Fretless guitar

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Fretless bass redirects here.

The fretless guitar is a guitar without frets (including similarly configured bass guitars known as fretless bass). It operates in the same manner as most other stringed instruments and traditional guitars, but does not have any frets to act as the lower end point (node) of the vibrating string. On a fretless guitar, the vibrating string length runs from the bridge (also called chair), where the strings are attached, all the way up to the point where the fingertip presses the string down on the fingerboard.

Advantages and disadvantages

There are two often cited advantages of fretless guitar:

• Unique sound. The fingertip is relatively soft (when compared to solid and hard fret) and absorbs energy from vibrating string much faster, thus, effectively making a pizzicato (more damped) sound.

• Musical freedom. Performer has a relative freedom of positioning the hand and playing by ear, not constrained with particular musical tuning, as in case with fretted instrument. This can be viewed as a disadvantage, as playing fretless instrument usually requires much more training. It also requires much tighter coupling between ears and fingers while playing.

However, acoustic fretless guitars are very quiet and are barely used in practice. Two notable modifications are usually used instead:

• Bass guitars feature much heavier strings and bigger resonant body to amplify the sound, thus sound relatively loud even fretless.

• With an invention of electronical sound amplification, particularly electric guitars, sound can be amplified to the necessary extent.

Fretless manufacture

Most of today's fretless guitars are modification of factory made traditionally "fretted" guitars. However, there are also professional builders specialising in fretless guitars.

Fretless bass guitars are much more common than fretless guitars in modern music and commerce, with many manufacturers offering these as standardly available models.

Notable users

In alphabetic order:

• Steve Bailey has done pioneering work with the six string fretless bass guitar and artificial harmonics.
• Adrian Belew (King Crimson) has occasionally used fretless guitars.
• Jack Bruce of Cream uses a fretless Warwick bass guitar.
• Les Claypool of Primus has a Carl Thompson six string fretless bass named the Rainbow Bass.
• Kevin Corren uses a fretless upright bass made from stainless steel.
• Rick Danko of The Band used a fretless bass for several years, starting from the recording of the album Stage Fright. However, returned to using a fretted bass around the time of The Last Waltz.
• Steve DiGiorgio, a Heavy Metal bassist, usually plays a five string fretless bass.
• Tim Donahue uses self-made fretless guitars.
• David Gilmour, guitarist for Pink Floyd, plays fretless bass on several of Pink Floyd's songs.
• Marshall Jones, bassist of Ohio Players, was the first known person to take out the frets of an electric bass.
• Mick Karn, former bassist of Japan and avantgarde musician, used fretless bass guitar since the late 1970s.
• Pat Metheny uses a fretless electric guitar or bass guitar on some works.
• Rick Nielsen, guitarist for Cheap Trick, has a fretless six-string as the bottom neck on his famous five-necked Hamer guitar.
• Erkan Oğur makes nearly all his music with self-made fretless guitars.
• Pino Palladino, noted session bassist, is famous for his fretless bass method.
• Jeroen Paul Thesseling plays microtonal world music using six-string fretless Warwick basses.
• Jaco Pastorius, bassist for Weather Report, is considered by many to be the most influential fretless bass player. He is credited for applying a boat epoxy to his fingerboard not only to protect the fingerboard from harmful roundwound strings but to also give his instrument a unique sound.
• Sting used a fretless bass when he was with the Police.
• Andy Summers, guitarist for The Police, also played a fretless Hamer guitar.
• Steve Vai occasionally plays a three-necked guitar featuring a fretless neck.
• Lars Norberg of Spiral Architect uses a fretless bass.

External Link

• [Unfretted - The Fretless Guitar Resource]

See also

• International Society for Creative Guitar and String Music
• Frets on bass guitar