Being both a musician and a Linux nerd pretty much means I am always on the internet looking through a forum or thread for answers. What sucks is that I always have more luck with finding answers to Linux problems than I with musician-related topics. So here is a “message in a bottle post” concerning fretless bass strings:
I have been playing bass for 16 years and have grown to prefer the deep bass sounds of the 60’s and 70’s (James Jamerson, Duck Dunn, and some other guys with alliteration in their names) but rather than use flatwound strings, I have discovered that I like the sound of nickel roundwound strings that are a little bit dead. I have a P-Bass that I use almost exclusively for old-school funk and reggae that hasn’t had a new set of strings in almost a year– I love it and it sounds perfect for what I am going for. My Sadowsky five string gets new strings far more frequently, but I still try to get rid of that bright edge as soon as I can (I literally rub my sweaty hands all over them when they are brand new). What’s funny about all of this is that I still prefer a high-fidelity brand like DR and have found it impossible to switch back to the much less expensive D’Addarios.
Anyway, I received a Fretless American Deluxe Jazz Bass for Christmas last year and I didn’t really care for the flatwound sound. I wanted a little of the “Jaco Buzz” but not so much. I threw on a set of my trusty Nickel Low-riders and I was very pleased. Now, those strings have started to dull to the point of being annoying and have worn the, quite expected, string marks into my fretboard. I don’t know if I should replace them with the same set or switch to another flatwound brand. I have read many conflicting points of view on whether or not using roundwound strings on a fretless bass is taboo. Jaco used big ol’ nasty stainless steel Rotosounds, but he also had marine epoxy all over his fretboard. Les Claypool beats the dog shit out of his fretless basses and has to be causing more damage to his fretboard than I am, yet almost everyone seems to think roundwounds will cause irreparable neck-replacing damage. I have occasionally read that I can have the fretboard sanded down every couple of years to correct any grooves caused by strings– which makes sense because I had the fretboard re-trued when I bought it to make sure the intonation was correct down the neck.
So, what gives? Am I wreaking havoc on my bass by using roundwound strings? Any pros out there want to give me a definitive answer. I am sick of picking through forums, most of them are seriously confusing and I have seen enough indication, in threads not related to this topic, that the people who post to musician forums are seriously misinformed a lot of the time about a lot of things.
