Strings for a Fretless Gecko?

[Dolando]

Hello,

I'm nearly at the stage of putting strings on my mahogany/Koa Gecko and 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 growl, but something that's a bit easier on the fretboard. Any ideas on type/brand?

Thanks.

 

[Cagey]

I don't play bass, nor do I play fretless. But, I would expect any fight between wood and steel to be grossly unbalanced. So, in an effort to even things up, you'd probably want smooth steel to reduce abrasion.

I found a site that not only sells flatwound bass strings, but has a good explanation of how they work, why you'd want them and what the differences are. You might want to check them out. If nothing else, it's educational.

 

[line6man]

I don't play bass, nor do I play fretless. But, I would expect any fight between wood and steel to be grossly unbalanced. So, in an effort to even things up, you'd probably want smooth steel to reduce abrasion.

Actually, what you want is nickel. Steel strings are more abrasive on the fingerboard. They obviously don't have to be all-nickel, though. Nickel wrap over steel is common.

As far as strings go, everyone has their preference. Some people play Rotosounds on soft Rosewood, and just deal with the wear by sanding the board every now-and-then. Some people get paranoid and sacrifice their preferred tone by using flats, in order to save the board. Some people epoxy their boards to prevent wear, so that they can use any strings they want. If you are planning a build, I would suggest choosing a durable fingerboard wood, like Ebony or Bloodwood, If you absolutely must have Rosewood, or some other warm wood that happens to not be durable, then you'll have to make your compromises in string choice alone.

For the record, I have been happy with D'Addario EXL-170s on my Pau Ferro and epoxy boards.

 

[stubhead]

About twenty-five-or-so years ago, I figured out that the string choice for bass was a huge determinant of tone & playability, far more so than it is for guitars. And even before or concurrent with that (partly as a fact that I have also played guitar in bands) - I figured out that the bass tone which sounds so loverly in your bedroom is pretty much dead-wrong for about 90% of the music played by bands. That totally orgasmic pounding Rotosound roundwound strings played with a pick through a howling Marshall amp - it worked great for John Entwhistle, but that's because Pete Townsend rarely played "lead guitar" style music. So Entwhistle could adopt that frequency range. Lucky for him cause he woulda got fired from 90% of any other bands (Like, "Where the heck is the BASS part?!?" :icon_scratch

And there were several others who were such good musicians that they could pull off the contrary melodies-as-a-bass-part vibe - Chris Squire, Phil Lesh, Berry Oakley. But, notably, they all played in "big" bands, at least bands with a whole lot of other parts going on, like a big Hammond B3 to cover some bass frequencies.

So: the question might be, what kinds of strings are good for bedroom whackadoodletry, and which strings are better for playing bass parts? And you can go back to the founders for that, Rotosound roundwounds and Fender 9050 flats. Most of the music you've heard in the past 50 years were played on one of those two. I personally find D'Addario "Chromes" flatwounds to be a bit better balanced in the output and the QC is way up there, but I could play the Fender 9050's without a squawk. I would personally never put roundwounds (frickin' stainless steel? :icon_scratch: ??? :sad1: :dontknow: ) on a fretless bass, they do kick out a lot of high end - but what good that is for a bass player, I don't know.

Zen Q-o-the-day:

IF EVERYBODY IN THE BAND IS "CUTTING THROUGH THE MIX" - WHO'S PLAYING THE FRIGGING MIX?

But then again, I don't "slap" or "pop" - if you "need to" because your drummer sucks, hire a better drummer?

 

[photoguy]

I'm using D'Addario Chrome flat wounds on my Warmoth 32" shortie. They seem to have just a bit of spank if you dig them just a little bit, but they are pretty smooth and gentle on your fretboard. They have a really nice blooming 'pwowww' in the upper register, too.

 

[drewfx]

I use D'Addario Half Rounds on my fretless.

 

[Dolando]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Cagey; I looked at that link, and they have some great info, thanks for that.

I have an ebony fingerboard so that's not a problem. I think it's either round wound or half rounds as I tried a set of roto jazz bass flatwounds and they just sounded a little lifeless and I like the power of round wounds. I do like the idea of the smooth flatwounds though, and it will be nickel for that reason, and I just prefer the feel of nickel. 

Yea I've recently discovered how much of a difference it makes since trying some different string over the last year or so. I have some roto swing bass nickel string on my jazz fretless, but that has made slight marks and I'm sure that's an allparts neck with an ebony board and I do to play that too much...maybe it's not ebony. I've also read those are rougher than most other strings?

I think I might try a set of flats after this set.

Drewfx; I've read that the D'Addario half rounds are a little rough on the fingers to start with?

 

[drewfx]

Drewfx; I've read that the D'Addario half rounds are a little rough on the fingers to start with?

They are not totally smooth but are far closer in smoothness to flatwounds than rounds, but they don't sound like flats. They are also cheaper than flats.

Basically, from rough to smooth, more twang to less:

Roundwounds > Pressurewounds > Groundwounds (1/2 rounds) > Flatwounds > Nylon Tape Wounds


EDIT: I should add that I use all of the above, depending on what I am going for and what a given bass wants.

 

[stubhead]

I found it interesting... well, no, VALIDATING... well, no -

:blob7: :toothy10: :hello2: REDEEMING! :hello2: :toothy10: :blob7:​

that ihnpts actually KNEW what bass strings he was building his travel bass for - before he started! True Genius! Cause I did the same thing, last two times out. And it's fine that his choice was the LaBella nylon tapewounds, and mine was ye ol' stuck-on-CHROMES-agin... of course you have to have a bass to do the research ON. Compounding things is the fact that they do last so long, it's not like you're gonna blow through a dozen different brands, gauges and types in a year, as is easily the (affordable?) case with guitar strings. So it can be kind of arbitrary.

As I said earlier, well up into the 70's the LaBella tapewounds (I forgot 'em, actually  :tard, Fender flat wounds and Rotosound roundwounds were just it - Ernie Ball, D'Addario etc. all had some strings out there, but they just weren't very good. (Black Diamond? HAHAHAHA sucker!) Shoot, more like the 80's somewhere - post-Miles Davis @ the Austin City Coliseum 1983, I felt "stuck" with, and adventured out from, the Fender 9050 flats. I distinctly remember buying some Ernie Ball roundwounds that started unraveling at the bridge, nut and everywhere in between in a week. I think the reason I remember it SO WELL was that I replaced them with the "new" "hot" Dean Markleys - WHICH WERE THE EXACT SAME DAMN STRINGS, AND DID THE EXACT SAME DAMN THING. Helloo, Fender! fer another decade or so.

After you find some tone you can work with, boring ol' consistency moves way high up the list, higher the more times one of your $25 strings poops the chute and you have to replace the whole set (they WERE that much then too). A quite common problem is "dead" notes. too - an "F" will be fine, a "G" too, and the F# is gone, out to lunch with the guv'nor. The bass makers blame the string, the string makers blame the bass, the bass players blame... a life-threatening lack of beer... (it's the string). Sometimes you can feel or see a tiny kink from damage in the package - after your $25 is dining out too.  Other times it just sucks.

http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/MilesDavis1983-02-04AustinTX.asx