Fender Mexican precision fretless questions

CaptainCreosote

Hi ladies and gentle beings, I have had this monster of a fretless for years, never been that happy with the action on it, it times up ok and what not but I'd like a slightly lower action, I've not got a tape measure to tell you what it is at the moment but anyway, setting it up is no problem, the intonation is bang on, sounds great for the half hour I can play it before I need an ambulance, can I get away with lighter strings?, I'm on a super right budget at the moment so an really just looking for pointers so I have less change of wasting money.
Cheers in advance
Steve

mart

If you want a lower action, then you need to adjust the bridge, not change the strings. And that will cost you ... precisely nothing.

mart

If that doesn't help enough, then, yes, sure, you can put lighter strings on. Personally I use Thomastik Jazz flats, which are 40-100, and feel very easy to play. But they're quite a particular taste, wouldn't suit someone who plays hard, and are not the cheapest strings around.

ICBM

A fretless bass should be easy to play even with heavy strings. Are you using flatwounds? If not, do! Regardless of Jaco, roundwounds will chew up your fingerboard and are much harder on the fingertips too, when there isn't the slight give of having a gap under the string like there is on a fretted bass.

What's the nut height like? A lot of fretless basses are fitted with the same nuts as fretted basses, which results in a ridiculously stiff action near the nut, and still too high everywhere else. The strings should be almost touching the fingerboard at the nut - you should be able to get a Rizla paper or at most a piece of A4 underneath, no more than that.

How straight is the neck? Hold the bass normally, "fret" the strings near the nut and at the body, and have a look at the gap between them and the fingerboard in the middle - again, it should be tiny, no more than half the diameter of the G string and possibly less.

If you do all that a fretless should be silky and almost effortless to play by comparison with a fretted bass.