I have a fretless just like the one Sting used to play. (At the time I bought it, I had no idea he had ever used one, though.) It was just the most expressive fretless bass I had ever played. I went through three that all sold before I got mine off eBay and all their necks were identical: low radiused with just enough meat in the profile to dig in. The preamp doesn't really change the tone so much as act as an impedance buffer. The active/passive switch is useful, and it's the only one of my basses with that option that I prefer in active. I set the bass and treble boost and leave them alone and use the midrange control to vary my sound.