a fretless guitar?

[thetroy]

Anyone ever play something like that? How can you possibly get any notes to sustain with no frets unless you use a fucking bow?

http://www.rondomusic.net/al3000csbfl.html

[Joe_Steeler]

Could be fun.
I have a fretless bass and while a challenge to play since you can go sharp or flat as easy as Yngwie swallowing a Dunking Donut, it is pretty cool to mess around with.

[Jeff Albertson]

Crazy Bumblefoot was pimping them for a while. Maybe he gave up when he married Axel Rose. There's some clips on Utoob. It's wacked..too far out for me. Seem to sound alot like playing with slide...maybe I missed the novelty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_HUi...elated&search=

[Sanctuary]

Slide?

[thetroy]

I guess if you have a metal fretboard that might give a halfway decent amount of sustain but your fingers are still muting the strings... just seems like an odd idea

[Shawn Lutz]

it would be hard for because to hit the right note you have to be exactly on where the fret is supposed to be. What I think it would really be cool in would be jazz or fusion...you could hit a lot of those "inbetween and out there" notes. it would be fun to try. I never played afretless guitar but did bang around on a bass before....realy wierd feeling

[Spivonious]

I imagine it would sound a lot like a violin being plucked.

After watching that Bumblefoot video, I wouldn't have guessed the fretboard would be all metal. That's weird.

[hippietim]

I had one of the older fretless Agile Les Pauls. You learn a lot about the advantages of frets It is almost impossible to play an open E chord in tune on a fretless guitar. Go grab a guitar and you'll see what I mean - unless you have spindly little fingers you can't get your fingers perfectly side by side on the 5th and 4th strings.

Fretless has an advantage over slide in that you can play lines that are practically impossible with a slide and you can play double/triple stops that aren't all over the same fret.

It was also an incredible amount of fun. I missed that Agile after I sold it and have looked for a fretless guitar on Ebay from time to time. Sustain is one problem - I know some of the better fretless guitars have steel fingerboards.

I am in the process of building a fretless guitar right now. I sacrificed a beautiful Warmoth neck and yanked the frets. I filled the frets and hand rubbed a gun stock oil finish to the fingerboard. That turned out ok. The body is a chambered Strat body. I have a Fernandes Sustainer system for it. I may have time today to wire it up.

[thetroy]

I just ripped the frets out of an old POS plywood strat copy I had lying around that I never play. I was curious and didn't want to spend any money so I just pulled them out and didn't fill the slots or anything - just played it the way it is.

I wish I hadn't done it. Now I think I want one of those Vigier's or something else with a metal fretboard.

Fucking internet.

[Riscchip]

Steve Vai gets some cool effects with a sustainer / fretless guitar combo.

[hippietim]

http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73039

[slash-ed]

Crazy Bumblefoot was pimping them for a while. Maybe he gave up when he married Axel Rose. There's some clips on Utoob. It's wacked..too far out for me. Seem to sound alot like playing with slide...maybe I missed the novelty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_HUi...elated&search=

I saw them a few weeks back when they came down to do some shows... Bumblefoot still whips out the fretless towards the end of the show just for kicks, pretty cool stuff.