rahul_mukerji
Well-Known Member
Hello All
I've been trolling E-bay and CL for the last few years and I always end up looking at Fretless Guitars. My recent interest in Oud music and Indian music had really fueled my hankering for a Fretless Guitar. But they seemed too exorbitant and from the YouTube Videos seemed like a One Trick Pony for "Indian Slidey Thing" Guitar. I was having a hard time justifying buying it and then actually using it well.
But then I saw one on Ebay : FRETLESS + SUSTAINER + ROLAND GK Pickup !! Woah !! And it was extremely cheap for all those features !!
So I looked it up and Bid on it .... AND WON
The baby is a Fernandes Fretless with a Sustainer and GK-MIDI pup.
Specifications:
So I know based off the Youtube Videos that a lot of people say chords are a pain or you can't play, but that's just simply wrong
Its a tad difficult since you have to get used to playing exactly where the Fret should be, but for people who use Jazz Chords [7,9,13] and such,
this will not be a problem. I was pleasantly surprised to see I was able to play chords pretty decently given that I had the guitar for less than a week.
And this is my first fretless guitar.
I've made Two Videos and I really tried to make them more educational, as in "Here's a few things you can do with a fretless guitar in different Genres"
as opposed to "Watch me shred and do the Indian Slidey Thing".
Chords
The first Video has me playing chords. There are 3 pieces there. The first is a simple E - C chord progression with sliding bass notes.
The second Video has the Sustainer Pickup on and I play Tapped Chords. It works out
great for those sounds. The last one actually has me playing a Em7 - Cmaj9 - B7 - Cmaj - Dmaj. Its not too bad sounding either.
I've really started to enjoy the fretless slides in the chords as an effect.
Solos
The First Vid ends with a Standard solo over the Chord Progressions I recorded. You can play most of your favorite licks with little adjustment.
Then I have the Sustainer and I play over the progression. You can see not a single note is picked after the first one. Then I play the required E-Bow over Fretless piece. This is more along what you can do for Atmosphere and maybe video soundtracks. With Delay and Verb it makes a great piece.
I tried playing some Turkish sounding piece that I found on YT. I desperately tried hitting the quarter notes and not the fretted areas for that Maquam
sounding effect. I was trying to emulate an Oud sound. I think it sounds decent for a first try. Hopefully I get better as time goes by. I then switch to the Roland GK pickup and play Flute over an Indian Tabla which tracked very, very well and sounded nice ! I switched to a Sax sound and played a little blues. It squeaked every now and then but other than that it was nice. Sounds are nice too.
For my last piece I played a flute through a distortion and wah pedal and tried to play to what could be looked at as an Industrial backing track.
So you can really use the Fretless Guitar in a large area of music genres and use it in a band context as something more than a One Trick Pony.
Hope this has been helpful ... enough talk : On with the Pics and Vids
Thanks and Enjoy the pics and Vids .....
Something wicked this way comes ...
TOOLS ...
A Sneak Peek ...
Headstock /b]
Fretboard
Fretlessness
Sustainer Pup
Roland Pup
Full Guitar
Videos
Chords:
Solos:
I've been trolling E-bay and CL for the last few years and I always end up looking at Fretless Guitars. My recent interest in Oud music and Indian music had really fueled my hankering for a Fretless Guitar. But they seemed too exorbitant and from the YouTube Videos seemed like a One Trick Pony for "Indian Slidey Thing" Guitar. I was having a hard time justifying buying it and then actually using it well.
But then I saw one on Ebay : FRETLESS + SUSTAINER + ROLAND GK Pickup !! Woah !! And it was extremely cheap for all those features !!
So I looked it up and Bid on it .... AND WON
The baby is a Fernandes Fretless with a Sustainer and GK-MIDI pup.
Specifications:
- Body: Ash
- Neck: Maple, Bolt On
- Fingerboard: Maple, 25 1/2" Scale,
- 22 Jumbo Frets, 16" Radius, Center Dot Inlays
- Nut: Composite 1 5/8"
- Tuning Gears: Die Cast Vintage
- Bridge: Synchronized Tremolo
- Features: FERNANDES SUSTAINER SYSTEM
- Controls: 5-Way Lever Switch, SUSTAINER ON/OFF & Mode Switches, 1
- Volume, 1 Tone
- Pickups: Neck : SUSTAINER, Middle : Vintage Single Coil, Bridge : High
- Output Humbucker
- Color: Cherry Sunburst
So I know based off the Youtube Videos that a lot of people say chords are a pain or you can't play, but that's just simply wrong
Its a tad difficult since you have to get used to playing exactly where the Fret should be, but for people who use Jazz Chords [7,9,13] and such,
this will not be a problem. I was pleasantly surprised to see I was able to play chords pretty decently given that I had the guitar for less than a week.
And this is my first fretless guitar.
I've made Two Videos and I really tried to make them more educational, as in "Here's a few things you can do with a fretless guitar in different Genres"
as opposed to "Watch me shred and do the Indian Slidey Thing".
Chords
The first Video has me playing chords. There are 3 pieces there. The first is a simple E - C chord progression with sliding bass notes.
The second Video has the Sustainer Pickup on and I play Tapped Chords. It works out
great for those sounds. The last one actually has me playing a Em7 - Cmaj9 - B7 - Cmaj - Dmaj. Its not too bad sounding either.
I've really started to enjoy the fretless slides in the chords as an effect.
Solos
The First Vid ends with a Standard solo over the Chord Progressions I recorded. You can play most of your favorite licks with little adjustment.
Then I have the Sustainer and I play over the progression. You can see not a single note is picked after the first one. Then I play the required E-Bow over Fretless piece. This is more along what you can do for Atmosphere and maybe video soundtracks. With Delay and Verb it makes a great piece.
I tried playing some Turkish sounding piece that I found on YT. I desperately tried hitting the quarter notes and not the fretted areas for that Maquam
sounding effect. I was trying to emulate an Oud sound. I think it sounds decent for a first try. Hopefully I get better as time goes by. I then switch to the Roland GK pickup and play Flute over an Indian Tabla which tracked very, very well and sounded nice ! I switched to a Sax sound and played a little blues. It squeaked every now and then but other than that it was nice. Sounds are nice too.
For my last piece I played a flute through a distortion and wah pedal and tried to play to what could be looked at as an Industrial backing track.
So you can really use the Fretless Guitar in a large area of music genres and use it in a band context as something more than a One Trick Pony.
Hope this has been helpful ... enough talk : On with the Pics and Vids
Thanks and Enjoy the pics and Vids .....
Something wicked this way comes ...
TOOLS ...
A Sneak Peek ...
Headstock /b]
Fretboard
Fretlessness
Sustainer Pup
Roland Pup
Full Guitar
Videos
Chords:
Solos: