ESP LTD B-205SM Fretless - Natural Satin

I've always enjoyed the warm, resonating sound of a fretless bass, but I've never been able to justify shelling out money for an instrument that might just end up collecting dust due to its limited applications. However, I already own several other LTD basses (F1550x, F205, and B204) and I love them all so I decided to take a chance on this one as my first fretless. It has quickly become one of my favorite instruments! The unique grain of the spalted maple makes this a gorgeous one-of-a-kind piece, and it plays as impressive as it looks. The lack of frets demand greater accuracy than a fretted bass would, but the neck feels thin and fast - it's very easy on the fingers and the construction is undoubtedly solid. The pickups (I prefer the one on the bridge) offer a full, beefy tone with lots of sustain and very little excess noise. This bass is indeed quite heavy, but it's well-balanced and sits comfortably on the shoulder if you have a decent/wide strap. Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase. The bridge needed some minor adjustments to correct the intonation before I could use it, but a luthier/tech can easily set it up for you (or do it yourself with a 1.5mm allen wrench - there are plenty of tutorials online.) One thing to note when buying new strings: you'll need to make sure you buy "super long" strings or they might not sit properly in the nut. I'm personally a fan of light-gauge D'Addario Nickel-Wound XL's on all my LTDs (which is conveniently what they come pre-strung with.) However, I've noticed after a few weeks of regular playing that the strings have left slight indentations/scratches on the fretboard of this bass. I replaced them with Chrome XL (flatwound) strings, which make it sound and play even better, and will prevent further fretboard damage. Hands down, flatwounds are the way to go for a fretless.

Bought more or less blind from Amazon, bc I needed a backup in a hurry. It's now been my main bass for seven years, and the only reason it's four-star is the battery access cover plate. It's a major PITA. The rest of the bass is excellent in every respect. Fix y'all's cover plate with a magnet or something.

Always had a 4 string so the addition of the B string is awesome and who needs frets? It's great for slapping and plucking it's just going to take awhile to get used to the strings being closer together. This guitar will need to be set up. The neck and bridge both needed adjustment but that was 10 minutes max. If you don't know how to do it there are videos all over YouTube to show you how. I would definitely recommend this bass to anyone looking to move past a 4 string.

I just got this ESP LTD B-205 This morning and got home, tuned it up and What? Almost every Fretless Marks makes rattling noises. Bottom B is kind of ok but E string and on it's like someone made bade cut on the Fret filler? I ran may fingers and nails over them slightly and I can feel the dibbits, fingerboards are higher then the fret fillers or what ever you call it and some of them were just not right at all. My Other ESP C305 was made in Korea and had no problems except the connection in the cord plug in but that was an easy fix. I gave 4 stars just because of those frets!!!

Nice looking bass plays well sounds good nice action my only complaint is that the case was not included as advertised other then that I’m satisfied with my purchase reaching out to seller to find out why the case was not with bass misleading says case included.

This is a nice instrument and it plays very well. The spalted maple is attractive, but tends to look as if it was several chunks of wood that was glued together... Unfortunately, it weighs a ton! I returned it because it weighed so much. Amazon graciously refunded my money minus return fees.

I was surprised at how nice this guitar is-it played and felt great right out of the box-I'm new to fretless, so the markers are very helpful-thanks

Very happy with this bass so far. Great tone. Obviously solid construction (very heavy). A little bit of buzz on the lower frets when I got mine (hence only 4 stars), but not much of a problem.