fretless guitar.....demo

anyone here into fretless guitars?

ive never played one. i cant imagine how precise you have to be with one of these.

a reply to: CardiffGiant

Sure you can imagine. Every child learning violin or cello knows. Its quite easy.

I play fretless bass guitars. Electric and upright. You don't actually have to be as precise as you do with a guitar with frets. It allows you to play in between the notes.

a reply to: CardiffGiant

Gnarly.

I love the sound of fretless for solo works. I prefer bands which play fretted guitars and bass because I like heavy metal, and there is a mechanical edge to fretted instruments which lends value to metal music, but there is nothing quite as smooth and versatile as a fretless instrument.

It will always be a novelty item for a player like me, for the most part. But they're fun for a few minutes. Frank Zappa and Steve Vai have used them. Junior Brown used them before but he invented his own. It's a crazy contraption, check it out sometime.

A lot of persons wonder who Guthrie Govan is. I always say he looks like 'Jethro Tull' would look, and devotes time to teaching, laying low, so it seems.

According to wikipedia, Guthrie took a little break to use er, a certain ototoxic substance, earlier in his career. I don't see that entry anymore. Also missing is the part about a tennis player who whizzed on the court, because she couldn't hold it. They can say anything about anyone I guess.

I watched his Deep Purple cover, and man, that bassist stinks. I think Guthrie has a great ear. He seems level headed and aware of his gifts. I'm not sure why he has that bass player, though. Not a single pure tone there.

Frets allow musicians to get away with a lot of slop, and bad habits develop. It is a whole different world when you actually need to be in 'tune' by ear instead of by mechanical design/layout. If it's so simple, I'd like to hear that person reproduce a passage, any passage, with tonal accuracy, or even similarity to that passage, even once.

# 255

originally posted by: TheWhiteKnight

I watched his Deep Purple cover, and man, that bassist stinks. I think Guthrie has a great ear. He seems level headed and aware of his gifts. I'm not sure why he has that bass player, though. Not a single pure tone there.

Frets allow musicians to get away with a lot of slop, and bad habits develop. It is a whole different world when you actually need to be in 'tune' by ear instead of by mechanical design/layout. If it's so simple, I'd like to hear that person reproduce a passage, any passage, with tonal accuracy, or even similarity to that passage, even once.

# 255

from what i can see through vids, guthrie oes not use the same bass player. he travels around giving clinics and seminars and of course littlle jams.... i dont know how they find the bass player but he uses a variety of people.
his ear is awesome. he said when he was learning he would slow down his fathers records, and then tapes to transcribe the music onto paper to learn.
of course he transcribed the shawn lane piece.
he just has the magic ear.
frank zappa had the magic ear also

originally posted by: Fylgje
It will always be a novelty item for a player like me, for the most part. But they're fun for a few minutes. Frank Zappa and Steve Vai have used them. Junior Brown used them before but he invented his own. It's a crazy contraption, check it out sometime.

only song i know frank used the fretless on is my guitar wants to kill your mama.
im sure he used it on others so if you know for sure please tell me. i have his entire discography including live stuff so i will be able to find it

I think it would be a bit freaky to play. Interesting for some lead stuff but I don't know if I could get that compressed metal chunk without frets. And if you having a bit of trouble hearing your sound on stage like if you are standing too close to your amp it might be hard to correct your note. Probably good for jazz though.