Playing a FRETLESS electric guitar sounds so WEIRD!
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Fretlees guitar aka sarod has been used in india for 200 years you need to put oil on fongers and have elongated flat nails for proper intonation
This sounds very bad when played
Where do I sign up? I'll take one.
Steve Vai has guitars with staggered frets. I'd like hear him on this.
Hope to playing to someday
If anyone’s wondering, the tab is
“1”
You mean 1 1 1 1 1 1/1 1h1
Actually it's
---1---1.5---1.75---1.122208762944---1---
Where is 0? She did play some open strings.
I think there's still a fret guide at the top side of the neck?
LOOOOOOOOL
“That sounds so pretty! What are the tabs?”
“Uhhh...”
"...It's complicated" 😂
Professor Djent Timcast?
First play a brrrr then a errrrr noise
yes
Gotta give it in cm from the head.
Ah, finally a guitar that I can blame for my poor guitar skills.
hahaha
@@morpheusk1395 How true !
😂😂😂 never thought of it !
Hahaha
But talking seriously, like bowed string instruments (violin, viola, cello, double bass) or slide guitar: For melody, it can be a liberating tool.
But, in relation to harmony ... hmmm 😝 It doesn't take much time or intelligence to see the practicality and the reason for the invention and development along the centuries of the tempered tuning and its 12 notes of equal intervals.
When we talk about Chords, it is extremely difficult to play them even the basic ones (double notes or triads) tuned, on non equal tempered instruments. The sound of the chords even when tuned is poor, and from the tetrades it is virtually impossible to make fast and tuned chord progressions, much less along with others instruments.
Although unaccompanied by other instruments, it can deceive less sensitive ears.
Nice one😆
Cool, a guitar that will make my playing sound even worse.
Yes it`s pretty stupid not to even put on markers. But just for solos I guess it can be cool on some songs.
@ It has the usual dots and marks where the frets are supposed to be on the side of the fret board so I thnk we're good.
@ this guitar is far from stupid check out guthrie govan playing it you'd be surprised it can do more than solos its like playing a slide guitar without the slide
@@greekpapi who the hell looks at the side of the neck lol, not me
@@knifeyonline Well, that depends on how much alcohol you have consumed....lol
Guitar: I'm scared I'm not unique and people won't play me. What can I do?
Mary: Don't fret
omg ps finn!! I love your music man
dude freaking P.S. Finn watched Mary?! My 2 fav artists in one place!!
Mother Mary: Let it be.
P.S. Finn fret not 😁
Ah... I see what you did there! XD
The tabs are just going to look like binary code
C-Bass 707 underrated comment
Umey highly underrated
Just like any Slayer songs lmao
I prefer standard notation, so tab pretty much looks like machine code to me anyway.
I can read binary...
As Stewart Copeland says - “the great thing about fretless is that you can play a note and then renegotiate.”
I didn't know he plays guitar.
@@bizntchie search stewart copeland at the sacred grove. he plays anything and everything
also you can listen fretless guitar master erkan oğur ua-cam.com/video/d9IQx7wGZ8M/v-deo.html
@@bizntchie He sings and plays guitar in a band with Mark King from Level 42 and Adrian Belew from King Crimson
@@jimquicksilver442 He also composed Spyro. Some of that guitar is there.
Next episode: Playing violin with frets
The instruments of the "viole" family were fretted. ;-)
That's just a 4 string mandolin.
that’s some sacreligous shit right there
@@azerreza4770 I thought it was a "viol" and it was just semi-fretted, no ?
@@farmerlister3863 "Viole de gambe" is the full name.
Violinists: first time, huh?
(I'm late) As a guitarist, I would totally love to try a fretless guitar, but it's extremly hard to find some in France, and to try one is not possible in nearly all shops in France. Paris too.
Maybe it could be possible with some (can't remember the name in english, the people who make instruments. Luthiers ? Lutherie ?).
Anyway, the challenge of no frets interest me a lot.
I would even like to rent a violin. I don't know how to play it but I want to try. If only I could play two instruments at the same time and sing... it would be heaven for me.
Sadly, custom guitars are extremly expensive.
Ha... I never thought that it could cost that much. 800$ starting price for a fretless guitar delivered.
Can't even try it.... it makes me crazy !
P.S : Practice !
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Double bassist: try this
Practice practice
Lol liszt
The sound reminded me somewhat of an Indian sitar for some reason, although I understand that a sitar is fretted.
Search for "sarod." It's also an Indian stringed instrument, but it's fretless. It sounds similar to the sitar in some ways, but has a unique voice of its own.
ua-cam.com/video/X8UV1DjV8e8/v-deo.html
I think it's a combination of the slight buzziness and the way sitar players bend like crazy
@@GDIEternal While we're at it, might as well mention the Oud, even though it's not Indian
@@joshstarkey8883 Well the Oud has a Persian origin as do most 'Indian' stringed instruments
Fun Fact: Lou Reed played a fretless guitar tuned all to EEEEEE in the first Velvet Underground album, so that’s why, if you listen to certain songs, they have a Sitar like element to them.
For a guitar player having a fretless guitar is basically a sliding addiction.
Let me express how much I appreciate she showed the playing first without making us sit through five minutes of exposition.
Sounds like a sitar.
The mirror fingerboard is amazeballs.
I bet Power Chords are a struggle.
It also sounds and looks a bit like a sarod
@@danialzaman1438 that's what I thought
I usually oppose the term fingerboard instead of fretboard. But it seems more appropriate here
Denis James actually a lot of people around the world know about the sitar
@Denis James ik it from zach n cody lmao
This guitar is not fretless. It just got one long metal fret.
Haha...I like the sound but I bet I would suck at playing it. Gutherie did a great job though as always.
How is that true? Violins are constructed practically the same way.
WRONG POINT OUT THIS LONG METAL FRET ???
Your fingers are the frets.
@@SBDavin ..How is that not true on a violin or cello?
UA-cam tutorial: Place the capo on 5th fret
Me: *Intense confusion*
What frets?
Right there obviously
Going to a fretless proves how good your muscle memory is, and how well you can remember chord shapes, etc. Definitely a different world that makes you appreciate string and trombone players...
I don't think frets help you to memorise chord shapes but then again, I'm a pianist
@@BrunoNeureiter I was thinking more of the relative spacing between the fingers in the chord shapes... For a similar idea on piano think if the bottom register keys were wide, and they got progressively narrower going up to the top register. While your chord shapes wouldn't change, the spacing / fingering of the chord shapes would... It's not them same in a literal sense, but I think the effect would be similar...
@@BrunoNeureiter frets give you a wide space your fingers can be in where it's "good enough" (depending on your guitar's setup) and the strings will just fret in the correct place. On a fretless you don't have that, your fingers have to form the *exact* shape so they're all pressing down at the precise points the strings need to be fretted at. And either you can remember those shapes and spacings, or you can't!
It's not that hard, you just get it?? I don't know
@@BrunoNeureiter Keys basically function the same way as frets and in many ways are even more benign because they're the same all over the keyboard, whereas fret spacing changes. If you play chords on a continuum keyboard you need to know the shapes yourself. On a fretless string instrument you have to put your fingers in the right spot and cope with the fact that the notes get closer together the further up the neck you are.
It’s sounds like it’d be good for psychedelic
Damn right
Its very good for Jazz Fusion
The guitarist of Thank You Scientist plays on3
Nah....tastes terrible!!!
I can imagine a beginner buying this, then instantly regretting it
Ah yes a beginner buying a £2,000 guitar
Happens with cameras or pc’s all the time.
Instantly refretting*
I learned bass on a fretless cigar box bass which had awful action. I remember my dad who has been playing upright and electric bass for around 30 years saying ‘if you can play that then you will be able to play any bass you’re handed’ he was half right. Still a bas**** though!!
@@mrcvry But anybody can appreciate the benefit from an expensive pc
I bet this thing leaves fingerprints like crazy
Gloves
Windsor & Epstein Babysitting Services you can see the fingerprints at 2:05
Imagine having frets on your instrument
This comment was made by violin, cello, and bass gang
IrwenFox Aye, Violas exist
@@key_after_key violinists wish they didn't.
@@key_after_key you mean firewood?
IrwenFox It’s only firewood if you burn it, same with any wood instrument
@@key_after_key violas with frets?
As a sitar player, I am dying to play this. I want one. Now.
So sorry to see this Mary ......if you have fallen on hard times and can't afford frets,
maybe we can start a Go Fund Me for you or something !
I'm currently in the middle of an experimental process of turning a cheap acoustic guitar into a fretless guitar via the means of epoxy and sandpaper.
Removed frets, done.
Epoxy added, done
Sanding, Awaiting full cure.
The guitar was purchased for this purpose. If all goes belly up, it won't be without some experience gained.
I did this to the first bass I owned; Put some round wounds on it. Still have it actually and now I'm using tape wounds. It was and still is a cheap shitty guitar but I love it.
@@hunterwilkI sound atrocious but it's too fun not play.
How's it looking like now?
@@be7th The finish is still pretty scuffed, it's no show piece but it plays just dandy(for the most part). I'm still noticing spots where it buzzes from the uneven surface so sanding is a semi regular thing.
I would strongly recommend anyone who does this have some way of making a perfectly level surface. I pretty much finger painted quick curing epoxy onto a masked neck and then sanded. There is a better way to do this and I recommend whatever that is. That being said, no regrets it's loads of fun to play with even without the skill to properly use it.
@@Hyraethian a radius sanding block should help level things out. If it's really off, you could try treating it as if you were leveling frets... using a straight edge as a rocker looking for high spots.
If you enjoyed working on this one, try scalloping frets next. It's a fairly easy, very rewarding project.
The sound it makes reminds me of what Gilmour does in High hopes, right at the end. It's sounds so alien and beautiful.
“Im gonna sound off tune”
Violinists: cant relate
Edit: okay this is the most likes i have ever gotten, thanks guys ❤️❤️
Violists:
@@dmytrotsvyntarnyi799 take your time
😄😄😄
Double bassists: hah you weakling
Vibrato be like
I could hear Dave Gilmour playing one of those
I bet he would own it
I was just thinking about that, the second she started playing it my brain went to marooned by pink Floyd
I would love to hear him playing the sitar.
Johnny Calvino Found the one person in the world who wants to hear anybody playing a sitar!!! (Only kidding - I like sitar and think Gilmour doing it would be awesome.)
Pretty sure he played an acoustic fretless on the intro for Hey You
As a bassist, I tried fretless for the first time this year. Definitely a whole other world.
I am bassist also I have a fretless bass and I love it. I also play violin and it is a different world. Now trying fretless guitar for the first time.
The sound of a fretless almost reminds me of the semi-tonal pitch-bending sound of a sitar.
More like the sarod. The reflective fingerboard looks sarod-like too.
I hear the sitar too!!!
Just what I was thinking!
Nifty! Sounds like you could do lots of cool things with that. Your outro music is already sounding neat, even with just a few minutes of practice.
You can play microtones
As far as I'm aware there's a couple of Beatles songs on the white album I think played on a fretless guitar
TurkeysGames yes but I think 99% of that sound is a sitar
Brooks Moses when she’s sliding around on it, it sounds a lot like the intro to Gold And Green by Slaughter Beach, Dog.
I made my own...ripped the frets out of a cheap strat copy and shoved in flatwound jazz strings. Sounds amazing.
I play a lot of fretless bass--I prefer it to fretted bass---and it's a lot of fun. I can do three note chords on a fretless bass but that took a lot of work. The way to get good at it is to practice playing right behind the frets on a bass to get really solid muscle memory and then refine. Open strings really help, too.
Anyway, Mary I think your music would sound great with a fretless guitar! The little jam at the end was great.
crimfan Almost exactly what I would've said if I hadn't read the comments first.
Does you bass have marked frets spots tho?
jaco approves your decision
I'm a bass player too off over 20 years since I was a kid but I've never played a fretless strangely enough. So I presume that you have to be constantly be conscious and aware that you're playing a fretless? I.e. if you play a low G in the exact spot that you normally would on a regular fretted, the note will be flat. Sounds like playing a different instrument altogether and would take a bit of getting used to.
I do love the sound of a fretless bass though. So many difference. Sliding without any staccato plus a totally different tone to the note.
I just wanna imagine playing fretless, with a slide, a whammy, a volume pedal, and either finger pick or use an eBow or sustainer pickup
kinda sounds like a half-electric-sitar....
Slide sitar.
exactly! a fraction of the size. I wonder what Indian compositions would sound like on it
When I play my fretless bass, sliding to a note sounds familiar. It reminded me of the sitar. You are right. Sitar is so special.
I play fretless bass so I thought applying that to guitar would be fine. Picked up one of these in the shop to have a go and I was awful! The wider fret spacing of a bass are definitely more forgiving.
Yes for guitar you need another technique
@@budaroddy I imagine playing chords requires a good ear and a bit of precision to make them sound right
Not to mention the space between 4 strings verses 6.
You’d certainly need to hone your accuracy with one of these! Like a violinist.
For someone who’s never played a fretless guitar before you did really well Mary! Thanks for a little insight into the weird and wonderful options we guitarists have when we get bored of the norm 👍🏼
The legendary Shawn Lane, who played Vigier guitars, was the first player I ever saw play the Surfreter back in the 1990s. Being one of the greatest ever, he absolutely mastered it with amazing, blistering lines.
The trick is to play where the frets should be, that would help getting chords in tune. We as guitarists are used to playing just behind the fret as opposed to playing on it. I liken it to playing with a slide, only here you have to press the string to the fingerboard. More companies should make fretless instruments.
easier said then done! I believe Mary would be well aware of the concept of needing to play where the frets are. The problem is; with chords, we usually aren't pressing the the strings in the exact same spot on each fret. But on a fretless, every single finger has to be in exactly the right spot, rolled in just the right way. Plus our fingers aren't uniformly shaped and rigid like a slide would be, so even if the finger is perfectly perpendicular to the fretboard, barre chords might still be out of tune. I believe there's isn't any good tricks to playing chords on fretless (so it should just be avoided, lol!), just requires a ton of practice.
@ the latter bit is the fault of the player. One would think that the cost would be lower as there is one less step in the process.
@@brettmarlar4154 routing, installing and even leveling frets is a fairly easy process. Like she says in the video, precision in intonation becomes an issue. Set up costs go up. I can intonate a guitar with a digital tuner and a capo on the 12th fret. Much harder with a fretless. I love the look though. And the sound is eery!
Sounds like a lot of the guitars sustain is lost without the frets
Physics dictates that to be so. If the player had some type of solid fingertip covers, on the neck hand, which would not absorb the vibrations, more sustain could be achieved. I don't know if it would be practical though.
Yeah, that's why you need a slide of some kind
Sustainiac pickups could solve the problem
i think guthrie govan uses a fretless guitar with a metal fretboard
@@bizmofunyuns9693 changing pickups won't do anything, the problem is the lack of vibration sustain of the strings because of design.
Mad props for mentioning Bumblefoot! His abilities are otherworldly. Check out the solo in his song Brooklyn Steakhouse. How on earth do you play a fretless that accurately, that fast!? Absolute insanity!
Imagine never having to worry about dead frets or refretting.
This post was made by orchestra gang
Imagine having to tune every note you play for the rest of time.
Dead frets suck, though
@@michaelthemediocre4809 Hahaha that's right
It's all good til you need to refinish and level the whole fingerboard. My 5 string bass needs it and it's not cheap.
Imagine how great it would sound with little metal bars placed as to intonate all the notes in an accurate manner. Someone should make that!
microtonal guitars usually have movable frets
AllAboardTheHypeTrain woosh
@@8PedroFerreira lol reddit funny!
Just noticed the “Never Meant” riff from American Football in the beginning, very nice
I was just looking for a comment where someone noticed it! Thanks!
Pollo Magico same lol
It sounds off
Hi it sounds very much like a sitar. But I definitely think you should buy one. Have fun.Cheers Phil from Newark
Especially if it were tuned to DADGAD. Oh my, that would be amazing.
Check out justin Johnson's fretless guitar, these things can be wicked for blues
Just imagine David Gilmour playing Shine on you crazy diamond on that
MIND = BLOWN
One of the reasons I prefer my violin over my guitar is that the guitar is limited in what can be done whereas on my violin I can produce any sound I want or need. This guitar seems very interesting. I’d like to try it.
Your intonation on the fretless is impressive, Mary.
In the intro thought you were gonna go full on American Football 😂
Henry Charalambous I also thought “This would be great for math rock”
@@marcobeltran7218 brilliant 😂 we need Mary to do some math rock 😂 would awesome
Same haha
LOL!
Not gonna lie I heard some never meant as well in there.
Doing pretty well for someone who just sat down with a fretless guitar for the first time. And Vigier seems to have sorted out the fingerboard material better than anyone.
You held the tuning very well fair play, I'd be all over the shop.
30 years ago, with no musical education, knowledge or experience at all, I suddenly became fiascinated with the oud so I decided to "dabble". I didn't even know where to buy an oud so I bought a very cheap acoustic guitar. I noticed the peg heads and guessed their function so I decided to tune the strings. Thinking of how I saw oud & guitar players used left hand (with 4 fingers) I decided that the "next string" must always be the "5th finger" so I tuned the top string so it didn't sound weird then started downwards to tune next string 5 half notes up thus if the top was E then 2nd was A, 3rd was D, 4th was G, 5th was C & 6th was F (now I know that that's exactly how 1/4 of existing ouds are tuned). As I tried to play some of the Arabic melodies that I knew, I noticed that I could only approximate some of them as some notes lo in between two frets so I removed all the frets and started again playing my "guitar oud". I grew of course up and bought a real oud and learned to play it well. I learned to play electric bass a decade later, but always prefered fretless bass :D
A mix between a citara, John Frusciante and George Harrison.
Don't fret, it's still playable...
Dude, you're really pulling mah strings here
Ba-dum-tiss!
Gotta stay tuned for more jokes don’t I?
Good one where do you pick these jokes?
Tormented Zeus you really had to pull off that one?
Sounds almost sitar-ish mixed with Jeff Beck's love of violin-like volume swells
And a dash of slide guitar
Thank you for mentioning Jeff beck, I kept hearing sounds from blow by blow
I kinda dig that sound, has a certain pop to it
Not sitar, but sarod. ☺️
Some information I always like to share: Lou Reed used a fretless guitar when recording The Velvet Undergeound & Nico, the guitar used his experimental Ostrich tuning (which is tune the strings either EEeee’e’ or DDDDd’d’)
They need to build a guitar in which the frets can retract in and out
I think that would be a mechanical nightmare to pull off
Maybe magnetic frets would be sick, you can remove them or move them however you like
They already exist. I'm not sure how easy are to find, though.
Maybe replaceable fret boards
Use a thin black marker instead. Mark the frets precisely. Done!
soundd like a heavenly steel guitar, especially on the higher “frets” during the intro solo
I am enamored with your fearlessness at being able to show yourself crashing and burning. It's a beautiful way to show a novice that you dont have to always be perfect on your way to perfection. Bravo. Very enjoyable video.
I ripped the frets out of my starter guitar when I was a teenager for the hell of it. It was kinda fun, but a guitar actually built with it in mind would be nice.
I'd probably have to slather beyond-80s levels of chorus to be remotely listenable.
Jaco did the same thing. It worked out well for him.
@@donbailey6600 Yeah, but he did it with a bass. And a good one at that.
Vibrato helps a lot actually
7:27 fretless guitar Tony Iommi edition :D ✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️
fretless guitars would eliminate 90% of players
is it cheaper because they don’t need to cut the fret wires in? or more expensive because of the novelty? This will be a very niche instrument
Michael Prozonic more expensive, because even though it requires less material to create, they are much less likely to be purchased because of how unorthodox they are. More of an instrument to have as a sort of novelty rather than a staple of someone's playstyle, which is a shame because I think this has so much potential and should definitely be popularized.
@@sentiecide686 currently that's the case however you should consider that most modern orchestral string instruments replaced instruments that were fretted, though the reasoning behind that could have been because intonation systems for keyboard instruments were less uniform; meaning that progressing from the viol to the modern violin meant that you could play with anyone else instead of potentially needing an entirely new instrument if you were playing alongside an ensemble that used a different way of subdividing the octave into 12.
I think that fretless guitars would require alternative systems to become common enough to justify not having an instrument that can only play in 12tet before they became the definitive design and that's not happening anytime soon (though even mainstream music is starting to embrace a lot of detuned chords as a type of embellishment/production aesthetic, so it may be happening already in drips and drabs)
They're sold because they allow infinite more notes than you can play on a normal guitar, raised skill ceiling, higher point of entry
There is a ton of emotion in the sound of that instrument
Being in tune isn’t the point of a fretless guitar, the point is to make some strange ass sounds
😄
Say that when you hear a violin out of tune.
It's potentially more in tune than fretted but yeah the main point is to expand the range
Tristan Erno Being in-tune is kinda based on the temperate system you’re using though.
Tristan Erno a slightly out of tune string can sound better than a perfectly tuned string, John frucantia (that’s not how it’s spelt) in snow (hey oh) has all of his strings slightly of tuned
Here's an idea for a quarantine UN-DIY project...Years ago someone gave me an old terrible acoustic guitar... So I pulled the frets out and I think it improved the guitar. Fun and weird experience.
I don’t see what everyone is fretting about
I’ll see myself out
Haha nice
Arf
Please let the door hit you on the way out
They're just being picky.
Best comment, bar none.
8:20 When the guitars you want are more expensive than your car...
What does that tell us about your car... LOL
I got an Oud a few years ago, and got a few quartertone guitars, and stripped one bass of frets. The posture on guitar, and the super-long neck make it harder than it should be. On an oud, you stay below 5th or 7th "fret" almost the entire time. Chords are definitely almost impossible, though 2-note chords are actually better for thirds. My quartertone guitar is much more natural tuned all-fourths, as regular guitar tuning presumes bar chords, which you won't be doing on fretless or microtonal guitars.
This makes Bumblefoot Ron Thaal even more impressive as he shreds like crazy on a fretless guitar.
Hey man, wanted to say thank you for bringing this artist and the music's he's associated with in my attention. I've been into metal and rock, but strayed for heavier alternative. This really freshens up my playlist, and opens my mind to check out some of the 'lighter' stuff.
@@xheadlessx he is defintly one of the most humble artist i have ever meet, known him for many years now
And Guthrie!
MICROTONE CREW REPRESENT.
Means she can play the whole Flying Microtonal Banana album
CHECKING IN
This is so weird looking, like seeing a person without eyebrows..
Why do we even have eyebrows?
holysmokes44 to protect our eyes from sweat getting in them pretty much
holysmokes44 so we can brow the eyes
mick karn, the fretless bass player, looked fantastic without eyebrows
Hahahahaha 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 awesome comment
The cool thing about fretless, is not only being able to do a violin type vibrato,
but sliding chords is pretty fun too.
Considering their surge in popularity over the last decade, I'm surprised more companies aren't doing fretless guitars at the moment. I feel like there's a LOT of money to be made in producing €400-€1000 versions.
that little laugh at 2:33 scared me to death because it felt like it was on the other side of my room
The fretless actually kinda suites primrose imo
Also it looks well cool with all the guitars reflecting off it
this guitar sounds like george harrison
I was so in love with the idea that I bought a 2nd Yamaha classical and de-fretted it. I love it, but it's so challenging! A learning project for my retirement, I expect. Thanks for the video, Mary!
fescinating how you instantly got back to a classical vibrato
Would love to hear the solos in "Scar tissue - RHCP" played on this
Olsen Olsen thats my first thought
I like the frets as a safety net analogy and that your surrounded yourself with 2 dozen fully fretted guitars in case things go off the rails. Small steps! Great demo!
There's a ton of great fretless guitarists, both classical and electric, in Turkey. Look up perdesiz gitar.
You must mean a lot of *DEDICATED* guitarists. In order to be great it has to sound good. (Which it doesn't. Fretless sounds like trash. Like a sitar)
Scrotum Monster ever heard of a cello? Lol
Scrotum Monster which masters and recordings have you listened to?
I've been playing fretless bass since '95 and, while it did take a while to really train my ear and left hand, I greatly prefer it to fretted now. It's so smooth, frets just feel like they're getting in my way.
I've wanted to try a fretless guitar for years. I've got a pretty good handle on double stops on my bass, but full chords require a bit too much of a stretch However, it would be doable on guitar and I'd love to get a really good handle on fretless chords.
As someone who plays both fretless bass and cello, and two years ago bought also a fretless guitar, I can attest that it's by far the more difficult of the three - as in, most normal guitar parts are almost impossible to play on fretless (whereas most normal bass parts can be played just fine on fretless). Pentatonic solo doodling works relatively easy, but the short sustain makes it rather dissatisfying too. I put a Fernandez-style sustainer in the guitar, which makes it more useful as a solo instrument. Still it suffers from the wooden fingerboard - that works fine on bass or bowed strings, but really not as well on guitar. It definitely makes sense that Vigier uses metal fingerboards.
If you tune the strings to an "A" chord... a; c#; e, etc. you could place your first finger as a bar across the 6 strings, moving up fret by fret spaces, getting chromatic changes... like a steel guitar. Open would be an A chord; up three "frets" would be a C chord; and so forth.
Just take a look to Ilter Kurcala's channel. He is really an expert at fretless electric guitar.
You could also listen Erkan Oğur, Özgür Abbak and Tolgahan Çoğulu
@@maihoshi I thought Tolgahan mainly focused on fretted microtonal guitars
@@imdW Yeah, also I think that. But Erkan Oğur is the one of the most incredible fretless guitar player I have ever listened.
I love that it will never need a refret!
That is until you give up on trying to play fretless of course
I hear more tones on the slides and the vibrato is very interesting. It's not exactly comparable but it's like going from playing a fretted bass to a fretless standup only a more difficult. Live and learn. Thanks so much for the experience.
Guthrie Govan playing this instrument to this day is one of the most amazing gutair displays I have seen!! 😎🔥🔥
Right? He jumped into it as if he'd played without frets his whole life
Fergus McGregor sorry to correct you, it was not a fretless guitar but a guitar with sustainer. One of the best solo ever played!
He does play a fretless Vigier on the live version of Insurgentes.
He doesn't even use the microtones. All he does is like playing with a slide ring. He's one of my all time favs but it's not what fretless guitar playing meant to be
@@ogulcanyolcu8714 I think I know what you are trying to say(like staying on certain notes/intervals that are smaller than half steps apart (like in certain oriental music) , but Violins (and similar instruments) also are fretless and it's still amazing to see a player play difficult pieces (like caprices or Vivaldi) perfectly intonated even if they are sticking to the 12 tone-ish Western music system. So I think you can express yourself on untempered(fretless) instruments in many awesome ways.
Also intonating intervals in just intonation instead of 12 tone equally tempered could also be considered a very subtle use of microtonality (while not breaking out of western 12 tone concepts)
Just wanted to chime in, no hate 😎👌 btw do you know any guitarists or songs which explore the microtonality you are talking about? I would like to check that out 🙂
That’s pretty good. Reminds we of all the great Indian music I listen to. Especially Ravi Shankar.
I like the way your Viola experience instantly switched your vibrato from vertical to horizontal. You probably didn't have to give it a thought at the time.
I looked into fretless guitars a number of years ago when I was looking into different scales and temperments...and was shocked that I couldn't find a guitar, only basses. I did find custom places that would let you make it fretless, but I get carried away and spec them out too pricey, so I put it out of my head until I'm at a place where it's something I could focus on.
Nice to see something in production, though the metal fingerboard is interesting.
Edit: As far as the video, I feel the face is too full in the camera...maybe I'm just too used to seeing shoulders and the top of the head.
pretty sure these have been out 20 years or so, the Surfretter's the only one I ever heard of though
you could make your own though, like a lot of bassists do! Rip out the frets (maybe on a replacement neck) and fill them in
@@cactustactics You could easily buy one that was made as a fretless from Warmoth, too.
It just needs some drawn lines to visualize the missing frets, so chords wouldn't be impossible.
I mean, its not impossible to play a violin/viola/cello/double bass, and they dont have frets
Bevsworld04 yea but they don’t exactly play chords lol. Maximum two notes at once
There are violists that play triple stops, even quadruple stops, though it's difficult and rarely used. The issue is that you have to put your finger in the exact position, and roll your finger to fine tune the pitch. The more fingers you're using, the less ergonomic and less practical those positions are. Double stops, and open drone notes accompanying a melody are what work the best chord wise on a fretless. Plus, unless you're playing solo, there's going to be others to add extra notes to chords, that makes much more sense.
Yeah, that's exactly what many fretless basses tend to do.
@@somepunkinthecomments471 quad stops? How? Wouldnt they have to push all of the strings down at the same time?
This guitar suits playing solos (chords are not easy for us standard guitar players). It naturally facilitate playing middle eastern music that incorporate smaller tone spacing.
@Pie Fish Hi. Two common ones are the oud (fretless stringed instrument) and qanun. If you would like to listen to Oud music please search UA-cam for Naseer Shamma.
Violin players be like : Now you understand my hell
Should have played dark was night ground was cold , I hear it in that guitar
You gotta check out Justin Johnson's version of that.
I liked the sound of the chords. Also you can slide chords and non-barred double-stops which you can't do on a traditional slide.
Interesting instrument. There are lots of possibilities with this i’d imagine. Have you heard Pat Metheny playing fretless Nylon string guitar? He uses it on the secret story album.
That guitar sounds perfectly in tune with the universe...
Now I need a full cover of Never Meant by American Footbal on this thing.
I love fretless guitar, and I don't think it sounds weird, at all. One of these days, I will get around to ordering a fretless neck from Warmoth. In the meantime, I have a fretless StingRay bass, and a fretless short scale Warwick Custom Shop Corvette Proline.
If you want to hear some gorgeous fretless playing, check out Aditya Balani on UA-cam.
I think the main challenge for guitar players is that fretless requires a completely different approach to playing, since intonation across all six strings for chords is virtually impossible. There are no other instruments which are commonly fretless that have more than four strings which are normally played polyphonically. A fretless tenor guitar is a much easier instrument to wrap the mind around, especially if it is short scale.
Gemma Seymour
I was curious so I looked up the musician you mentioned (Aditya Balani) so here’s a link to one example for other people in the comments if they like ua-cam.com/video/HyskW79TQnc/v-deo.html
Tom is amazing, I got to see him play live a couple times. He's mind-blowing, to say the least.
You are so talented, i'm from Brazil 🇧🇷 and i love watch your videos! Bring such a peace😌