The strings that come with the half-fretless NS/Stick are marking up the instrument's neck pretty badly. Could anyone recomend a brand of flatwound strings that perform well on the half-fretless NS/Stick? I've tried Rotosound black nylons and know they don't work that well. They are very quiet and just don't sound right.

Are the marks you mention purely cosmetic, or are they affecting playability?

Fretless bass players have to deal with this conundrum continually: Roundwound strings produce a brighter tone, but are more abrasive to the fingerboard & flatwounds cause less wear, but are significantly less bright sounding.

The marks that the roundwounds leave are inevitable, however, wiping down the fingerboard regularly will make it less noticeable cosmetically. The NS has a graphite fingerboard/neck, so the wear the roundwounds are causing should be minimal compared to a wood fingerboard.

Cheers,
James

Those black nylon strings are primarily designed for ABGs or semi-hollow basses with piezo pickups (e.g. Rob Allen). They're virtually useless with magnetic pickups.

Perhaps try a light gauge set of flatwounds? Further to James' point, fretless bass fingerboards require regular maintenance and sanding.

Cheers,
Andy

Bass players opinion here-flatwounds have ZERO tone-
don't worry bout fretboard wear-it comes with the territory.
Mike

The string marks on a fretless graphite neck are just marks, not wear.

They will quickly buff out using 3M 000 synthetic steel wool, if you are concerned with looks.

I say go for the tone, use the roundwounds.

Graphite necks seem pretty bombproof.

I have a Graphite Grand Stick, a Graphite necked NS, and a Graphite necked Fretless Jazz Bass.

Awesome stuff!

Lee