Strings for fretless bass

[michaelbix]

Looking at the range of strings available from Steinberger, GHS, d'Addario, etc. I see no contemporary manufacturer (maybe) making a string for a fretless (double-ball end) Steinberger 4-string.

 

It doesn't help that I have a bit of an oddball. Not particularly liking the harsh sound of the composite body I opted to purchase a Gibson-Cort with faux-Steinberger tuners, and then with luthier Fred Carlson swapped out the bridge for a true Steinberger steel, dumped the cheap pickups for some we asked Bartolini to custom-wrap to produce a very "woody" sound, and then Fred pulled the Cort frets (replaced with ebony strips). This left me with an ash-bodied bass with a maple neck, rosewood-ebony fingerboard (fretless) and Bartolini custom pickups and the Steinberger headstock and tuning mechanism. And the Bartolini's came with their own active EQ's.

 

It's particularly important that I don't use round-wound strings on this fretless wood fingerboard. So I've used the initial set of flatwounds from Gibson until they were dead, then switched to La Bella's black-silk ended "Polished Round" (essential "ground wound") S200's in an .042 - .060 - .082 - .104 set. That set is branded "Steinberger" but is no longer available. I've gone through several sets while they were available.

 

How do others solve this? The only two other posts about "fretless" yielded no conclusive answers.

 

Please feel free to answer directly to michaelb@sover.net

[treebark55]

Michael,

 

Have you tried Status? www.status-graphite.com.

 

They do "half-wound" (ground rounds), flats, and nylon tapewound, in a couple sizes.

 

Prices are reasonable, service is top-notch.

 

Mark B.

[michaelbix]

Thanks for the great referral, Mark.

 

I didn't know about Stratus basses, and so I toured through their products. Seems like they've been at it for a while. Their string prices and shipping are in English pounds - which translate out to about $35 per set plus shipping, I think.

 

However, I recently discovered that while my model no. S200 set of Steinberger strings ("Made by La Bella" on the cover) is not current, La Bella is still showing a half page of double-ball end strings for Steinberger (and Stratus basses, I now notice) which seems to include round, flat and black nylon wound sets "according to the original specifications of Ned Steinberger."

 

I suspect that they are making the strings sold in England by Stratus.

 

So my first step, rather than buy strings that will traverse the ocean perhaps a couple of extra times, is see if the U.S. dealers of La Bella can provide the flat wound La Bella S500 sets. Look up bass strings in the pdf on-line catalog page 9 - http://www.labella.com/catalog.pdf

 

Unfortunately their "ground wound" S200 series is no longer available anywhere. But I'm happy enough to find a flat wound which suits my purpose perfectly except some edgier styles... and I can try thoroughly cleaning one of my older S200 sets in alcohol and keeping it for such uses.

 

Michael

Michael,

 

Have you tried Status? www.status-graphite.com.

 

They do "half-wound" (ground rounds), flats, and nylon tapewound, in a couple sizes.

 

Prices are reasonable, service is top-notch.

 

Mark B.