The Kernel
New member
Is there such a thing? Is it possible to simply defret a guitar in the way that Jaco Pastorius defretted his bass?
Fretless guitar?
- Thread starter The Kernel
- Start date
darwins_ghost
New member
Re: Fretless guitar?
I would think it would be hard to get perfect notes with such ease of being able to go a little sharp or flat.
I would think it would be hard to get perfect notes with such ease of being able to go a little sharp or flat.
D-EJ915
Stretchologist
Re: Fretless guitar?
Yeah they exist, actually playing a fretless guitar is easier than playing on the violin because you have more room to "fudge it" if you will.
http://www.rondomusic.net/product1052.html
Rondo also has one with fretlines
Yeah they exist, actually playing a fretless guitar is easier than playing on the violin because you have more room to "fudge it" if you will.
http://www.rondomusic.net/product1052.html
Rondo also has one with fretlines
MikeRocker
What's Your Forum Nameologist?
Re: Fretless guitar?
I tried a fretless guitar once, the big things I noticed are 1)lack of sustain...this is not as big a deal on bass as the strings are so much fatter and have a lot more inertia and 2)it's very hard to play chords that have more than one string played at the same fret such as the D-shape or E-shape. If you think about it, when you play an E for example, your middle and ring fingers are not at exactly the same place on the B and E notes (2nd fret on the 5th and 4th strings) but the fret stops the strings, so the intonation is on. It's really difficult to place two adjacent fingers at the exact same spot (where the fret would be) to get the intonation correct. For this reason, I think a fretless guitar might better lend itself to leads than rhythm.
If I was gonna get one, I might look into putting a sustainer in it.
I tried a fretless guitar once, the big things I noticed are 1)lack of sustain...this is not as big a deal on bass as the strings are so much fatter and have a lot more inertia and 2)it's very hard to play chords that have more than one string played at the same fret such as the D-shape or E-shape. If you think about it, when you play an E for example, your middle and ring fingers are not at exactly the same place on the B and E notes (2nd fret on the 5th and 4th strings) but the fret stops the strings, so the intonation is on. It's really difficult to place two adjacent fingers at the exact same spot (where the fret would be) to get the intonation correct. For this reason, I think a fretless guitar might better lend itself to leads than rhythm.
If I was gonna get one, I might look into putting a sustainer in it.
danglybanger
ReelItInologist
Re: Fretless guitar?
...play in open tuning to make things slightly easier I suppose...
...play in open tuning to make things slightly easier I suppose...
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Re: Fretless guitar?
There are a few fretless guitar players out there . . . David Fuzinski does a mean cover of 'Red House' as well as some interesting middle eastern type music on his. I think it requires a lot more control than most guitar players can handle though . . . if you screw up defretting your guitar you can always make it into a slide guitar, so I say go for it!
There are a few fretless guitar players out there . . . David Fuzinski does a mean cover of 'Red House' as well as some interesting middle eastern type music on his. I think it requires a lot more control than most guitar players can handle though . . . if you screw up defretting your guitar you can always make it into a slide guitar, so I say go for it!
JacksonMIA
Lemur-buckerologist
Re: Fretless guitar?
Vai has a fretless neck on his triple-neck Ibanez, IIRC.
Vai has a fretless neck on his triple-neck Ibanez, IIRC.
scottish
WeirdScienceologist
Re: Fretless guitar?
my friend tore the frets out an old guitar of his and then we filled them and sanded it. your intonation has to be DEAD on. as afore mentioned, takes a whole ton of control to play it and forget chording on it, lol. Great for slide and messing around with microtones if you are into that.
my friend tore the frets out an old guitar of his and then we filled them and sanded it. your intonation has to be DEAD on. as afore mentioned, takes a whole ton of control to play it and forget chording on it, lol. Great for slide and messing around with microtones if you are into that.
Jeroen
New member
Re: Fretless guitar?
Vigier creatively and effectively solves this with a stainless steel fingerboard.
Edit: I just noticed someone was ahead of me. Oh well...
Vigier creatively and effectively solves this with a stainless steel fingerboard.
Edit: I just noticed someone was ahead of me. Oh well...
