Good Guitars for Fretless?

[unit11]

I know that you give up a lot with fretless playing, but I like the sound of the sliding and also have a reasonably cheap guitar that I never play for regular guitar work anymore. I'm planning on using my Kramer as a test run (bolt on neck means if I screw up too bad I can always replace it without too much hassle) to try out tapping out frets and playing fretless.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions (preferably from experience) as to guitars that make a good conversion over to fretless? Or - dare I even hope for such a thing - guitars that are made fretless that don't cost in the multiple thousands of dollars (I sometimes see custom jobs that run in the 2k+ range)?

[sleepeatplay]

Good place to start....http://www.rondomusic.com/product1052.html

http://www.rondomusic.com/AL3000csbfl.html

http://www.rondomusic.com/intrepiddualstdfretless.html

[Elias Graves]

There's a site, I think its fretless.net, that has a lot of resources. Good luck and have fun.

EG

[nickeroo]

Any working guitar can obviously made fretless, however from experience I would suggest to go with what you are familiar with first, which is why your existing guitar may work well. Sound wise though it may be lesss than ideal, but you can see if you like fretless first.

If you feel a bit more adventurous you could switch guitar styles towards a fixed bridge perhaps string through and even through neck guitar. Reason being, sustain is a must for fretless, and most notes on a fretless conversion will not last longer than a second ro two at most, even with hardcore side to side vibrato.

Lots of gain can cure that, as can a stable guitar design. Therefore humbuckers might be another wise choice depending on your sonic/tonal preferences of course.

The

[unit11]

I think the Surfretter is the guitar that I saw, good call! One thing is for sure, it never occurred to me to have anything but a wooden fret board, but for increasing sustain, that seems to make sense. I'm definitely going to be checking out unfretted.com for info, thanks for the link!