I decided to break tradition and not use the traditional Rotosound strings on my fretless bass. The fingerboard on the fretless is soft rosewood, so there was no doubt in my mind that standard bass strings would chew up the fingerboard. Someone suggested that I try Elixir strings, because they’re coated with some magickal elixir that prolongs the life of string but also cuts down on friction (a lot of players like them because they’re easier on the fingers than regular strings). All I knew was that I’d first tried a set of Rotosound’s black nylon flatwound strings to cut down on fingerboard damage, but I hated the sound of them. It made the bass sound more like an upright bass (sort of the purpose of those strings), which was not at all what I was looking for.
At someone’s suggestion, I decided to try a set of Elixir’s bass strings. I’d tried their strings on my acoustic and electric guitars and absolutely hated them. Someone pointed out that they’d sound the same a couple of months down the road as they did when you first got them, and I reflected that “if they sound like shit from Day One, what does it matter if they sound like shit a couple of months later?” But the Nanoweb made them a good bet on my fretless. They certainly couldn’t sound any worse than the black nylon strings. So I bought a set of .050 guage 14102 strings.
Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. They were perfect for the fretless. Althought I’d tried Elixir’s Polyweb strings on my Alembic Spoiler before, the Nanowebs sounded brighter somehow. They made my fretless sound as if it had regular roundwound strings. The fact that I’m writing this says enough about how great they sounded. I’ve never looked back.
14102 | Heavy | Long Scale | .050 | .070 | . 085 | .105
