Defretting a guitar? - Guitar Repair and Maintenance

Re: Defretting a guitar?

Oenyaw — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:01:37 +0000

DON'T!!!

Actually, check out my picture "Posting the Bass". I bought it with the frets removed and ended up replacing the neck. If there are inlays, the string will rattle on them. Horrible. I have often thought of a fretless guitar. Have you ever seen a Sarod? Its an Indian instrument which is plucked like a guitar. The neck is fretless, but not wood. It has a metal plate to press the strings down.
I would suspect that a fretless guitar would sound slightly like a sarod, with out the resonating strings buzzing.

Re: Defretting a guitar?

Ricochet — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 23:43:58 +0000

The whammy's a bit redundant with slide or fretless playing, too, and makes it trickier to change tunings or string gauges. I stay clear of them.

Re: Defretting a guitar?

Scrybe — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:27:01 +0000

Cheers Ricochet - I don't really know much about dobros/nationals and the differences (are therre any :| ) between them. I blame this entirely on the fact that I'm British. But its something I gotta find out more about, as I want one of them 'cone type thingy guitars' like Chris Whitley plays on the album Dirt Floor - think this is a pic of it http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~john.brassil/photos/1-9-26%20um%20chris%20whitley%20close.jpg so any pointers/advice will be much needed in a few months or so.

Laptsteels and slide I do, however know about, and I'd seen the Vigier (sp?) fretless basses too, so realy wanted to try for a fretless electric. Deffo DIY job tho, as I'll be too broke to buy one for the experiment. And, on reading the unfretted.com article a bit more, I don't think mixig no frets and slide is a good idea - the guy suggests really low action to make it playable, so using a slide would be made really difficult I'm guessing. And theaudio slejhamer provided makes me think it'd be pretty redundant anyway. Mind, I'm sure I'll give it a 5 minute go, once I've made my fretless wonder, just to make sure.

You seriously have no idea how excited I am about the prospect of making a fretless whammy-equipped guitar though. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: I was bouncing up and down going " It'll be like Hendrix!! Without frets!!" Ah, how little things amuse me....

Plan is to get a cheap 100quid Yamaha 012, defret it, try it with the whammy bar still on, then remove whammy bar if things pear shaped.

And I don't know of anyone with a fretless-whammy-guitar, so I'm officially declaring myself its pioneer. :wink:

Re: Defretting a guitar?

Ricochet — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:06:46 +0000

Fretless slide guitars have been in use for a long time. Look at lap steels and dobros. The frets never see contact with the strings. There would be no advantage to pressing the strings against a fretboard with a slide.

Somebody over on Big Road Blues, I think, was talking yesterday about trying out a fretless guitar. Said it was really hard to get barre chords to sound right, as you can't cleanly barre them straight across.

Re: Defretting a guitar?

slejhamer — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:59:42 +0000

Check out the video of the fretless conversion this guy built for John Frusciante:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzle_hgjakY

Already sounds like a slide is being used. Would adding an actual slide be overkill? Pointless maybe? I really don't know. This one sounds great though. Interesting he used a glass fingerboard. My superglue fingerboard will be easier to repair if it chips. :lol:

And here's a guy with fretless acoustic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ4eYqVaxpY&feature=related

Lots more on youtube.

Article here:
http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/fretless-guitar/Jan-06/17074

And check out this one; no whammy bar though:

Re: Defretting a guitar?

Scrybe — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:24:02 +0000

It's possible!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Although I'm a little miffed I'm not the 'pioneer' I thought I was last night :roll: but at least I'm less likely to mess up now. Many many thanksfor this, the project shall proceed! As soon as I can get a cheap guitar to do it with........

I do have an Encore LP-type guitar I could mess with (I think this might be it - http://www.empirestores.co.uk/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductId=F762100000&&DocumentId=ER44&&CompanyId=E&&&ECC=0700607257000PF4107VR010VS290hp&&OC=PF4107&&AC1=EVR010&&AC2=EVS290 Scrybe's first electric 8) now minus the scratchplate). But I wanted to make that into a slide-specific guitar.....

what do ppl think? a fretless slide guitar? could it work?

I was originally thinking of getting a yamaha pacifica or similar to try this on (hopefully extra-cheapp from cashconverters or similar) - http://www.gear4music.com/Guitars/Yamaha_Electric/Yamaha_Pacifica_012_Electric_GuitarBluesefv_5.html

also, any thoughts on the idea of an unfretted whammy-equipped guitar? 8) 8) 8) At first, I thought it be even more temperemental than a non-whammy unfretted, but then I figured that the lack of frets/reliance on ears might actually make the tuning instability of the whammy bar less of a problem/issue.......

again, many thanks slejhamer, and not just for the post - reading about your defret prorject (and others on here) realy inspired to pursue this more seriously than mere guitar-wish-list fantasising with mates. :D

Re: Defretting a guitar?

slejhamer — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:37:25 +0000

While doing some research before starting my bass defret project, I came across this site:
http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=/classes/em_defret1

Defretting a guitar?

Scrybe — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:27:04 +0000

mods, feel free to move this if you think fit. I just thought the bass forum might have more ppl with similar experience to offer pointers/thoughts than the guitar players bit.

Has anyone ever made/heard of/heard a fretless guitar? I've heard of many bass players taking the frets of a bass and filling the holes in, but would it work on a guitar? Or is there something I'm missing that would make it fall down horribly?

I'm seriously interested in making a project of this - I liked the sound of Pete Stroud's (Peter Green's Splinter Group bassist) fretless bass and think it could make for a distinctive guitar tone if it could work on a guitar. Plus, it'd be a great workout instrument as it'd really help focus my ears. Believe me, I've been playing my pops' classical guitar with no fret markers at all on it for a few months and that has helped me rely on my ears more than my eyes, so I'm guessing this further step would push things further.

Are there any 'key rules' about removing the frets and making it playable?

And any ideas for ideal guitars to do this with? I'm thinking rosewood fingerboard, since maple ones are often laquered, bt beyond that I'm not sure.

Any comments appreciated. :)