Fretless Intrigue

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Shadoweclipse13
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Fretless Intrigue

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:04 am

These days, as I find myself listening to more synth and orchestra, I find myself wanting to do stranger things with guitar. Cello and violin in particular have a draw on me, and I keep thinking that I want to try a fretless guitar, especially with something like an Ebow or TC Aeon.

It seriously interests me, but aside from actually getting the neck (which shouldn't be an issue), I've never played one. Anyone around here play fretless guitar and have any thoughts?
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natthu
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Re: Fretless Intrigue

Post by natthu » Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:28 am

I owned a defretted Tele a while back. It sounded awesome, especially with a violin bow. Unfortunately my guitar playing is not quite good enough to pull off playing a fretless guitar in any practical situation. I do play fretless bass, which I would say I am am competent at, and I have to say that fretless guitar is much much harder to just sound okay on (your margin for error is tiny in comparison to bass).

A friend of mine who is a much better guitarist than I, did borrow my fretless Tele and managed to play it well enough to record a few tracks with it (using an eBow). I suspect anyone who is halfway decent at fretless guitar is either extremely well practiced, or some sort of string playing prodigy freak.

I'd definitely recommend giving it a go though. Even if you never master it, you can still get some cool atypical sounds from it.

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Re: Fretless Intrigue

Post by sessylU » Thu Jun 21, 2018 3:35 am

I defretted a cheap tele last year.

http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=64870

It wasn't nearly as difficult to do as I thought and worked well. It's a lot of fun. Can't recommend it enough.
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Re: Fretless Intrigue

Post by rumfoord » Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:28 am

I wonder how well it might work to put a thin piece of masonite over the frets? Aluminum foil over thin cardboard? It feels like there must be some way to hack something together with masking tape that you could play with for a few days. You need just enough time to decide between, "yeah! more!" and, "whoaaaaa, ummm, nope".

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Re: Fretless Intrigue

Post by ThePearDream » Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:33 am

I've seen un-fretted necks in the GFS factory buyout section before, usually running around $20-25. Seems like a good way to test the waters.
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Re: Fretless Intrigue

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Thu Jun 21, 2018 9:15 pm

Thanks for all the (quick) replies everybody! To echo everyone else's sentiments, I'm definitely expecting to be any virtuoso, or even any good, with it, but it's definitely something I want to do. I definitely want a neck with some fretboard markers at least, and side-dots as well. I'm thinking about making a body with strap-hooks placed in a way that I could play it almost upright like a Cello or upright Bass, just because I think that angle could be comfortable.

I'd love to have an actual violin/cello bow, but I saw an Instructable a year or so back, where this person made one with a strand of fishing wire (roughed up a tiny bit with sand paper, so it has a bit of grab to it). I was wondering what you guys thought about taking smaller gauge guitar strings (say, after I replace strings on my guitar) and using them in a home-made bow?

Only thing right now I'm not sure about is string tunings. I'd like to do the neck as a 5-string (standard guitar neck/width, with a custom nut) like Kirk did for his SassMaster. I'm leaning towards tuning in fifths like a violin or cello does, but not sure. I'm thinking about doing the string gauges as a bridge between violin and cello (2 or 3 highest strings like the lower 2 violin strings, 2 or 3 lowest like the highest cello strings). It's all fairly up in the air.

sessylU, I love that project! Because I love violin and cello sounds so much, I'm definitely leaning towards a homemade body, semi-hollow thinline-like body, with a bridge like a TOM or Space Control bridge so the strings sit a bit proud of the body and angle back toward the neck like an archtop or Les Paul. Basically, I want to build something that's as close to a cello I can using guitar methods and electronics. Might even do a piezo pickup too. Tempted to look into baritone scale, but unsure.

Rumfoord, I like that idea, but if I do things the way I'm thinking, if I don't like it, I could probably just sell the neck and convert it back to traditional guitar fairly easy.

ThePearDream, I'll have to check that out, but being lefty and wanting side-dots, I'm not sure what I'll actually be able to find.

The other thing I'm thinking about is getting a Tele snakehead neck, with no holes drilled, rout slots for tuners, and put in tuners sideways like a classical guitar, just to make it a bit more cello-/violin-like.

EDIT: Does anyone have any templates (paper/digital) for classical guitar headstocks?
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http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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