Fretless Guitars

darkshadow54321

darkshadow54321

New member
I recently played a fretless bass in a music store and I absolutely loved the feel of it... It just gave me a feeling of freedom... sliding down the fretboard was amazing! I didn't have time to plug it in unfortunately, so I don't know what difference in sound it makes....

But it made me wonder about fretless guitars... if you have fretlines marked on the fretboard, is the guitar any more difficult to play than a regular guitar?

So two questions:

1. What is the difference in sound?

2. How differently does it play?

:dance: :newangel:
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

yes, a fretless guitar would be difficult to play. to chord with for sure, at least. The thing about fretless instruments is that instead of having a space between two frets where you can place your finger, you have to have your fingers exactly where the fret would have been on a fretless instrument in order to have proper intonation. While tihs is easy on instruments where only one or two strings are played at a time, certain chord shapes that involve more than 3 or so strings become an impossible acrobatic maneuver for your fingers because you simply can't shape your hand that specifically.

That said, I have still seen companies that make and offer fretless guitars. I've seen them on Rondomusic from time to time.
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

ive only seen a couple of fretless guitars online, let alone played one, so i cant help u there. but i agree with you, fretless bass's are the sh!t. they sound so supremely excellent in jazz. the guy who plays bass in my band has one he pulls out for some of our songs and i love it.
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

I thought a fretless guitar was one without a trem. I know when I gave up trem guitars I stopped fretting and started playing. :)
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

texasguitarslinger said:
I thought a fretless guitar was one without a trem. I know when I gave up trem guitars I stopped fretting and started playing. :)
Click to expand...


:laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2: Yea totally agree...i defretted my strat right away by 5 springing that trem, never looked back....
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

I would love to play a unfretted or de-fretted guitar with a slide. That would be cool.
I had played a defretted one without a slide and it was different. Next time I defret one, I am going to get out the slide and check it out.
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick had a guitar made with 5 necks years ago, one of which was a fretless neck. I've always likened them more to a violin, the intonation has to be there. I think it probably takes a hell of an ear to play, kind of like a scalloped board without the sustain.
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

On the Eric Johnson acoustic show tour, I saw Ned Evett open for Eric both in Portland and Eugene. Ned was playing his "GloBro", a fretless dobro. It was pretty trippy stuff. He had a bunch of effects going - I talked to him while he was getting dinner before the Eugene show, he had two Line 6 DM4's going and did a lot of loops and weird stuff. A real nice guy, very engaging and willing to talk. I think I remember him telling me he either had or was going to open for Satriani as well.

Here's a link to his web site - http://www.nedevett.com/. He's got pictures of some of his guitars and some music and video downloads as well.
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

Come to think of it, didn't Vai have a fretless neck on the triple-necked guitar he opens his G3 DVD set with? What he was doing with it was completely different than what Ned Evett was doing on his :duh: do ya think?
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

Fretless guitars have very little sustain. This is not so bad on bass, as the mass of the bass strings compensates for any sustain lost without the metal-to-metal contact.
 
Re: Fretless Guitars

CaptainCrunch said:
Come to think of it, didn't Vai have a fretless neck on the triple-necked guitar he opens his G3 DVD set with?
Click to expand...


Yep, with a sustainer pickup howling like a banshee.
 
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