We offer various types of fretless fingerboards. Ebony is the hardest material, just like on an upright bass, and you will enjoy years of playing fun.
You can also have rosewood, which sounds a bit warmer than ebony, but is not as hard. (You could even - on special request - have a plain maple fingerboard which we cover with boat laquer if you require that special look and sound.)
Pictured on the left is our "Lined Fretless" , this really helps intonation and orientation on the neck. You can even choose the color of the lines! We searched for the special formula boat laquer, and put it on a rosewood fingerboard... the result is a super slick playing feel and the fingerboard is much more durable.
FRETLESS DREAM
We were glad to fulfill a young player´s dream of the ultimate fretless:
an alder body as the base for a great fretless sound, and a bookmatched
walnut top for even more improved "singing" qualities of the
bass. This really comes to life with our higloss finish.
Add to that our new "Super Fretless" pickup which features two
jazz bass coils under one cover: in the single coil position the string
vibration is picked up at the classic location, resulting in a full Jaco-like
tone. In the double position, both coils are on, and you have a fat humbucker
sound that cuts thru any mix. Active? Not needed on this baby! We want
to hear the pure sound of the wood!
Zingo: Classic look, classic sound! Pick it up an be inspired!
We love to do special requests because sometimes it leads to unexpected discoveries! In this case, the request of a player for the hot finger sound you get from our Funderbird bass resulted in making a mahogany body for a real full fretless tone! This one also features our double jazz pickup, so you have a real classic "Jaco" sound but also a fuller, hotter tone featuring both coils!
Listen here!
Simplicity is the ticket: Alder body, ebony neck, passive HotWire pickups
-you don´t need more for a rich fretless sound!
Just to get a glimpse of what you can do with a HotWire fretless bass,
listen to our Fretless Demo, played by Reiner Backe! We recorded four
different 8-bar tracks on his black bass pictured here - in ten Minutes!
Then I arranged and mixed the parts.
HOT WIRE BASSIC FRETLESS
If you require a bit more luxury, take a look at this:
Swamp ash body with optional higloss finish
bolt-on Maple neck with rosewood lined fretless fingerboard,
finished with special recipe boat laquer (also available unfinished)
BadAss bridge, Schaller machines
single Hot Wire pickup, passive control layout: volume/tone
We built this partucular one for Jon Brant of Cheap Trick.
As the bridge pickup is used most of the time, we left out the neck pickup. Less is more! The glowing sunburst brings out the sleek curves best.
This is the sound of the one pickup fretless (treble up)
HOT WIRE FRETLESS FIVE ACTIVE
This Fretless has the classic looks but offers extended sound variety! We installed a J-Retro Deluxe with passive tone so you can get any sound imaginable! The fingerboard is rosewood, and the fret markers are very subtle... so the player can see exactly where the fingers go, but the listener sees a plain fingerboard!
HOT WIRE FRETLESS FIVE
A plain ebony fingerboard as pictured here looks cool and adds class
to your perfomance. What the public doesn´t see is the side markers
we put on so you can´t get lost whether you´re groovin´
low or soaring in the high register! If you feel more comfortable when
you can see where the frets would be, we recommend our "lined fretless"
fingerboard. This swamp ash body is very evenly figured and has a very
fast attack and a clear response. That was the sound the player had in
mind when he ordered it.
HOT WIRE SUPER FRETLESS FIVE
I cooked it up one night: One phat sounding HotWire Humbucker in the
vintage position, switchable to single coil for "traditional"
sounds, passive controls for volume and tone, a simple adler body, PUR
finished - what else would you need for a Super Fretless Sound?
HOT WIRE FRETLESS SIX
HOT WIRE FRETLESS DOUBLE BASS