Fretless guitars??

[NWBasser]

OK, I have a fretless bass and really enjoy playing it. Fretless basses make a good deal of sense to me since you're typically using single note patterns.

However, I was looking at the Agile LPs yesterday and noted several fretless models. It really seems to me a poor application for guitar as I think it would make chording very difficult to say the least. I can't see much advantage to it in a guitar application either. I can't even think of any major players using fretless guitars, so I question its validity.

Is the fretless guitar really a stupid idea or am I missing something here?

[Jx2]

It could be a basicaly unexplored possiblity. I dont think you'd want to play much "chord friendly" songs, but as something you could put in open tunings where you dont make as many "full chords", and or possibly use a slide with it could open up a little diffrent sound or feel. Im just starting to tinker with open tunings and plan to add a slide after really admiring how Tom Maxwell and Greg Tibbet use it in the band Hell Yea. If I get comfortable playing in opening tunings and with a slide, a fretless guitar could be next in line.

[kiteman]

and you can have the action really close. :)

[marnold]

There was somebody whose guitar lessons I used to read/follow before his website blew up who had gotten into fretless guitars. It was mainly for solo work. You could do some crazy vibrato things. Definitely wouldn't be my cup of tea. Here's Guthrie Govan making one sound crazy good.
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I will say that I love the look of an epoxied "fret"board.

[Katastrophe]

That vid was insane! I like how he was able to to sound like he was playing slide.

I think Frusciante was the first pro I'd heard of that had a "fretless," although I think his was an old Fender with the frets ripped out.

I think it's a cool application that has its place, but I wouldn't want to hear a full set of fretless guitar music.

I, for one, would absolutely need markers on the board, just to let me know where I was, or I'd have to call it "extreme atonal jazz, experimenting with microtones."

[GreyBee]

Here is Chet Atkins playing a fretless guitar in 1992. I think he said he had it custom made by Gibson, but he didn't know why. It is a unique sound, but I would agree that a little bit of it goes a long way.

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[NWBasser]

I was going to say something about getting the same sounds with a slide or vibrato bar while retaining better chording ability, but how can I argue against Chet?

[hubberjub]

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Dave Fiuczynski formerly of the Screaming Headless Torsos

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Gabriel Martin of Consider The Source

[Tig]

Ran across a clip from Willie McBlind. The guitarist plays a fretless Strat.
Kinda' cool and wierd at the same time, but that might just be the harmonic microtonal band!
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[tunghaichuan]

Here is a web site devoted to fretless guitars.

http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=main


Avant garde/experimental/microtonal guitar players sometimes play fretless guitars, the lack of frets allow the player to play notes in between the notes in the standard Western 12-tone scale.

[NWBasser]

Ran across a clip from Willie McBlind. The guitarist plays a fretless Strat.
Kinda' cool and wierd at the same time, but that might just be the harmonic microtonal band!
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Interesting, but I think the same thing could be gotten with a slide.

Hmm, I'm not totally on board, but it does seem to have some applications.