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NBD - Michael Kelly Dragonfly acoustic fretless 5


josie
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Birthday treat to myself :)

https://www.michaelkellyguitars.com/en/products/view/dragonfly-fretless-5

The build quality is good, it's smooth and tight everywhere it should be. The neck is comfortable, overall it's much easier to play than I had feared.

It came with the factory spec phosphor bronze rounds, but after a discussion with Gary, the reliably excellent head of the bass department at Promenade Music in Morecambe, he re-strung it for me with chrome flats (at no extra cost). Most people who play a fretless seem to want it to sound like a double bass, but some of my favourite blues bands include a slide guitar, and I'm trying to re-interpret that sound as a slide blues bassline - the flats are perfect. As well as being easier on wear on the fretboard, which is rosewood rather than anything harder.

The Fishman electronics and pickup are a revelation after my Vintage acoustic - they give it everything from a deep punchy growl to a much lighter brighter sound, even with the flats.

It's also absurdly good looking (someone on another thread described the fretboard inlay as looking like "a tart's handbag", but I love it). Really looking forward to gigging it :)

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  • 1 month later...

I bought the fretted version of this one last summer and it has a great sound with the phosphor bronze strings. But I think when the strings need changing I will get some flats and see what that does for my sound. Although I don't currently play fretless, I'd like to find one in a shop so I can try it out.

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Tried one of these out in a shop whilst shopping for an acoustic guitar...

Loved it so much I instantly forgot about buying a guitar and picked up a Yamaha fretless as my first bass!

Thank you, Michael Kelly!

Edited by dannybuoy
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