Fretless guitar?

Godin and others make fretless guitars. I've played Godin's 6-string nylon fretless, and it's a lot of fun. There is also Godin's 11 string Glissentar.

They have been around for awhile. This may answer your question:

http://www.unfretted.com/

I found a clip of a guy named Gary Grieve (I think) playing his, so you might look around for that if you're curious to hear one.

Wow, this thread brought back memories. Years ago I read about a band called Kittyhawk in Downbeat magazine. They used Chapman stick and fretless guitar. After reading the article, I pulled the frets out of my Sears Silvertone guitar and filled the gaps with wood putty, a al Jacko Pastorius. Wish I had kept that thing. Man, totally forgot about that...Hmmm, I may have to go buy a cheap guitar.

There's a local guy here here won the Guitarmageddon in 2003 names Ned Evett who uses a fretless guitar.

Does the fretless sound any different? I would imagine it might in a very insignificant way, but i don't know.

Notes die out quickly (fast decay, little sustain, short release), and note precision is not fixed, so microtonal steps are possible. Glisses are easy and smooth. Many think fretless instruments sound eastern in nature.

I'm going to pull the frets out of my old Strat HM this weekend. Maybe I'll put up an mp3.

I'm going to pull the frets out of my old Strat HM this weekend. Maybe I'll put up an mp3.

Fretless guitars are completely smooth. The guy i mentioned earlier actually has a GLASS fretboard.

On another note how easy would it be to wreck your bass pulling the frets out. I would be interested in doing that to my cheap bass. :p (tutorial? I'm searching google right now but if you have any good sites I would be happy)

The site that Nils posted a link for tells you how to take the frets off of a normal guitar, and I would imagine it would be no different on a bass. I'd probably never do that to a bass or guitar because i like sustain, and let's face it, learning how to play notes without frets would be just mind boggling and take to much time for me. :lol:

On another note how easy would it be to wreck your bass pulling the frets out. I would be interested in doing that to my cheap bass. :p (tutorial? I'm searching google right now but if you have any good sites I would be happy)
Pretty easy to mess it up, but also pretty easy to avoid. If you just yank on them you'll probably take chips of wood out with them, and require some repairs. If you heat them first and gently lever them up from the corner (I used a pocket knife) you should do fine. If you use round wound strings you'll need to fill the frets slots in and probably finish the fingerboard to prevent buzz, but flat wounds are more forgiving.

If you use round wound strings you'll need to fill the frets slots in and probably finish the fingerboard to prevent buzz, but flat wounds are more forgiving.

Fill the empty slots in any case -- it helps maintain the rigidity of the neck.

Steve-O: If you've been playing guitar or bass for some years, going fretless may not be as difficult as it sounds.

If you don't fill the slots left by the frets you'll run the risk of the neck bending up from the tension of the strings. Just look inside your acoustic, the inner bracing around the edges are back cut allowing the wood to bend like a snake. While the slots left by the frets are much much thinner they make a big difference when multiplied 22 or 24 times.

Mike