|  | | 
02-04-2006, 04:54 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Southern California | | | Fretless.....Guitar?
Sign in to disble this ad
Recently I de-fretted my bass, and was itching for more to do. I've got a few old, crappy guitars lying around...and was wondering how they would play fretless? I can barely play guitar, just some easy powerchords and stuff, I spend way more time with my basses. A guitar player I know mentioned sometihng about chords going all to hell with no frets...assuming you could place your fingers properly I don't know if this would be a problem.
I've seen one fretless guitar before at a concert. The guy in Cheap Trick used one live when they opened for Alice Cooper. Remember Jimmy Page's doubleneck? This guy had 5 neck guitar , and the bottom one (near his feet) was fretless. However, he did not play it... 
Ideas? |
02-04-2006, 05:02 PM
|  | Basement Clef | | Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Below Ground, Detroit area | | | I have heard of fretless guitars, but have never played or even laid eyes on one.
I'd definitely try it out for curiousity's sake. If it felt good, I'd try and plug it in.
[/ramblin']
__________________
Only red lights are forever.
Don't act your disease, defy it.
Fender Precision club member #63. LDS Cabinet Owner #17, Hartke Club Member #86
|
02-04-2006, 05:08 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: NYC/LI | | | Satriani has a triple neck--the top one's fretless.
__________________
Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low low.
|
02-04-2006, 05:09 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Houston, TX | | | Fretless guitars do exist, and there are some players out there. The instrument has some quirks, though. First, your intonation must be very precise. The ear is more sensitive to pitch variations in the guitar's range, and, due to the shorter scale length, there is less 'margin of error' to work with. Chords will be very difficult for the most part, and some common combinations will be nearly impossible to play. Also, fretless guitars have very little sustain.
That said, I've heard some neat things done with fretless guitar. It's usually used for solos (ie: one string at a time), and can be quite expressive in the hands of a master.
Last edited by fookgub : 02-04-2006 at 05:11 PM.
|
02-04-2006, 06:27 PM
| | The Aristocrats | | Join Date: May 2005 Location: NYC; Portland, OR | | | I heard a fretless guitar played only once, and that was when that guy invented the fretted-to-fretless system. Its definitely true that you can hear intonation problems with a guitar because the beats that you hear when a note is out of tune (played against the same note in tune) are more frequent, therefore more apparent. In addition, I see guitar and bass as being entirely different instruments/cultures. For instance... even though they do exist... you dont really see tremelo bars that much on basses, but you see them a lot on guitars. I think basses are generally more natural/pure sounding, so the whole fretless/anti-metal thing really works.
__________________
Dogs are people, too.
|
02-04-2006, 08:48 PM
| | Have you...killed the Venture brothers!?!? | | Join Date: May 2005 Location: Connecticut | | | I defretted an old Squier strat after I thought of how neat it would be to slide chords up and down the neck. It's a lot of fun, but it's taken a lot of work to get it in playable condition.
My main gripes with it are:
- A lack of sustain anywhere above the 15th fret
- A lack of "mwah"
As fookgub said, skilled players can do some great things with fretless guitars...I myself, however, am not one of those individuals.
__________________ Quote: |
Originally Posted by Eric Cioe Every astute man needs a few gifts in his lifetime: Pocket watch, Nice shotgun, Dunhill pipe
Pick any of those. If he doesn't birdhunt, too bad. If he doesn't smoke a tobacco pipe, too bad. | |
02-04-2006, 08:54 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Montreal, Canada | | |
__________________
"A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence." ~Leopold Stokowski
|
02-04-2006, 09:03 PM
| | Registered User
Wouldn't you like to know?! | | Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Atlanta | | | I remember reading Andy Summers' review of one, and he had nothing but horrible things to say about it.
__________________
There's a reason why women love us bass players.The tone is like Barry White's voice, and the strings are thick like Ron Jeremy's...well, you get the point.
|
02-04-2006, 09:22 PM
|  | TalkBass: Usurping My Practice Time Since 2002
Endorsing Artist: Lyt Pedalboards Beta tester: Source Audio Moderator | | Join Date: May 2002 Location: Connecticut | | | I think Pat Metheny has one. I know that there is a track on "Beyond the Missouri Sky" that sounds like one is being played...very sitar-ish. |
02-04-2006, 09:31 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Yuma, Az | | | David Torn plays one fairly regularly. Apparently they're pretty popular with the non-western-harmony crowd. They're common enough now that Guitar Player ran a few pages about them and the amount of guitarists playing them.
From what I read there, the odd chordal sounds you get from minute imperfections in intonation are part of the appeal, and true masters play with those intervals to add color to chords.
__________________ Christian Praise & Worship Bassist Club Member #371, Ibanez BTB Club #16, Headless Club #11 Quote:
Originally Posted by john turner  4 strings were enough for jaco. | |
02-04-2006, 10:30 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Missoula, MT | | | Adrian Belew played one on Discipline (King Crimson) to get elephant-like effects. Cool stuff, if not entirely practical.
__________________
"Mathematicians make propositions and demand that everyone agree with them. That's because mathematicians are bigots." -Justin Shaddock
|
02-05-2006, 12:10 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cartersville, GA | | | |
02-05-2006, 12:27 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Southern California | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by FretlessFreak I dunno about you guys, but that sounds pretty nice to my ears. | Whoa...inspiration perhaps? That does sound good. |
02-05-2006, 12:31 AM
| | | | steve vai's triple neck has a fretless on the bottom, he uses one hand to stroke and slide around the strings on it while tapping with the other hand, that sort of thing. |
02-05-2006, 07:35 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Michigan, USA | | | My boss has a fretless acoustic guitar tuned to open F IIRC. It's a Fernandez. It has a drone string then the other 5 are playable.
__________________
Remember, grammar is the difference between, "I helped my uncle Jack off a horse," and "I helped my uncle jack off a horse."
|
02-05-2006, 08:02 AM
| | Vorsprung durch Technik | | Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Cologne, Germany | | | Tim Donahue is a great fretless player, for example.
__________________
"El sueno de la razon produce monstruos."
"The sleep of reason brings forth monsters."
Francisco
Goya
Last edited by JMX : 02-05-2006 at 08:10 AM.
|
02-05-2006, 02:21 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Montréal | | | On Pat Metheny Trio Live album, the last 2 songs are on fretless 12-string guitar. I built one for a friend last summer. I don't have any sound clips tho... If I can manage to find a pic laying around I'll post it. I think it sounds good, but like most have said, it doesn't go very far in the way of sustain. |
02-05-2006, 02:45 PM
| | Reggae Loving Honkey | | Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Poulsbo, WA | | http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...879&q=fretless
A video of a "fretless get-together" at the Knitting Factory in New York. I guess everyone in the band plays a fretless instrument.
__________________
The Gear List:
Fender Classic 60s Jazz | USA Peavey Forum AX | Behringer BX600 Ultrabass |
02-05-2006, 05:55 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Santa Cruz, CA | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Vox Populi | Mmm,mmm. How I love me some fretless drums. 
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by IconBasser if it acts up, try cutting its arm off with a lightsaber. I heard this works. | | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off | | | |
