NGD::Fretless Guitar: Pics and Vids

[rahul_mukerji]

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:

• 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:

 

[ridner]

am I missing the FRETLESS part?!

 

[InfinityCollision]

It's got lines in the fingerboard where the frets would be. Not uncommon.

HNFGD!

 

[ridner]

gotcha. haven't seen a fretless w/ lines on the fingerboard before.

 

[rahul_mukerji]

Yeah, these are the kinds of fingerboards which were "defretted" and then their fret areas filled with Epoxy or some such filling and then made smooth for a clean finish.

The upside to these defretted guitars is that it shows you exactly where the note should have been and its a much much easier transition for people used to playing fretted guitars [like me !!].

I got the same reaction on FB

 

[Anant Naag]

HGND dude.
I am waiting for my fretless as well so looking forward to any inputs on how the transition is from fretted to fretless.

Great guitar with lot of features

 

[rahul_mukerji]

I updated the pic section to include a close up pic of the fretboard and you can see the filled-in fret board.

 

[rahul_mukerji]

Thanks coffeeflush

This is what I am doing now: I would start with the simple scalar runs and making sure you can hit the notes I want. So I would run through my Major scale and Minor scales in different position and see if I can hit them correctly. Then I would play the pentatonics. Then I would try to play along with a backing track to play solos ... and then move my bends into slides.

Then experiment with the "in between notes" and vibrato and see what sounds musical and exotic. Eventually you will get a feel for what sounds right and what sounds really out there and then mix it up.

But for the first few weeks I would just play the heck out of it with total abandon, just to get a feel of the instrument

 

[blanco]

Your solo video is awesome. Love the use of the ebow, works especially well with the effortless slide transitions you can make on a fret less.

 

[Goatchrist]

WOW!
You sir, gave me some serious GAS!!!
As a person who wants to include some ethno/arab/oriental music in my metal, this seams a MUST!

Really digging the videos!

Happy NGD!

 

[rahul_mukerji]

Thanks Goatchrist

Yeah my band is big into Middle Eastern music and Indian music as part of adapting their styles into our Jazz-Rock context.

And watching fretless videos on YT certainly gave me the push to try and incorporate it.

Instantly, after I got it, I knew it was a good decision. The Oud, Sarod and other ethnic instruments are easier to emulate on this, plus you can hit all the quarter / micro tones.

If you want to incorporate those sounds and don't want to learn a new instrument this is certainly something you want to try. And a fretless guitar with a little drive and Delay and reverb gives an amazing haunting effect ! And throw in the E-Bow or Sustainer pup and you're really gonna get some serious attention at any gig !!

Thanks for checking out the videos

 

[Spike Spiegel]

The incoming intonation looks so unbelieveably fucked up
Glad to hear it plays great HNGD

 

[pylyo]

Nice!
I love Fernandes guitars (mij). I have an early 90's silver sparkle stratocaster, correct 60's headstock and it's amazing guitar, easily on pair with all Fenders I have ever tried.
And the neck and action is just out of this world. The build quality and woods are just hands down really on these guitars. I owned many Burny LP's, which are Fernandes actually, superb guitars.
Those are really hidden gems and I hope it stays like that.

HNGD man!

 

[rahul_mukerji]

Thanks pylyo

The build seems pretty solid. The action on this piece is especially nice. It makes it really easy to play.

 

[tmfrank]

Hmm...whatever makes you happy man! HNGD!

 

[Overtone]

HNGD! I think sustainer or ebow is the way to go for fretless electric.

You may enjoy this artist
JussiReijonen.com | Official website of musician, composer and arranger Jussi Reijonen

 

[jsl2h90]

Is it sad that every awesome guitar I see all I can think is "I want that with 8 strings"
HNGD, I like the playing man. I could really see myself using one of these for a Cynic-y vibe.

 

[rahul_mukerji]

Thanks Overtone

That was a great link you put up. Thanks for introducing me to that artist !

Thanks jsl2h90. Yeah I have the same kind of feeling when I see a feature on a guitar I like. I end up wanting a "super guitar" something like a double neck 8 string Fretted - fretless made by Blackmachine with Bare knuckle pups and MIDI and Piezo capability.