[NickCormier]

Ahh, Its so hard finding good vids of fretless guitars on youtube, who arent doing the whole "sitar" or just crazy slides thing. I wanna see how Fretless's perform for other styles of music too! I noticed Ron Thal isnt really heard much when playing with GNR with his fretless Vigier.. is that just cause GNR has like 3 guitarists (in the vids anyways) or are there so many to covering up for the fretless's lacking rhythm playing??

Basically, anyone who owns a fretless.. Can you make a video playing some riffage, like maybe something like Nevermore/Megadeth or any metal with some aggression, Then maybe do some jazzy stuff, I just wanna know how they perform in other areas too, the stuff no one has videos of for some reason =/ Im looking for a guitar that can go from Metal to prog/experimental to jazz within the same set, without having to change guitars, that kinda thing.

So lets see a quick vid from one of you Fretless players~

[Trespass]

Ron Thal's 9/11 CD. Its pretty much all done with a fretless.

1. Fly's in the Batter is all fretless grinding metal rhythmn. And it goes on (its a real badass song). Its a quite a heavy song.
2. Lost has his harmonic slides in harmony for rhythmn, sounds awesome. With a 5/4 and 2/4 polyrhythmn (technically a syncopation) and other badass fretless rhythmn that sounds really chaotic and heavy
3. Ray Gun is pretty heavy, and awesome.
4. Hole in the Sky: Light and warm, and airy.
5. Children of Sierra Leone: Depressingly heavy fretless pwn.
6. Don Pardo Pimpwagon: Not any fretless playing
7. Legend of Van Cleef: Mostly fretted. Not sure.
8. Guitars Suck: Taking the piss out of the neoclassical "self-important and egotistical" thing, and its awesome. Finishes with a warm fretless solo, with the fretted part played in the background in harmony. Pretty neat to hear, imho.

Rest of the album is awesome, but all fretted. Except the ending chords to Time, I think those are fretless.

Fly in the Batter:


Just get 9/11, that CD blows my mind everytime I hear it!

Preview the songs on amazon: Amazon.com: 9.11: Bumblefoot: Music

[Metal Ken]

Originally Posted by Trespass

4. Hole in the Sky: Light and warm, and airy.

Is this a sabbath cover? It doesnt sound like a sabbath cover with that description.

[NickCormier]

thanks dude, Ive been looking for vids of Ron all night but couldnt find any that wernt just his crazy buckethead-tapping stuff on fretless..

That gives abit more hope. heh.

I just need to find a cheap guitar right now and try defretting it to see if I like it.

Do you feel a fretless could be appliciable with any guitar situation? Like say I was playing with a progressive/instrumental band like Planet X or even Dream Theater style, would it work good enough for most of what I would encounter? I reallllllly dont wanna have to switch back and forth between fretted/fretless for any sets. Trying to avoid that. Obviously for pop or jazz or something standard, I can just play a normal guitar, but for any experimental/prog/shred thing where fretless may come in handy.

[Trespass]

It adds a competely new element, and there isn't really any deep library for you to go to for ideas and licks, its all steeped in hearing old/ancient fretless instruments and how they use it. Also, intonation is something thats actually easier than most people are saying it is, but masterful intonation takes time. But hell, I'd say develop your own shit and have ALOT of fun.

One thing is, by nature its a bit smoother in tone and looses out on the articulation. Thats a big deal if you harness it. There's a vid floating around of some guy playing Surfing With the Alien on a fretless, it sounds ok but the lack of that note definition definitely held back the performance a bit. (I'll see if I can find)

But in Jazz, it'd be amazing, experimental; definitely, shredding: see Ron Thal's licks in his songs, not so much his stuff in public.

Go to Guitarplayer tv's Guitar Lessons, Apr. 08, Ron Thal/Bumblefoot lessons. high quality vids of him talking about his stuff, and some fretless stuff too. Check that out!

[TemjinStrife]

Learn to do some real classical vibrato, like on a cello or violin. You can get some really expressive sounds that way.

[Trespass]

Also, something that comes to mind: You just get ever closer to the strings, its a lot more soulful. Why I switch from piano to guitar, its a much closer and more controlling feel. And thats why the fretless interests me so much, its even closer.

[HamBungler]

For metal fretless playing, there's always Nile. Karl uses his to create dissonant egyptian sounding textures, its pretty damn awesome.

MetalKult » Exclusive NILE Guitar Riff Lesson There's some videos on there that shows Karl playing his fretless double neck.

[Wolfv11]

The fretless guitar is a truly unique an amazing instrument, unfortunatley I havent done much with it so far, however some of my newer songs have been written entirely on the fretless. Currently the only two fretless guitars I have are 6 strings, an electric and nylon string.

The electric is tuned to C standard, now that Ive been playing it more I really need to get a fretless 7, and when that day comes, it might be very tempting to leave the frets behind....