just do it!!!

[ξεναγος νεκροπολης]

hi mates!
i wanted to share this one...
i've just unfreted my guitar!
i did this

http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=unfretting

to my epiphone and it is freaking awesome!
you can't imagine how great my guitar sounds now!

darker.
more sustain.
more fun.
much easier to play with.

if you have an old guitar that you don't play with or you can't sell it, and if you like "tool" (the band) then just do it!

i don't have time to post photos of my finished new guitar but i'll do in the next days.

[Heath]

As it is, I already want to chop off my fingers after playing lately... so disappointing.  I can only imagine the soul crushing despair I'd experience after trying to play a fretless guitar.

Awesome page, though.  If I didn't sound like a nerve-damaged sasquatch when I play, I'd be all over it.

By the way, if anyone wants to try this but doesn't fancy the epoxy and sanding or spending much money, Rondomusic.com* actually sells some dirt cheap fretless guitars.

(btw, if anyone goes to that link, is that the longest whammy bar ever or what!?  Looks like you could damn near touch the fretboard and still be holding that thing.)

* I am not in any way affiliated with Rondomusic.com or any of their products.  They are just one of my trusted "go to" places for good quality low priced guitars.

[Muadzin]

I played a fretless bass once. Not so hard to get a good sound out of it. But fretless being easier?  Hell f***ing no!

Also, one important tip for playing fretless, you can't do traditional vibrato as made famous by BB King, as moving the string sideways will damage your fretboard. Instead if you want to do vibrato move your finger slightly up/down the neck.

[Frank_NH]

I've played my friend's fretless bass, and with tape wound strings it feels very smooooooth!  However, you have to listen closely because the intonation of individual notes can be way off even though it appears that your fingers are in the "correct" positions.  It's like playing a trombone...

[rocket88]

Agreed about fretless basses. My "jaco" bass as made fretless and its a bitch to get use to at first. But, the sounds is just pure magic. I have rotosound steel flat wounds on her, and she makes that upright "oooo waahh " sound. Almost like a natural chorus.

[Beaker]

I used to have a (factory) fretless Hagstrom Scanbass, which was a beauty - like an idiot I sold it. WHAT THE F*#K WAS I THINKING! I visited the Hagstrom museum In Alvedalen Sweden - they did not know that Hagstrom had even made one, so whoever has it now, it's SUPER RARE.

Fretless guitar though? I know that Frank Zappa used one, and French guitar makers Vigier made one with an aluminium fretboard - think it was called the Surfretter?