One is the fretless slide but there aren't many applications in music for that and you can certainly annoy the hell out of everyone quickly with it. After you've enough sliding followed by a laughter and "hehe, it's cool", try to control it's speed. You can increase sound level during a slide, especially in the lower strings, depending on the slide's speed. The key is control and don't overdo it. One cool slide is a really fast slide, sliding up sounds better, making a whooshing sound. It's more percussive than melodic.
There's the mwah thing. Work on your vibrato to control its speed according to the music. From a slow and mellow vibrato, usually down from the note, to a nervous, jerky vibrato.
One thing you can do to control the slow vibrato is playing an open E, then playing an E on the G string. Then experiment with vibrato speed and amplitude by listening to the "wave" it makes. To practice this on the low strings, pluck an harmonic (say C# on the A string (4th fret)) and experiment the vibrato on the "root" note (in the exemple, an A on the E string (5th fret).
Some notes mwah better than others. Find them on your neck by leaving the other string's harmonics resonate by sympathy.
Some other cool things is replicating a guitar's whammy bar (it's the mwahhy bar
). It'll never sound the same but youcan find some cool effects by experimenting.
But Lemur is right, try not to make it sound like a fretless. The cool effects of a fretless can easily be overdone. Big mwahs and slides have more impact when you don't expect them at every turn.
And obviously, practice playing in tune. Play scales along a recorded fixed-tuned instrument, like a piano. Play the same note, then thirds and fifth.
The coolest thing about fretless is the control you can have, but it can sound gimmicky, or just like a big mess.
sold my crappy ibanez ages ago
