Fretless guitars

[Soul of a new Machine]

I heard about many bass player who play fretless, but never heard about guitarist. Is there any well known guitarist that use such guitar that I could listen to?

I took back my old guitar a few weeks ago, a 10 year old samick and tore all the frets. I filled the holes with epoxy and polished the neck. I then added 2 bass strings and 4 guitar strings instead of a regular 6 guitar strings. The bass string I used are 0.5 and 0.4, bigger strings wouldn't fit in the tight hole of my guitar, and the guitar strings are standard Dean Markley.

I use it as a bass guitar actually because it really sound good in the rythm section. It's too hard for me right now to play fast and sound right with it. I like it a lot but it need practice.

Anyone here ever tried a fretless electric guitar?

 

[chaoticmanifesto]

dude, that's insane! what type of sound do you get?!

 

[Opus(sy)2]

lol fuck!, i havent heard about anybody doing that before, as chaoticmanifesto said...what type of sound do you get?

 

[Till Fjalls]

I know vai used one on the first track of Sex and Religion, but I can't recall any other guitarists who have used one...It sounds pretty damn cool, very, um, smooth and sustainy, for lack of better description. I wouldn't mind trying one, but I 've never seen one before....

 

[ke2]

Ron Thal uses a fretless Vigier Surfretter.
Metal fretboard!

 

[ggggggu]

www.mp3.com/bumblefoot

There is a song called R2 where fretless guitars are used.
Oh, and be sure the check out the song Brooklyn Steakhouse since it has one of the "sickest" solos i have heard.

 

[Soul of a new Machine]

I'm pretty sure most fretless guitar people use are the kind of model that sit on a table and wich you move your hand reverse on it. I've seen that once on TV.

As for the sound , without distortion it sound pretty much like a bass for the first 3 strings. A very clean bass indeed. It's crazy how a slide sound good with it, very smooth.
I also tried it with 6 guitar strings but the smaller ones sound a bit palm muted, unless you press very hard, and it get tiring. It's not a problem with the big ones. After a few hours you get used to it and hitting the neck at the right place become easier. Unfortunately the pick-ups are less than stellar. I won't try that on my BC rich though

My favorite song to play with it is the intro/bass-solo of Blood on the worlds hands from Iron Maiden X-Factor album. I could never get to sound right with my standard guitar but now it's the closest thing to having a real bass.

If I was better with that stuff I would record a small bit on mp3 and post it here as well as a few pics. Maybe in 3 weeks when I return home.

 

[Soul of a new Machine]

http://www.fretlessguitar.com

 

[Feanor IV]

Well, I'd like to do the same thing to my old guitar................ Could you give me some details about it? How did you take the frets out and what did you use to fill them? And by the way, how did you actually polish it then?? I mean, I imagine that if I try to do this, I'll only succeed in fucking up the instrument!!

 

[Soul of a new Machine]

Defretting your guitar

I took my ideas on this website. I did not follow it completely though. But it is essential that you look at it, as it is well explainend and accompanied by pictures.

What I did that is different:
I used epoxy glue (only thing I had in hand), wich I think was a bit too thick and was harder to use, but when it drys it is very hard and nearly unbreakable.

I also did not coat the neck with layers of polyurethane. Instead I used 3 different type of sand paper. One very rough for the first polish right after defretting to smooth the stuff I broke will removing the frets, one a bit less rough for cleaning the extra epoxy after it dried, and to made sure the neck had no bumps (very important) and a smoother one for the finish. The finish may look better with the polyuretane method though...

I used the same technique to remove the frets. I suggest you to decide wich end of the neck to start because the first fret you will remove will leave damage, unless you are god. For my part I almost never use the neck above the 19/20th fret, so I started by the last fret, and only had to remove a small chip of wood to understand how it was done. After that I did not break anything fortunately.

It is very important you leave no gaps/holes on the neck, because it will lead your strings to produce strange noise. And take care of blisters will using sandpaper.

Have fun