Flat or Round

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Illsidgus

Illsidgus

Desiccated Member
This one should be easy folks. And this is something I really would like to know. I have talked to people in two different local music stores and got two different answers. On a fretless bass, which strings are best, flat wound or round wound and why?
 
I can't imagine the point of round wound strings or 1/2 rounds on a fretless.
In reality though, it'd depend on the tone you were after: a more mellow, closer to double bass, less present tone from the flats or a toppy, more spaciallly cued, modern 80's+ tone from the rounds.
I have 2 basses - a 70's semi acoustic with flats and an 80's solid with rounds. They cover a lot of territory between them. Mind you flats are a bit rarer & more expensive these days. Fretless, I use my cello for THAT sound.
 
rayc said:
I have 2 basses - a 70's semi acoustic with flats and an 80's solid with rounds. They cover a lot of territory between them. Mind you flats are a bit rarer & more expensive these days. Fretless, I use my cello for THAT sound.
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I would love to have two basses, a semi-hollow fretless and a semi-hollow fretted bass, what the heck, one more wouldn't hurt, and a solid body bass. But to do that I would have to get rid of my wife of 35 years. I have always wanted to learn to play the cello, but there is no way I could afford one. Of all the bowed instruments the cello is my favorite. The only other bass instrument I play is the Euphonium which I will be doing tonight as it is the third concert of the Southern Kentucky Concert Band, Twilight Concert series. I have been playing in it for nine years now. My daughter has also played in it for nine years. She plays flute and piccolo. I can't afford a euphonium either, the euphonium I play belongs to the university here and I only get to play it twice a week for the five weeks of the concert series. I did see a 1970 Besson compensating euphonium on cregslist for $3990.00. Again, I would have to lose the wife.

Wow, I got a bit off subject there.
 
I have three electric basses.
The fretless is a 5 string, and it gets roundwounds. I love that sound, and it does it well.
The other 5 string is fretted, and it gets roundwounds. Sounds very modern.
The 4 string is a Squier P-Bass with passive EMG's. Currently using flatwounds on it and LOVE it. Used it to record with a friend the other night and could not get over how cool the low-end was.

Hate to answer your question with another question, but what is it that you're wanting to do with the fretless bass? The genre of music may help determine the type of string that best suits that playing style.
 
It depends partly on the sound you want. If you're looking for the fretless 'growl', then rounds. I would guess what you're looking for is more of a flatwound sound.

Flats will also be easier to play, and much, much kinder to your fretboard. Rounds will eventually eat it. If you're going for rounds, an ebony fretboard might be a good idea. A lot more expensive up front, but it will last way longer. Of course, then it's also more expensive to eventually replace.

Start of with flats, and if they're not want you want, change 'em. They're just strings, so don't over-obsess about it like I have a tendancy to do.

Get a no-line fretless with flats, or half-rounds, and go from there. You'll eventually trade it in on something else anyway.

Have fun.
 
loveofjazz said:
Hate to answer your question with another question, but what is it that you're wanting to do with the fretless bass? The genre of music may help determine the type of string that best suits that playing style.
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What I like in a very melodic bass line. If you haven't listened to it or watched it, give the Eagles Hell Freezes Over album or the DVD a Look or listen. On the song "New York Minute" Timothy B. Schmit appears to be playing a Carvin fretless and the bass part is to me magical. Or a lot of the bass work on Dan Fogelberg albums is very inspiring to me. One Fogelberg song that comes to mind is "Lessons Learned" off of his album Netherlands. I don't think that Norbert Putnam was using a fretless on that particular song but it is so melodic and carries me along throughout the song. I know, or at least I have heard, a lot of people say that the bass is supposed to sort of support the kick, but I like a bass line that provides counter melody rather than an extension of the drums.
So to answer your question in a bit more succinct manner... I play and write mostly acoustic materials and I want a bass that is an extension of my guitar playing providing counter melody to the melody while the rhythm guitar provides the rhythmic/percussive element.
 
Illsidgus said:
On a fretless bass, which strings are best, flat wound or round wound and why?
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rayc said:
I can't imagine the point of round wound strings or 1/2 rounds on a fretless.
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I'd go along with that, though I'm probably being a little mono-dimensional. The fretless bass is primarilly a sonic decision, rather than one of exactitude. In fact, a fretted bass is more exact for all and sundry, amateurs, masters and the zillions in between !
It's the actual sound of the fretless that really is it's plus point and rounds by their very nature will interfere with the smoothness although I'm sure some experts get around this with their masterfulness. This week I've been listening to some jazz and jazz fusion albums and I've been paying attention to some of the bass. On Horace Silver's "Silver'n'percussion", Ron Carter's double bass playing is perhaps the most inventive and melodic I've heard, the slurring and slapping of the strings and whacking against the fingerboard is marvelous. And on Paraphenalia's "Mother earth", Dill Katz' fretless bass playing is sublime, one of the great examples of what the fretless is about.
On both examples, I don't think a fretted bass instrument could make the sounds those instruments do. Of course the player counts hugely, but instruments have their own timbres, regardless.

Illsidgus said:
What I like is a very melodic bass line.
I know, or at least I have heard, a lot of people say that the bass is supposed to sort of support the kick, but I like a bass line that provides counter melody rather than an extension of the drums.
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Over the last three years, I've made more of a conscious effort to do those "bass supporting the kick" kind of basslines but the melodic bass that counters the melody or intermeshes with the guitar, keyboard or whatever else is more what my instinct demands.
The bass {be it guitar or double} is such a versatile instrument. It can just root the chords, rock the riffs, create countermelodies, provide the main harmony, lead, establish the rhythm........and lots more besides.
 
Smooth = flats
Growl = rounds
Or half round to get something in between. I particularly enjoy flats myself, and manage to get a nice growl out of them anyways. It really depends what kinda bass and how you set up your EQ and amp. Strings are very subtle compared, but still noticeable.
 
My fav fretless player is/was the fellow from Japan. He died a few years ago - hopefully not fretless related.
 
I'm not a bass player [6-string and 12-string acoustics are my thing], but I'd say the principle that applies to 6-string and 12-string applies to bass--you string it with what gives you the sound you want. The only bad choice would be poorly made strings in terms of quality. For example, I would never buy Fender acoustic strings because the time I did try them [back in the mid-1970s--I was in college and they were inexpensive], they were rusty coming out of the package. Took 'em back to the store to exchange them since I'd just bought them the day before, second set was the same. So I switched to D'Addarios and I've never touched a package of Fender branded strings since.
 
YeshuasFan said:
I'm not a bass player [6-string and 12-string acoustics are my thing], but I'd say the principle that applies to 6-string and 12-string applies to bass--you string it with what gives you the sound you want. The only bad choice would be poorly made strings in terms of quality.
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I'm not really a bass player either, or maybe I am I don't know. I want to play everything that has strings. My main concern about flat or round wound strings was whether or not round wounds would have a tendency to tear up or wear grooves into a fretless fretboard.
 
Illsidgus said:
My main concern about flat or round wound strings was whether or not round wounds would have a tendency to tear up or wear grooves into a fretless fretboard.
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About that question I would have no idea.
 
Illsidgus said:
My main concern about flat or round wound strings was whether or not round wounds would have a tendency to tear up or wear grooves into a fretless fretboard.
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They can do but that takes forever. It also depends on the action and how much pressure you may use to depress the strings.
 
grimtraveller said:
They can do but that takes forever. It also depends on the action and how much pressure you may use to depress the strings.
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This, plus whatever the wood is made of. Softer woods will start to show wear faster, with everything else equal. Something like Ebony will do you great. But even Rosewood and Maple aren't really going to get damaged with years of rigorous usage.
 
Though not fretless, Flats on my P Bass, Rounds on my Jazz and P/J.
Jeff
 
I would NOT use rounds on a fretless ..... you'll eat the fretboard pretty quickly.
Personally I don't like the sound of flats so I'd use 1/2 rounds.
 
somegeezer said:
This, plus whatever the wood is made of. Softer woods will start to show wear faster, with everything else equal. Something like Ebony will do you great. But even Rosewood and Maple aren't really going to get damaged with years of rigorous usage.
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I don't agree with that.
Frets are harder than any fetboard and roundwounds will eat them up in a few years unless you use stainless frets.
Rounds will absolutely eat up a fretboard and it won't take years of rigorous use either.
 
Lt. Bob said:
I don't agree with that.
Frets are harder than any fetboard and roundwounds will eat them up in a few years unless you use stainless frets.
Rounds will absolutely eat up a fretboard and it won't take years of rigorous use either.
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If you're eating through your frets on your bass in only a few years, you're doing something wrong, or you've never put the bass down in all that time. =P I'm a bassist primarily. None of my frets have visible wear. and you'd be surprised at how well the wood takes it. There's a reason they use certain woods on the board, other than the ones they use just to look pretty. Ebony is a common wood on fretless for its hardness. and again, if you're wearing down that in only a few years, you're playing wrong or a whole lot. =D
 
somegeezer said:
If you're eating through your frets on your bass in only a few years, you're doing something wrong, or you've never put the bass down in all that time. =P I'm a bassist primarily. None of my frets have visible wear. and you'd be surprised at how well the wood takes it. There's a reason they use certain woods on the board, other than the ones they use just to look pretty. Ebony is a common wood on fretless for its hardness. and again, if you're wearing down that in only a few years, you're playing wrong or a whole lot. =D
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well, I play 7 gigs a week and have never done anything else for 45 years. Currently play mostly git and sax but have gone years as primarily a bass player.
At this point I've done somewhere around 15,000 gigs .... probably 6,000 of them would be bass gigs.
And I still say that if you don't wear the frets then you must never use vibrato and no, I'm not doing something wrong.

I will, however, acknowledge that gigging the amount I have isn't the norm and I suppose that wear might not be a factor for hobbyists or people who just play some on weekends.
I can't help it though, I can only think in terms of what I do and that's pretty much constant gigging.
I suppose not everyone wants to do that although, for the life of me I can't imagine why not.
:)
 
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