playing fretless?

[octatonic]

Try a 1/2 fretless- from fret 13 and up.
With a sustainer pickup.

[nickeroo]

logistics aside; how do you find playing fretless is? Tone wise and actual playability. I'm worried that if I do then the only way to play will be to shred or play fast. I'm a fan of eastern scalic formations but love the sound of swells and long sustain

Bit of a necrobump here. (I found it by searching for Vigier, my fav guitar brand)

I dabble with fretless and did some youtube vids of me tw*tting around on mine.

Intonation wise, that depends on your ear, the length of time you have been playing, and essentialy how well you can hear intonation/notes that are in tune or not. Against a backing it is not so hard if you have a reasonable ear.

You are quite right in saying that, when shredding or playing fast, the fretless is very much like any other guitar. Your fingers know scale shapes already, it is just a question of slightly sluightly modifying them in the absence of frets (shifting where you play them, and to some extent how you finger them).

As you probably know, the main element a lot of people struggle with is vibrato (and yes intonation). Getting a good vibrato is not hard. Just a wide rapid left to right slide.

You will find it easy to adapt and actually play a fretless (in mechnaical, how to do it, sense). It may take a day or two to get round the vibrato and finger position issue. You'll find you can play anything you can already play on a fretted, on a fretless. But intonation will need work at first. How to combat that, is up to you. Some people do the "pick one note, play it for ten minutes" style. Me, I was more the "pick a song like paradise city or cliffs of Dover, then try" school.

For long sustain though, you will need to get either or all of the following: a guitar with a fixed or locked down bridge (preferable) an e-bow or sustainer or similar (you can make your own, after a fashion or use a woman's vibrator for an ebow subsitute) and a coated or 2special" fretboard (not necesary but very handy). Ned Evett uses glass, Bbft uses the Delta Metal (and Vigier now have launched a stainless steel alloy type metal). members of the unfretted forum have used many different materials.

For sustainy things, I would recommend flatwound strings. I use gauge 11, jazz flats. http://www.daddario.com/DADProductDe...9&productid=49

Or, you could try 9/10 like normal. Your preference.


You wll probably know already but there are many Turkish fretless players and they are all awesome. They do that "eastern" thing very well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsVcu64uhxg

I am having trouble finding my favourite, slower, more moody/eastern style vid though. Maybe youtube took it down. I will keep looking. Another Turkish dude in his room, trouble is, the name's escaped me. (not easy to remember for me :P)

Hope your fretless experience goes well.

[bertie]

this is(was) Wenty's band........... and you can hear the fretless in action