# Gackt's half-fretted, half-fretless Caparison...



## distressed_romeo (May 25, 2007)

caparison gackt venus

Not sure why he has a signature guitar, as I've never actually seen or heard him play, but the design's pretty cool. I wonder how well that half-fretted fingerboard works...

Here's the normally-fretted version...

caparison gackt marcury


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## Naren (May 25, 2007)

I've seen him playing guitar while singing in some of his music videos, but he never ever plays live and when he plays in his music videos, he doesn't play anything impressive (the other guitarist in the video plays all the solos and all the stuff you'd notice when listening).

Don't know why he'd have a signature guitar... other than the fact that insane Gackt fans might be stupid and buy it.  I think it's pretty ugly.


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## distressed_romeo (May 25, 2007)

From what I've seen, he does seem ready to put his name on absolutely anything... 

I still think the guitar still looks pretty cool...

I just remembered, Uli John Roth tried the fretted/fretless thing on one of his early Sky guitars, before he settled on whole-tone fretting for the 24th to 36th frets...


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## Metal Ken (May 25, 2007)

I Like the idea of half fretted, half fretless,but scott ian's "NOT" guitar was way cooler looking.


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## TomAwesome (May 25, 2007)

I think they're pretty cool! If I had one, I'd definitely play it! I'd just want to change that gold hardware first. Interesting idea with the fretted/fretless combo.


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## the.godfather (May 25, 2007)

It's an interesting idea, would be cool to feel how it played.


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## goth_fiend (May 25, 2007)

needs a damn cutaway, but kinda cool


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## Metal Ken (May 25, 2007)

this owns it:


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## Desecrated (May 25, 2007)

Most of the guitar is "over-the-top" but I like the idea of the frets/non-frets.


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## Pauly (May 25, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> this owns it:



That's a chunky inlay.


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## 7 Dying Trees (May 25, 2007)

I was thinking it was upper half (bass strings) fretted and the treble strings ufretted, but that would just be really weird...


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## Metal Ken (May 25, 2007)

Pauly said:


> That's a chunky inlay.



Not.


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## Mastodon (May 25, 2007)

What's up with the whole effeminate looking male fad in Japan?


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## Clydefrog (May 25, 2007)

Excuse me while I puke.

At Gackt, not the guitar. This guy is pretty much everything that is wrong with music at this point in time -- just magnified times 100000000 because it's in Japan, where they take trends to the absolute extreme.

This clown has been around for a while.


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## D-EJ915 (May 25, 2007)

I liked Gackt in Malice Mizer, Diabolos isn't half-bad either.

I do, however, hate this guitar. It's a bastardized version of Mana's sig model and made 100 times uglier. It's supposed to look like a violin/acoustic or something along those lines, I've seen acoustics that have frets which stop at the neck joint which is probably why this one is like that.


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## TheMasterplan (May 25, 2007)

Gackt is a guilty pleasure of mine. Not a huge fan, but I give em a listen now and again. And you're right he doesn't do much in reality, so I'm not sure why he's getting a signature series. I've got to say though I love the shape. It's like a giant violin or something. The top and hardware make it ugly though. The headstock's no looker either. What's the purpose of having half and half? Is it easier to solo if all the neck space behind the 12th fret is frettless?


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## Shawn (May 25, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> this owns it:





I've always loved that guitar.


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## playstopause (May 25, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> this owns it:



A freakin' million time.


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## Desi (May 26, 2007)

You saw the upper fret access on that thing? YEEECH!! I'm not feeling his Guitar at all, gimme hide's, Kaoru's and Ken's sig any day.


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## Carrion (May 26, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


> caparison gackt venus
> 
> Not sure why *he*has a signature guitar, as I've never actually seen or heard him play, but the design's pretty cool. I wonder how well that half-fretted fingerboard works...
> 
> ...



Wait, I thought it was a girl in the first pic.....


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## Chris (May 26, 2007)

Pauly said:


> That's a legendary inlay.



Fixed.


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## Chris (May 26, 2007)

This is a guy?

Edit: 

YouTube - GACKT - Shima Uta

Dude's got a pretty good voice.

Edit:

YouTube - Gackt - Vanilla

So he's the Japanese Ricky Martin?  I can see why you guys are wondering why this guy has a sig guitar.


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## Naren (May 26, 2007)

Chris, yeah, sometimes he can have a pretty cool and unique sound (but not usually ). He used to be in this gothic visual kei band that was generally considered really "edgy" when they were out (I don't think they were edgy at all, but I guess they were for popular rock ), then he went solo. When he went solo, he tried to sound all dark and creepy at first, but then he just went poppier and poppier and poppier.

I mentioned on the first page that I've never seen him play guitar live and that he only plays really basic stuff in his videos, but he does play piano a lot live. He seems to be a pretty good pianist, but you can't really sell a signature piano. 

Personally I don't really like much of anything from "visual kei" (except for X Japan which is more like speed metal or power metal. They were the band that kind of created the visual kei look). Never liked Gackt, but there are a few songs by him that are kind of cool. Most of them suck, though...



Mastodon said:


> What's up with the whole effeminate looking male fad in Japan?



It's a part of the "visual kei" style of music which Gackt is a member of. In that style of music (which can actually encompass anything from punk to rock to power metal to goth to industrial), many of the guys go for this really effeminate look. Most styles of music in Japan are completely anti-this kind of look (take a look at Japanese rap, regular rock, regular metal, pop, etc. to see what I mean).



Chris said:


> Edit:
> 
> YouTube - GACKT - Shima Uta
> 
> Dude's got a pretty good voice.



He can do traditional Japanese music.  Didn't know that.


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## TomAwesome (May 26, 2007)

Chris said:


> YouTube - GACKT - Shima Uta
> 
> Dude's got a pretty good voice.
> 
> ...



It's not all that kind of stuff. For example:

YouTube - Gackt- Redemption


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## D-EJ915 (May 26, 2007)

You should watch this one: YouTube - Malice Mizer - Gackt Duo with Kami
and this one too: YouTube - Malice Mizer - Syunikiss (live)


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## Battousai (May 27, 2007)

that guitar is fugly ... the NOT guitar looks muuuuuuch nicer


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## B Lopez (May 27, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> this owns it:



Sweet. Never knew that part was fretless.


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## Samer (May 27, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> this owns it:



Everything in this guitar is cool except the bridge, it just really makes it look bad for some reason? any one else thinks so?


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## distressed_romeo (May 27, 2007)

To be honest, nothing about the NOT guitar does anything for me...

Didn't Scott Ian have a five-string guitar at one point?


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## Soma (May 27, 2007)

It's a nice guitar. I personally prefer the Mana ESP model. I think they only make the Moi dix Mois model now but back in the day that guitar looked awesome in transparent blue. I love how it looks like a Violin. The Gackt one looks like a slap of marble. 

And the engrish like "Marcury" is priceless!


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## distressed_romeo (May 28, 2007)

Soma said:


> It's a nice guitar. I personally prefer the Mana ESP model. I think they only make the Moi dix Mois model now but back in the day that guitar looked awesome in transparent blue. I love how it looks like a Violin. The Gackt one looks like a slap of marble.
> 
> And the engrish like "Marcury" is priceless!



The Mana model is beautiful. I'd love one with a Steinberger trans-trem...


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## D-EJ915 (May 28, 2007)

The ESP gallery still shows the Malice Mizer model, but since they disbanded Mana might have asked ESP not to make any more, still a beautiful guitar though


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## noodles (May 29, 2007)

^


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## Desi (May 29, 2007)

How in the world do you sit with the Mana model?


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## distressed_romeo (May 29, 2007)

Desi said:


> How in the world do you sit with the Mana model?



You don't! You stand and look majestic and aloof!


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## Matt Crooks (May 31, 2007)

7 Dying Trees said:


> I was thinking it was upper half (bass strings) fretted and the treble strings ufretted, but that would just be really weird...



The bassist from Vio-lence had a bass like this in the 80s and 90s... it sold on ebay a while back.

It was cool to watch him play - he'd play the rhythms with a pick, but all his fills with his fingers (middle and ring)... and the fills would mostly be on the unfretted strings!


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## distressed_romeo (May 31, 2007)

Matt Crooks said:


> The bassist from Vio-lence had a bass like this in the 80s and 90s... it sold on ebay a while back.
> 
> It was cool to watch him play - he'd play the rhythms with a pick, but all his fills with his fingers (middle and ring)... and the fills would mostly be on the unfretted strings!



 That sounds awesome! Have to research that further. Metal Ken sent me some Vio-lence vids yesterday, and it was pretty ripping.


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## Ancestor (Jun 1, 2007)

Wow, those are all great guitars. No 7's, as usual. Still cool.


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## le_ackt (Jun 3, 2007)

I have actually seen one back in 2000 summer in Hong Kong , the store staff told me it's already sold and it was just released that year . People do buy it since it bears Gackt's name .I would for sure but i doubt it's practical use and function. THe design's great , very "gackt"ish definitely, but i dont think it is practical. The finish is awesome too , trying to look like marble and it's definitely look gorgeous .


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## TomAwesome (Jun 8, 2007)

D-EJ915 said:


>



The other night, I was randomly flipping through channels and stumbled across this! Was the ESP Prince-inspired perhaps?


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## Michael (Jun 8, 2007)

It looks interesting, I'll say that. I see it kind of pointless having the higher half on the fretboard fretless when it's almost impossible to reach it.


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## mrp5150 (Jun 13, 2007)

I actually used to own one of the Venus models. One of the oddest guitars I've ever seen, but it was beautiful in person IMO. It played really well (up to the 15th fret  ) and it sounded great too. Check out the 6-bolt neck joint, and the fact that it has no volume knob. It also comes in a coffin shaped case, and came with a snakeskin Gackt strap and a gold Gackt guitar pick.


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