# 7 string fretless (56k, be warned!)



## SD83 (Jan 29, 2010)

So, I just made a thread for this, hit "preview" and closed Firefox afterwards... must be the blood loss  
Anyways, the reason I discovered this forum mainly was my own 7-string, and while playing it, I realised I never made a thread on this one, so I will do this now. 
It is not 100% finished, the PU is wired directly to the jack, I will someday install two potis with matching wooden knobs... most likely the same day I will replace the fretmarkers with real frets (it was an experiment, and I can't really handle it. that + the 2 highest strings lack sustain if you fret them with anything softer than your fingernail).
Other than that, I'm rather satisfied, so here are the specs:
Walnut (europ.) body with 2 cm of ebony in the middle
EMG 81
Ovangkol neck & fretboard
Bridge & Saddle: Ebony
The tuners are self made, they work great 
Tuned to G, the lowest string is extremely sloppy (.58), the others (.56/.42/.32/.26/.17/.13) are really tight & sound great! 
29'' did I already mention that? I don't think so. 
The neck is a bit thick, but other than that, it's extremely comfortable, "fret" access is good and so is the balance, not neck heavy at all (though rather heavy all together, around 4 kgs if I remember correctly). The first guitarist in my band liked it, the second one thought it was tuned "too low for a guitar". 
OK, here you go, pictures :
getting started









near finished
















and the guitar with its proud owner last summer


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## Trespass (Jan 29, 2010)

That looks really nice! As a fretless player myself, I approve 

Any sound clips or videos?


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## SD83 (Jan 29, 2010)

some bad quality samples (recorded with cheap cam, this is not my playing): 
SoundClick artist: Soul Devourer (Ger) - page with MP3 music downloads


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## Sepultorture (Jan 29, 2010)

that just jumped to the top of my list of most fucked up looking guitars

not knocking, but man it looks nuts


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## Esp Griffyn (Jan 29, 2010)

Sepultorture said:


> that just jumped to the top of my list of most fucked up looking guitars
> 
> not knocking, but man it looks nuts



I take it you've never seen the original, Jean Baudin's "Hideous Claw" bass...


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## Apophis (Feb 1, 2010)

looks really like Jean's in smaller version, I like it


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## signalgrey (Feb 1, 2010)

reminds me of an earwig hahaha.

nice work dude!


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## Fred the Shred (Feb 1, 2010)

Nicely done and quite original looking indeed.


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## ElRay (Feb 1, 2010)

Would you mind sharing any info about the DIY tuners?

Ray


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## SD83 (Feb 1, 2010)

The Hideous Claw was actually the main inspiration & reason I started building my own stuff 
@Ray: I'm not sure if I know the correct english words for those things, but I took this 

 and this



and drilled a hole for the string into the screw & polished it. It took me a while to get used to tuning and in the beginning it was rather hard to get the perfect tone. I first tested this on my first bass (bought used for 25) which I converted to an 8-string...



. And, what surprised me a bit, the strings stay in tune at least as good as on those cheap tuners...


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## MaKo´s Tethan (Feb 1, 2010)

wow, cool bass mod!! if someday I can afford a cheap bass (I don`t have a cent now) I have to do that.


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## ElRay (Feb 1, 2010)

SD83 said:


> @Ray: I'm not sure if I know the correct english words for those things, but I took this
> 
> and this
> 
> ...


Danka. We'd (speakers of American English) would call them threaded inserts and bolts. I have no idea what the equivalent British or Aussie English would be.


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## lefty robb (Feb 1, 2010)

This was the first thing I thought of..


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## Pablo (Feb 1, 2010)

Such a wonderfully weird instrument!


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## steelcity24 (Feb 1, 2010)

Makes me think of the movie Tremors!


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## flo (Mar 24, 2010)

Love the tuner's idea! And the shape is great. Suits you


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## All_¥our_Bass (Mar 26, 2010)

I wouldn't mind having a try on it.


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## CrushingAnvil (Mar 27, 2010)

An EMG 81 in a 7 string...

Does that...work?


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## SD83 (Jun 13, 2013)

Necrobump... is that OK if it is your own dead thread? Just wondering. Because, after messing around with the guitar, doing some other stuff etc. I came to the conclusion that I totally screwed up the neck (it looked great, to me at least, but it was pretty much just a square, polished piece of wood. So, after a failed attempt to modify it I decided to make a completly new neck, fix a few other issues... this is where I'm at right now (by far not as professional & flawless looking as most of the other builds I see here, but it's getting better slowly  ):


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## Namecantfi (Jul 3, 2013)

Kinda reminds me of an alembic


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## SD83 (Jul 11, 2013)

Well, if I practice for another 200-500 years, I might get close to that level 
Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out ways of building my own adjustable piezo-bridge and wanted to do some experiments with the tuners, so I just took a bunch of random strings I had lying around and made a temporary bridge & nut. Obviously, those strings are not tuned to anything (aside of "comfortable tension"), but so far everything seems to work fine.


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## Konfyouzd (Jul 11, 2013)

lefty robb said:


> This was the first thing I thought of..



Didn't they ride these in Fern Gully? 

Sick bass, man!


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