What do you guys think of fretless guitars?

BassClef 2010 · #1 05-31-2010, 02:12 PM

Sometimes they scare me, other times I think they're awesome. Your thoughts?

Mr wiggl3s · #2 05-31-2010, 02:13 PM

I've heard of fretless guitars, but i'm mostly into metal music, and have never actually seen anyone play with one.

bassicmelodies · #3 05-31-2010, 02:22 PM

A friend of mine took an Ibanez seven string guitar and had it converted. I played it a while back. A lot of fun. The guitarist from Hiromi's Sonicbloom played a fretless guitar for part of the album Time Control. I think it has a lot of potential as a lead instrument, although intonation with two tones being produced at once is hard enough. To produce more than triads accurately would require a special person.

superbassman2000 · #4 06-01-2010, 07:47 AM

I like them--I think they are still in a developmental stage where guitarists haven't really unlocked their full potential, but I think there is a future in them

ggunn · #5 06-01-2010, 08:06 AM

The thought of playing chords on a fretless guitar makes my teeth hurt.

Schlyder · #6 06-01-2010, 08:09 AM

hahahahahaha guitardist's brains would a'splode

Lo-E · #7 06-01-2010, 08:18 AM

Lots of possibilities there. I really like what Adrian Belew has done (chords and all). Zappa toyed around with one on Bongo Fury, as well. I know there is a whole scene surrounding f/less guitar, but I haven't heard most of it.

Like any other instrument, it really depends upon who's playing it. The oud, with it's 10 strings and no frets, has been ubiquitous in middle-eastern and mediteranean music for centuries. I don't think those players thing about it's lack of frets, they just play it.

No reason why the fretless guitar should be any different....

WalterBush · #8 06-01-2010, 08:23 AM

I've played a few, and they sound just a tad bit more full when playing chords...I suppose that's probably from the intonation being ever so slightly off, no matter how carefully one positions their fingers on them. I liked the ones I played, and was thinking about converting one of my guitars.

They're also not quite so piercing when playing leads. Power chords sound great, although the attack sounds a little wierd, especially with distortion. They're distinctive, that's for sure.

MonetBass · #9 06-01-2010, 08:27 AM

Being a guitar player as well, I'd say it would take some seriously good techinique to play chords in tune on a fretless guitar. I can see it being more suited for playing leads, however. I'm sure it would provide a different voice than a fretted version, though.

JTE · #10 06-01-2010, 08:35 AM

There was a band in the '70s called Kittyhawk which had two fretless guitars. Very interesting. I can't see most guitarist coming to grips with it, but (like the guys in Kittyhawk) a cellist could develop technique to play it well.

John

Ed Fuqua · #11 06-01-2010, 11:08 AM

I like the sound, when I was at berklee there was a guy who I was in a couple of ensembles with. I think he also was in Ken Pullig's band outside of school, Tim something. I Googled him back in the 90s and he was living in Japan...

Hoover · #12 06-01-2010, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

I like the sound, when I was at berklee there was a guy who I was in a couple of ensembles with. I think he also was in Ken Pullig's band outside of school, Tim something. I Googled him back in the 90s and he was living in Japan...

We must've been at Berklee around the same time: Tim Donahue http://www.timdonahue.com/bio.html was in a couple of my classes in the very early 1980s. Even back then he was an awesome fretless guitarist with mind-bogglingly good technique and taste...presumably he's only gotten better since.

Ed Fuqua · #13 06-01-2010, 03:46 PM

That's the cat! So whose ensembles were you in, who'd you play with there? I was in Jackie Beard, Ken Pullig, George Garzone and was playing with Ian Froman, Rami Levi, Klaus Suonsaari, Robert Mark, Monte Croft (a little bit), John Brolley, that's about all whose names haven't drifted away from me..

groooooove · #14 06-01-2010, 03:50 PM

i have one.

IMO, theres a specific reason why they wont ever become popular.

the only way to get a "clean" or clear sound, is to pluck by the bridge- like what jaco did. if you puck up where the strings are looser (over a neck pickup, perhaps?) you get a more delayed "mwah" (as im sure most of us here know.) this makes it kind of like a bass with a whammy bar, interesting as a novelty, but little real potential. CAN one be played as if it were fretted (as far as picking hands are concerned)? absolutely, but i dont think its that great of a sound. can you practice plucking by the bridge? sure, but it feels too awkward to get used too.

as for chords on a fretless guitar, i dont think that woud be that big of a deal. you'd get used to playing in tune pretty quickly, if you have a good ear / are a decent musician.

**SoComSurfing** · #15 06-01-2010, 05:17 PM

I can see uses for it in open tunings and with lead work. I've been wanting to try one for a while, but of course, when the music store I worked for special-ordered one for a customer it was delivered and picked-up while I was on vacation.

**colcifer** · #16 06-01-2010, 08:43 PM

I don't like them (vibrato irks me endlessly). Being a fretless player myself, I can say that for the better part, guitarist have no clue how to play these things. I'd love to get my hands on one to try out because everything I've heard so far sounds like bad slide playing.

deaf pea · #17 06-01-2010, 09:44 PM

David "Fuze" Fiuczynski has done some interesting stuff with the fretless guitar . . . his "main axe" (at least the last time I saw him live) was a double neck . . . the top neck fretless, the bottom one fretted . . .

You might have heard of his work with the Screaming Headless Torsos . . .

. . .

Linas · #18 06-01-2010, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deaf pea

David "Fuze" Fiuczynski has done some interesting stuff with the fretless guitar . . . his "main axe" (at least the last time I saw him live) was a double neck . . . the top neck fretless, the bottom one fretted . . .

You might have heard of his work with the Screaming Headless Torsos . . .

. . .

+1 to fuze. Screaming Headless Torsos arent exactly the kind of music im into, but worth a listen.

thombo · #19 06-01-2010, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linas

+1 to fuze. Screaming Headless Torsos arent exactly the kind of music im into, but worth a listen.

+1 on fuze again

uethanian · #20 06-02-2010, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by groooooove

i have one.

IMO, theres a specific reason why they wont ever become popular.

the only way to get a "clean" or clear sound, is to pluck by the bridge- like what jaco did. if you puck up where the strings are looser (over a neck pickup, perhaps?) you get a more delayed "mwah" (as im sure most of us here know.) this makes it kind of like a bass with a whammy bar, interesting as a novelty, but little real potential. CAN one be played as if it were fretted (as far as picking hands are concerned)? absolutely, but i dont think its that great of a sound. can you practice plucking by the bridge? sure, but it feels too awkward to get used too.

i feel like that's a consequence of the strings, not the instrument...an 'ud sounds fine plucked towards the neck because it has thicker/looser strings. not a mwah, more like a very scooped EQ sound. i think nylon strings (with ferrous cores of course) would work well for fretless guitar