Fretless, 5 string setup question?

[reverbbb]

A friend of mine got an Ibanez Fretless 5 string through mail order. He is only 16 and does not know much about the bass yet. I noticed yesterday, that it had never been setup properly. The intonation was VERY far off at the 12th position. It was nearly 3/4 of a note off on most strings. Additionally, the string height is set way high. I'm going to set this bad boy up to play like it should.

Question:
Since the Fretless has no frets (duh ) does it make sense to set the string height very low? He just installed flat wound strings. My guess is that with no frets and flat wound strings, then you could go to nearly zero in height. Although the adjustments will not go that low (I know better, just waiting for reactions :) ). Any thoughts on how high to set the strings?

This is one great sound guitar BTW. It radiates the sound forward very well with very little sound projecting out of the edges of the guitar. It has a very deep throat sound but sustain and brightness that I have never heard on a Fender bass. A bit pricey for an import though ($600 I think).

[fenderslaper]

Setting up the bass with low string action will give it more mmwwaa sound. which is what makes a fretless sound, well, fretless. My fretless strings are set pretty low and I haven't incountered any problems with it. I also have very little relief in the neck, just doesn't seem to need much. I've only had a fretless for about 3 years, and I'm sure there are a lot of others out there with more experence in this field than me. YMMV.
'slaper.

[reverbbb]

This thang is sounding great now. I lowered the bridges nearly all the way. The only problem I see is the allen screws are more noticable on the palm now.

I had some trouble getting the intonation to my satisfaction. I realize that the dots ar the markers for the frets instead of betwwen the frets. But on the twelvth fret, the best I could do was get the pitch in the middle of the double dots. Even then, I have the bridges adjusted nearly as long as they will travel towards the butt of the guitar.

Overall, I think my friend will enjoy this new setup MUCH better than the way it was.

I am not so bold to shim the neck, but it seems like it could use a little more angle to lower the strings some more. But, I may be at the edge of string rattle on the fretboard, already.

[fenderslaper]

would probably help, and it's not hard to do. I had the same problem as you are having with the bridge adjusted as low as it would go, and the screws sticking up and getting in the way of my palm muting. Just remember that it will probably only need one shim, so put in one and reattach the neck. put the shim close to the heel.

'slaper.

[Bob Rogers]

http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass...tupmanual.html

[reverbbb]

These were helpful tips indeed.