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Fretless strings for a 5 string?


Dolando
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Hello,

I know this has been done many times before, but I'm in need of some advice. I'm nearly at the stage of putting strings on my Warmoth Gecko (35" scale) fretless, and I wondered what other people are using?

I use ernie ball nickel round wounds on my jazz fretless which sounds great, but it's starting to mark the fretboard. I'm after a similar tone, so a bit of mid growl, but something that's a bit easier on the fretboard, but not really wanting a thumpy tone, if you know what I mean...

Are half wounds possibly the way to go?

Any ideas on type/brand?

Thanks.

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[quote name='Dolando' timestamp='1387575645' post='2313631']
They look like a good one to try. Quite reasonably priced as well. Have you used them yourself? What are your experiences with them?
[/quote]

I've tried them on both Status and Alleva Coppolo basses. In a slightly predictable sort of way, they turned out to be midway between flats and rounds in terms of tone/brightness, more sustain than flats but less than rounds, and they last much longer than rounds.

One place where they don't fall midway is feel. They feel much more like flats than rounds, with far less noise when you slide up/down a string. I liked that.

In truth though, I'm a flatwound player so what I want is flats. I've ended up with all my basses except two being strung with flats, and the two exceptions with rounds.

Thinking as I type this, I'm getting very tempted to switch one of the round-strung basses to groundwounds ...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for all the help, but I thought I'd let you know that no actually went for some D'adarrio chrome flatwounds after I found a sound clip of them and sounded like my kind of sound. I didn't fancy risking some rounds on such a nice board, and these sounded like they had quite a nice clarity to them, and aren't actually as thumpy as I thought they would be. Much better than the roto flats I've tried in the past. Highly recommend them on a fretless. :)

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