ALright, the piezo works very well especially with frettless. I don't have a fretless or piezo on my Sterling though. Some poeple actually only play off of the piezo. This apperantly is because It makes it more acustic sounding, and a little punchier. I say, if u like fretless, don't even think twice about the piezo, good luck with it, and congratulations if you do get it. But, I have a Sterling, and if youre going a little more for tha jazz sound, i say, heck why not go Sterling Fretless piezo, that's my take on ur situation.
Hope this helps, it's just some info i looked up and found 4 ya.
I'm looking at a Sterling Fretless with the Piezo Bridge. I think the Sterling body and neck fit me well...I was curious how the Piezo bridge affects the bass as a whole. Everything I've read about the Piezo on fretted basses has been positive, and I know how much I love my '77 MM...so what's the combination going to be like?
I don't get much call to play Fretless, and I want my Fretless purchase to be the first/last fretless I buy (unless I hit the Lotto this weekend! hehe).
Well, the sound will be different with the piezo, but you do realize, you can mkae it so the piezo isn't affecting the sound if you don't want it too. It's a dial that adjust the presence of the piezo sound.
Okay, this is subjective. Not stuff I looked up on the net, but my own experience with the piezo pickup. But subjective because we're talking tone.
The piezo on my fretted SR5 doesn't really approximate an acoustic sound. Now it MIGHT do a decent job if I had a muting system, too....but I don't and I play electric bass anyway.
It does seem to inject some 'air' into the tone and it also takes off some classic Stingray growl. My experience is that these things get sort of lost in a loud rock and roll band, which is mostly what I do anyway.
IF I could get that gig with Shawn Colvin, however, I could see using the piezo.
I don't know if my post will help, but the peizo option seemed a logical choice on my fretless sterling. But i had no idea how much i'd come to rely on it. There's more bite in that piezo than I expected. I 'd say i use it by itself half the time, and a 50/50 blend others. I don't find the three way switch to change the sound in much of a particularly useful way, how ever. Maybe jes my ears.
The piezo offers a lot of warmth to the sound of the bass from my experience. It's suppoused to make it more acoustic sounding, and it does a fair job of it, but really, what it offers most is giving your bass a more warm, clean sound compared with how a sterling or Stingray sounds without it.
And of course, if you feel like you just want that punchy sound, there is a knob that allows you to balance how much you want to blend as previously mentioned. You can completely negate the piezo if you do not require it at that time.
And don't fergit th' much overlooked dip switches on backside of bridge, under th' plate will allow you to adjust each strings piezo uotput individually. The're not really switches per say, but slotted mini knobs that can be turned clockwize or counterclockwize. good bit of trail and error here. Factory does a good set-up job as is.