Fretless Guitar

[forgottenking2]

I have this fretless guitar I made out of two dead guitars (long story). And I have been picking it up here and then (it's much too frustrating to sit down and put 2 hours straight on the thing) and I have come up with my own little set of principles that work (for me and the guitar I have anyways).

Feel free to add to this or criticize or whatever, I am really interested in what others have to say about this subject.

Here are my little conclusions

1. Intonation is key, though it's increasingly difficult to keep the notes in
tune as you move up the neck.
2. Sustain is poor from the 5th position up (this may be an issue of the
quality of the guitar or my craftmanship) and its worse on notes above A4
(the A on the 5th fret 1st string)
3. Perfect intervals are easy to keep in tune. 3rds and 6ths are most
forgiving with intonation issues. Disonances are tough (which kind of
shades some light in some of the melodic and harmonic restrictions of
traditional harmony).
4. All chords are possible but it's best not to barre anything therefore keeping
chords to a maximum of 4 or 5 notes (when using open strings).
5. Trying to play something you already know in this damn thing is freaking frustrating!!

I am far from being able to play music beyond "Twinkle twinkle little star" and other little melodies and getting (or keeping!!) chords in tune is still a little difficult but for some reason I find this fun. (maybe my music theory prof was right and I am a nerd)

Anyone else doing something of this sort? Or am I alone in this pursuit?

Cheers,

-Jorge

[UKRuss]

Put some frets on it. Will solve the problem.;)

[forgottenking2]

LOL Yeah but then I would just have a cheap guitar... now at least I can say "It may look like a cheap guitar but it's a FRETLESS guitar" and people go "ooooooooh!" lol

[ChrisJ]

I'm not sure you can approach playing a fretless guitar the same way you approach a fretted one. I goofed around with one that a pal of mine had. I watched him play it a while so sort of figured it from watching him. Although I couldn't really play it worth a crap, the trick is in the vibrato just like a violinist. You can't play one in perfect tune so you have to have a nice vibrato going on.

Oh yeah, one other thing I learned from him is that you need heavy strings and a wound third string. unwound string don't work very well.

-CJ

[UKRuss]

A fair point.:D

[forgottenking2]

You're absolutely right! I have 13s flatwounds on mine and my 3rd is wound.

I also do the classical vibrato thing. I wouldn't call my vibrato "nice" just yet but it's getting there (one of the main things I work on besides intonation).

Oh and bends don't work for some reason. You can get the same effect by sliding though.

Thanks for the replies guys!

[oRg]

Look into converting the fretboard from a wooden fretboard to an aluminum freboard. It'll help your sustain problem. With fretless basses and guitars the ones with wooden necks have always (at least from what I hear and have experienced) have always killed the sustain, also metal fretboards are not too recent of an idea either. Vigier has been using them as well as a German company called Le Fay (mainly using steel fretboards for their basses).

Also another thing you might want to look at if you haven't alrady is the bow of the neck. You'll probably want to adjust the truss rod to get the neck as flat as possible. No need for the bow without the frets. I'm only suggesting this because the fretless guitars that I've seen have had completely flat necks.

Not sure if you'd liek to drop the cash into a new fretboard for your guitar but it's something to look into I think.

[forgottenking2]

Aluminum huh? I have read about that OR using a more solid wood (like ebony) I have the neck with no bow and I had to do some sanding to get all the notes to work (I told you it was a cheap guitar).

I will probably try the different fretboard... but it'll be after a while. I don't want to sink money into a guitar I can't play yet.