass musicians who require a replane and refret almost every year on their guitars!

[musashi]

I agree with Edwin.  It's a physical thing.  If you play the bass at all you are going to get some wear-- it's metal against wood and wood is going to lose.  Epoxy coatings and even phenolic fingerboards will show wear as well.  I think Vigier had a metal fingerboard  on offer some years ago.  I played one at a NAMM show, but never lived with it, so I don't know if that showed wear or not, although I would presume that there must have been either some shiny polished spots, or else some minor scratches and abrasions over time...  So, as Edwin wrote, I think the best thing to do is to simply find your tone, and then just do whatever is required for maintenance as things present themselves.

[musashi]

I should add that I use roundwounds, gauges .40 - .100.

[mike1762]

I don't use fretless enough to justify the cost of an Alembic, but I have been using it a fair amount with the project I'm TRYING to form.  I have a bolt-on Schecter Deluxe-4 (strung with DR Hi Beam flats) which actually sounds very good (after spending a BUNCH of time on the set-up).  I decided I needed a B string, so I just ordered a Schecter Stilleto Studio-5 fretless (35 Neck-through with Maple/Walnut, Rosewood FB, Mahogany body, Bubinga top, EMG PUPs/preamp).  The fretted version sounds nice and plays well, so I'm hopeful about the fretless.  In order to get myself used to correct intonation, I plan on using it for all the fretless songs (of course) and everything that needs a B string: the Carvin LB76 will be going back in the closet.  My SC has become my main bass for everything else (the Series I was breaking my back!!!).

[dfung60]

I seem to remember that Alembic built a fretless with a stainless steel fingerboard back around 1980.  Was this one of John McVie's basses?  A metal fingerboard is exactly the kind of complex thing that everybody thinks about, but few are actually able to implement.
 
Unlike a fretted bass where pretty good action is more than good enough almost all the time, getting a good tone with the fretless has a lot to do with being able to carefully control finger pressure (for me that's where the mwah comes from), and this makes having a good fingerboard setup very critical.
 
David Fung

[hankster]

Austin has it exactly right - it is just playing and listening that is the key, not marks on the fingerboard. After a while your hands will remember where to go.  If they don't, well, a fretless bass with fret markers can sound just as out of tune as one without. And often does, in the wrong hands.
 
Rick

[sonicus]

That makes sense . I remember playing a gig with 2 guitar players in a Venue where the stage was really close to the front door and this particular day the outside temperature was below 40 degrees F. Inside the venue it was well heated .As a result of patrons moving through the front door and leaving it opened for extended periods of  time made  the guitar players to go flat faster then me because they were right next to the cold draft and I was nicely situated at the further most corner from the draft that was blowing across the stage area .  That night I had decided to bring my fretless Bass with out lines.There are no marks on that bass except for dots on the side. The results were that if I would not have been able to use my ears and muscle memory in the moment Nothing would have sounded in tune. I will never forget that night. Depending on lines would have  not worked .

[David Houck]

David; I believe it's this bass.  Mica refers to it as continuously fretted.

[musashi]

I played a couple of fretless Vigier basses back in the day with metal fingerboards.  One fingerboard was entirely made of metal, the other was either ebony or phenolic, but had a metal cap at the end of the board to facilitate slapping.  They were interesting, and very lively...  I can only imagine what that would be like on a Series instrument.... (John McVie goes for different sounds than I do.)
 
I found the following on a quick search through google:
 
Vigier Delta Metal Fretless Fingerboard
 
Only Vigier offers this unique fingerboard. Gold in color, it is immediately striking and has a hard surface that will stay even for years. Its sound is so rich in harmonics that you'll even hear them evolve throughout the length of your note. Don't be fooled into thinking it only sounds metallic it also has a very warm sound and can emulate a double bass sound. One thing's for sure, if you're looking for a fretless bass and are ready to enter a world of new sounds and ideas you must try the Delta Metal fingerboard.
 
http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Vigier_Excess_Basses_at_Bassdirect.html

[dfung60]

Dave -  
 
Thanks for the link.  I haven't seen that video in years (I have a videotape of it somewhere.  I wouldn't have realized this was the metal fingerboard one (ebony can be pretty shiny too), but this bass is in a lot of pictures from that time, so it must have logged some serious travels.
 
David Fung