anybody here play fretless guitars?

[jjpistols]

I'm in love with my fretless jazz bass, and I know I've seen them mentioned here - tell me about your fretless guitars, if'n ya don't mind

[doc oc]

A buddy of mine has a fretless guitar with an unlined ebony board and a fernandez sustainer in it.

AMAZING.

It's like a whole new instrument. Sort of violin-like.

[Roy]

 

pulled the frets on my overstock special (hog squier strat) and filled with wood putty. really dug it but the unwound strings were pretty dead. got a sustainer and totally {censored}ed up the installation, broke a toggle off the board and busted a trim pot. so it sits unplayed until I can afford to bring it to fernandez for repair.

 

if I had to do it again, I'd seriously look at that 12 string one from rondo

[nickeroo]

I was heavily into it for a while:

 

a-AhB3Pewbc

 

But my cheap old conversion doesn't sustain my interest (so to speak)...mainly because it is such poor quality. If I had a nicer one I'd still be using it.

 

Another frontier, really. And a lot of fun.

[jjpistols]

^cool

[Elias Graves]

I spent several hours with one of these. Godin Multiac nylon fretless with synth.

 

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

 

I'd love to have it for keeps.

 

EG

[finboy]

ned evett has done some cool stuff with fretless guitars, he has necks with glass fretboards made up and uses sustainers. i believe the cheapest route is just to order the fretless les paul from rondo, or if you are feeling really out there, the fretless 12 string les paul. they have an ebony board so it probably won't sustain as well as the glass, but it still should do alright. also, if you want fret markers, you might be better to look for any guitar with an ebony neck, pull the frets and use maple to fill the holes.

 

VQH0gx_sAt4

 

KjiF4DtDyyA

 

j10F9_K9O7Y

 

i missed out on a maui blue 1980's international series strat that had the fret board replaced with brass. KILLER guitar that went for only $750, and i forgot the auction

 

I asked the seller if he would give me contact info for the winning bidder but no such luck.

[Jkater]

[CreamTele2]

But my cheap old conversion doesn't sustain my interest (so to speak)...mainly because it is such poor quality. If I had a nicer one I'd still be using it. Another frontier, really. And a lot of fun.

 

LTE FTW!!:thu:

[jjpistols]

 

Jkater and his loyal army of fiddlers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm slowly working my way to double bass, I think - if I get one I will definitely take lessons and learn to bow

[JMR]

I want a fretless guitar, I might get one from rondo some day

[finboy]

also, you may want to try keeping the frets near the nut so you can still do chords easily.

 

keep the first 4 frets so you can play usual chords, and leave the rest fretless so you can still do al the weird lead work

[Kuroyume]

I wanna see those fretless barre chords - eh hem....:poke:

[Elias Graves]

I wanna see those fretless barre chords - eh hem.... :poke:

 

Tune to open E. :poke:

 

EG

[Jkater]

 

I'm slowly working my way to double bass, I think - if I get one I will definitely take lessons and learn to bow

 

 

One interesting possibility are those 3/4 double bass, sort of a short scale bass, I guess. Some I've seen come in cool finish too. If I was to try my hand at playing double bass, that's probably the way I'd go but I guess you're taller than me so you can manage the big guys.

[Kuroyume]

 

Tune to open E. :poke: EG

 

 

That won't work either. The fingers don't create a clean, linear clamping required to barre all six strings well enough and in exact positions, especially with the inclusion of other fingers. It's not even easy to master with frets! Yeah, you can play 'up to' two-finger chords on a violin/viola/cello and probably get away with three or four (if you are *reeeeallly* good and accurate) on a fretless guitar. I seem to remember that guitars (lutes, mandolins, vihuela) have had frets for, what, 500-1000 years (at least). I don't think this was just to accomodate easier playing for dullards (like the crossbow did for archery). There are just some things which cannot be done with the fingers alone with this design.

 

Thus the reason that guitars, mandolins, lutes, vihuelas, sitars, dulcimer, saz, zither, wagon, kotos have frets (though, kotos and wagons have more of a sequence of moving bridges rather than true frets).

[aenemated]

I'm slowly working my way to double bass, I think

 

 

?

[Danox3]

 

"Masonized" Kramer Focus 2000.

[Silverburst LP]

Not yet, but I do have GAS for this strange device at Rondo:

 

[PanaDP]

Not yet, but I do have GAS for this strange device at Rondo:

 

Because 12-strings don't have enough intonation problems already.

[Fuelish]

A friend of mine plays a big ol' fretless upright bass ..... cool instrument, works for him when we play together. I can't for the life of me get a decent sound out of it. I'm a wuss, and prefer frets.... and so it goes...

[55gibby]

I thought about it...

 

 

Until I watch a guy play one, too much work for me

[The Eristic]

I have one of these that I break out occasionally at shows.

 

http://godinguitars.com/godinglissentarp.htm

 

I'd really like a solidbody fretless, though, as the Glissentar is too idiosyncratic, both in terms of sound and feel, to be applied as liberally as I want.

[illinismitty]

I have a dean EVO that I bought for $100 just to turn into a fretless. I filled the fret slots with a different color filler so that I have reference for pitch. It's fun and a totally different experience. I use it for doing ambient {censored} on my recordings.

 

I am not a good enough player to turn a good guitar into a fretless.

[jimwratt]

I have one. Its fun to play. I don't use it all the time, but its definitely something I think every forward thinking guitarist should have in their arsenal.