Fretless Setup

[CXIII]

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advice/opinion on a fretless bass set up.

I recently took the plunge and bought a fretless Fanndec 5-string bass, by no means a top of the line instrument. The bass originally came with a set of roundwounds and upon reading about strings for fretless I changed the the strings to a set of Hot Wire half-rounds (125 gauge). After the restring I noticed the action to be a tad on the high side especially at the upper neck region and a bit of the characteristic 'mwah' sound had been lost mainly on the E and B strings.

On further reading my general understanding is that the straighter the neck on a fretless the greater the 'mwah' so was going to tighten the truss rod and hence lower the action? Also was going to file the nut down a touch if needed?

Any advice on fretless setup would be much appreciated.

[ikay]

I think you've pretty much got it - nut slots are cut lower on a fretless and a straight neck will give the mwah, if that's what you want - [url="http://www.bassplayer.com/article/32783"]http://www.bassplayer.com/article/32783[/url]

The Gary Willis setp manual is also a useful guide - [url="http://garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/setupmanual.html"]http://garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/setupmanual.html[/url]

I find too much mwah can become a bit tiresome after a while so if you want a more full bodied fretless sound just add a little more relief. Worth experimenting with string damping as well for a more thuddy upright sound.

[CXIII]

Cheers for that. The only other thing I am concerned about is that at the minute when I do the Gary Willis 'elbow first fret' relief test the A string sits on the fret board which would indicate the need for a bit of neck relief and hence raise the action higher?! I'll have a read through those articles and ponder the next step.

[RhysP]

Get the neck relief as flat as possible & then if the strings need to be higher or lower adjust the string height at the bridge.

The "mwah" thing will be dictated by the action - the higher the action the less mwah.
There will be a sweet spot where the mwah is good but not overwhelming, if the action is too low the notes will bloom & choke and it will sound pretty sh*te.

Edited May 18, 2011 by RhysP

[Fat Rich]

[quote name='CXIII' post='1235394' date='May 18 2011, 11:02 AM']Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advice/opinion on a fretless bass set up.

I recently took the plunge and bought a fretless Fanndec 5-string bass, by no means a top of the line instrument. The bass originally came with a set of roundwounds and upon reading about strings for fretless I changed the the strings to a set of Hot Wire half-rounds (125 gauge). After the restring I noticed the action to be a tad on the high side especially at the upper neck region and a bit of the characteristic 'mwah' sound had been lost mainly on the E and B strings.

On further reading my general understanding is that the straighter the neck on a fretless the greater the 'mwah' so was going to tighten the truss rod and hence lower the action? Also was going to file the nut down a touch if needed?

Any advice on fretless setup would be much appreciated.[/quote]

Groundwound / Half Round / Flatwound tend to give slightly less mwah than roundwound strings as they generally don't bite into the fingerboard so much, the plus side is they do less damage to your bass.

Also in my experience Status Half Wounds have a very strong fundamental and a bright toppyness but don't have as many middy overtones as some other strings which can make the mwah a little harder to hear. They're very good strings and I use them on one of my fretless basses, but you might find D'addario halfwounds are worth a try, definitely more middy.

Setup wise, sounds like the truss rod needs a tweak, best to tighten it in small steps, maybe a quarter turn at most and see what it does. You may be able to drop the action at the bridge end too, but get the neck adjusted first.

I wouldn't file the nut unless there's a huge gap between the fingerboard and the strings, it shouldn't be too far out.

Good luck!

[hillbilly deluxe]

[quote name='Fat Rich' post='1235500' date='May 18 2011, 11:58 AM']I wouldn't file the nut unless there's a huge gap between the fingerboard and the strings, it shouldn't be too far out.[/quote]
I would,because the string doesnt have to clear the frets.If you lower the fret slots,you will get a lower action and easier playability.

Edited May 18, 2011 by hillbilly deluxe

[ras52]

+1 for the Gary Willis guide, very useful.

Re. strings, don't be scared of trying flats - I find they have plenty mwah, although my plenty may not be the same as yours! I've tried TI Jazz flats which I found super-mwah, but I now prefer the higher tension of D'Addario Chromes.

[Fat Rich]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1235601' date='May 18 2011, 12:53 PM']I would,because the string doesnt have to clear the frets.If you lower the fret slots,you will get a lower action and easier playability.[/quote]

It should be much lower than a fretted nut already if it's been built properly, I've never seen a fretless bass that's needed the slots lowering. Maybe I've just been lucky.

[Jerry_B]

I tend to think that the 'mwah' comes from lower tension strings. They seem to produce the effect better by being more likely to vibrate as you play.

[Sara SG]

I bought a fretless today. I tried it in the shop. It had plenty Mwah! Although the E string had too much buzz. So they offered to set it up. They seemed to know what they were doing with fretless basses but when I tried it again all the mwah had vanished!! I took it back and asked them to split the difference. Still no mwah! Ive tried lowering the action a little myself which has helped on the higher strings a little but I dont know how to get the mwah back!
They said it will settle... and its a compromise between buzz and sustain.
Any advice?