------PUBLIC SERVICE ANOUNCEMENT: I have a NEW instragram page, after a hacker took down the last one a few weeks ago. Please do follow me @tomfountainhead for weekly guitar content, and frequent updates about new projects, releases and tourdates, including my upcoming new solo album "Changeling". Tabs for my solos are usually exclusive to my instagram followers as well-------- ///instagram: @tomfountainhead ///tiktok: @tom.fountainhead ///facebook: facebook.com/tomfountainheadgeldschlaeger ///Get my Instructional video: beyondthestrings.de/ ///Support me directly with just a few clicks: www.buymeacoffee.com/fountainhead ///Contact me for session-guitar, co-writing, orchestration, music-production & mixing/mastering: www.thefountainhead.de/
Agreed on all counts with this video. It's a completely different instrument, and you have to treat it like it is. It's probably one of the most challenging and rewarding things you can play as a guitarist.
I'd assume that it's because I've never put much time and effort into it in the past. I don't usually deal in "content", I've always been a recording and working musician above all. And I'm terrible with anything that's video related. On top of that, there's a bunch of successfull videos that got blocked over drama with my ex band, a smear campaign a few years back, my social media taken down by a stalker 3x and counting....kinda the perfect storm to NOT be big on a platform like this ;-) but it is what it is, and I'm certainly trying to talk this part of what I do to the next level right now, so I really appreciate the positive feedback. :)
Friends from a funny little metal band asked me once to fill in for their bassist at one short gig. I said sure, although I'm a guitar player mostly, saying I'd need his bass. I got it. It was fretless. Luckily, it had fret lines and dots marked on the fretboard but oh boy, those 3-4 songs I played were filled with OMG and WTF screams in my head :)
cool that you can share your experiences with an instrument you utilize so well. no idea why these people thought this was going to be a video of you playing guitar. you might've talked me out of ever playing one of these but it really helps baritone chugging brutes like me find an appreciation for the work it takes to squeak some incredible sounds out of these instruments
Gonna pick up a fretless neck for my Tele. I got a fretless U Bass a couple months back and I love it to bits. My roomate plays guitar and I I tried to explain "bends" on fretless to him and he was shook.
@@maaaaaap Well, that's always been Steffen's real creative skill - whatever clusterfuck he's causing, he'll find a way to turn it into PR gold and get people excited about it.
@@FountainheadTV haha totally, the last 5 seconds of full playthrough recommendations are good, I've seen them already but I'm thinking for new visitors. but also we're leeches, we want mooooore and are never satisfied
I started on fretted and fretless instruments simultaneously. (Bass) Even on a bass instrument it’s a challenge. You did a great job breaking it down for your guitar friends.
recently got an actual fretless and man it's so hard to play in tune without looking at the neck all the time...years of bad technique don't help either. still, people like you motivate me a lot, and turkish classical music is amazing to learn as well
My fretless basses are all conversions from fretted to fretless and I’ve been playing them exclusively since August 2020, & it’s super fun to play I practice by watching the lines I’ve marked on the fingerboard & using my ears to correctly identify the pitch of the note I’m playing
I love playing fretless 7 string Bass.Yes cords are indeed challenging yet so cool and rewarding.And notes just sound wonderful.The vioce of a good fretless is unmistakable .Great video Mate ! I loved it.
All these points apply to the fretless bassguitar as well. There's this debate in the bass world, usually coming from upright players, who say that it's all about the ear and that lines on the fingerboard will get in the way of that. But a (bass)guitar neck is so long that you need some visual reference and need a combination of this plus muscle memory to really play well. Sometimes it does indeed look like they saw a fretless instrument in one particular setting and decided that that's all there is to it.
Hi Tom. Thanks for this primer on fretless guitar. This video made me think about other ways to approach the guitar. I was wondering how you feel about 8 string guitars generally. They seem to be becoming cheaper and fashionable now like 7 strings were in the late 1990s and 00s. I dislike the low F# string as I think it competes too much with the kick and bass in the mix. The guitar becomes too muddy. For that reason, I am not a big fan of the djent style unless Meshuggah or Tosin Abasi do it. For metal, I generally do not like guitar tunings below A1 on guitar/A0 on bass, or Korn tuning. However, one could go higher on the guitar to a high A string. And one could try to incorporate the Floyd Rose as well. I notice Floyd Rose has 8 string bridges now (I always insist on Floyd Roses--to me to be without a Floyd Rose is to be like a keyboard player without a pitch wheel). 8 string Floyds are on some newer guitars like BC Rich Shredzillas. I would love to have an 8 string but strung high, ideally A E A D G B E A. Rusty Cooley has done a high A string with one of his custom model Deans where the scale length is 23.5" on the high A string. However, it does not have a Floyd Rose because the high A string cannot withstand the tension of being pulled up to C or C# without breaking. I have reached out to companies like Floyd Rose and Ernie Ball to try to generate interest in an 8 string Floyd Rose guitar with a high A string. I hope luthiers will work on it instead of trying to combine guitar and bass into one instrument. Do you think we will ever have practical 8 string Floyd Rose guitars with high A strings? I think there is generally more interesting music in the melodic higher registers on guitar than down low. Going low steps on the bass too much. I would rather have independent counterpoint melodies between bass and multiple guitars than a single guitar player trying to play everything at once on an 8 string. There is only so much two human hands can do. Only in something like Gypsy jazz and folk music do I think that 8 string is a cool approach, and of course it is cool when Meshuggah and Tosin do it, but it is not for me. Would you be interested in an 8 string guitar with a Floyd Rose and high A string if they could figure out how to do it without the high A string breaking? Once luthiers figure out how to make a workable high A string Floyd Rose guitar, I think if a great player like you could demo the practicality of the concept, maybe companies would take notice and mass produce guitars that use the 8 string for high notes instead of just low ones. But musicians and the music industry have to want 8 string Floyd Rose guitars with high A strings first. Thanks, Aaron
Hi Aaron and i'm glad you enjoyed the video. Quite honestly, I really don't have much of a need for 8 strings, regardless of whether it's with a low or high string added. And so, I haven't really looked into the issue very much. The things that I try to develop and study don't depend so much on the range of my guitar, although it would be nice to have even greater range added to the arsenal. Best, Tom.
That's an amazing video Tom, I guess how a fretless guitar would sound with a lower eight string and maybe a higher a string (we are now into violin upper range if I am not wrong). My question is, how far can we take this instrument? Soloing wise, it opens up a ton of expressions possibilities since it make possible to "sing" like a voice, while on the shred side it may be more challenging to keep in tune but violin player can play Paganini's caprice finely so I think we can do the trick too. You have showed that we can play technicall riffs on it, so I belive the true major "limit" is in chords, that's were adding some strings may be a usefull tool, especially if we would experiment a bit with the tuning. Also I belive that an Evertune would be a perfect match for a guitar like that ^_^ I would love to see a second episode, I love your content!!! Live well
Thank you, Federico! And yes, there are so many possibillities still to explore with this instrument. Personally, I've never even owned any fretless guitar that was even comparable to a decent fretted guitar in terms of sustain and playabilllity all over the net. So just having QUALITY (and affordable) fretless guitars (and extended range fretless instruments) readyily available to the public will be a game-changer. And, just like you said, once we get into 8 string territory and different tunings, even more things can be done. All of that being said, I'd love to make part 2, but unfortunately the view count and social media spread of his video has been very dissapointing, so I might need to prioritze other content in order for this channel to grow first. Again, thank you and I hope you live well, too :)
@@FountainheadTV you are totally right, it's still a rare instrument, definitely over the medium budget that people can put into a guitar. Even if I haven't played a single fretless in my whole and still short music career I can see how many possibilities it has to be explored. I know that Rondomusic was offering the fretless option for Agile guitars, but I really don't know how these instruments sound and feel in their fretless version. Sad to hear this video hadn't the success you were hoping for, I personally loved it (as all your content) so I'll keep waiting for what's coming next and maybe a part 2 in the future 😄
Very interesting. I always wonder if it's very taxing on the fingers to do horizontal vibrato and big slides. On a fretted guitar the hard callus of your finger just slides along the string which acts like a rail, but in a fretless situation your fingertip is rubbing against the fretboard as well. Is this why the fretboards are made out of metal?
It's actual less hard on the calluses, since there's no bending involved, plus there's always a bit of lube involved ;-) And the reason for choosing a metal fretboard are very different. Maybe that's also a good question for another video like this.
I have a fretless guitar, built custom by a semi-pro luthier. Best-sounding axe in my whole arsenal. I play swamp blues primarily. This guitar was made for that sound. I love my Miss Buttercup. Yah. i name my axes.
Having never played violin before, I don't think I could give a good enough answer to that one, sorry! I did, however, briefly get the nickname "worst violinist in the world" when I showed up to bandpractice with my first fretless guitar, many many years ago ;-)
@FountainheadTV That’s awful people would tease you Tom for playing guitar I hate bullies I don’t find it funny and your a great guitar player fretted and fretless. I believe if you learned violin you would be amazing not the worst ever!
Great video and I totally agree with everything you mentioned here, I’m a fellow fretless guitar player too but way more of hobbyist level. Keep up the awesome content and I definitely enjoy it every time you post videos playing your fretless instruments!
Well, fretless guitar with sustainer is my drem. I know I will struggle with it for a long time, but I really want to start this journey. =) The only thing I can't decide: do I have to use fixed bridge? I saw Adrian Belew playing fretless strat and using whammy bar a lot, and it sounds great! But all other fretless guitar players have fixed bridge, like Dweezil Zappa with fretless and semi-fretless SG guitars.
I really see no point in a fretless guitar with trem, as the fretless fingerboard allows you to do everything that a trem does (except divebombs on open strings), while the trem will steal a lot of the much-needed sustain.
Haha, actually I think everybody else has been holding it "backwards" - the way I'm holding it, I can switch between the 2 sustain modes while playing, which would be otherwise impossible. ;-) As for the sustainiac, I have to honestly say that it's never really worked for me. Maybe it's the wiring on that particular guitar, but it never gave me the results I was looking for and I ended up using it on not more than 2-3 songs over the years.With the ebow however, I've built an entire style of playing around it over the years, so I'm very grateful for its existence, despite the clunky design.
@@FountainheadTV hehe!, that's what I also say because I also hold the Ebow backwards 😅 same reason to switch between harmonic modes, only sometimes I hold it "right" to have a quicker attack on the string similar to a bow, you know, that quick signal spike when the Ebow hits the edge of the magnetic field of the pickup, also, that's why I also use and Ebow despite having a Sustainiac, for that effect of the attack more similar to a real bow hitting a string which the sustainiac lacks, but sustainiac also gives me flexibility for quick note runs and other stuff, so they complement each other
Thank you! I never use flatwounds (and talk about that in the video as well 😜 ). Pickups: totally up to taste, but be mindful of high-end loss on wooden fretless fingerboards, in which case I'd recommend very bright PUs as countermeasure.
One you missed thats a huge misconception is about sustain. Specifically on the unwound strings. Believe it was ron from bumblefoot that addressed it by saying they've been doing it in middle eastern and asian music for centuries it just takes using your fingernail; which he also said he thought, he thought of it but realized thats also a technique they've been using for centuries Edit: its possible im confusing thai with net evett on that statement 🤔
Hey. I didn't miss it, I simply thought that the video would be tighter and more informative if I would narrow it down to the 5 things I focussed on. The sustain is also very dependent on a lot of different factors in the instrument itself, so it's not something to generalize right off the bat, in my personal opinion.
Very interesting! Amazing skills on the fretless, btw! Do you find yourself playing some intervals differently than on a fretted guitar? Like, major 3rds? Even within the equal-temperament system, standard frets are a compromise. Do you make up for those imperfections? Although, just intonation minions will say that equal temperament is a musical abomination XD. I've noticed that your intonation is out of this world. I've listened to quite a few upright bass players on some old jazz records and you can hear that they're not spot on 100% of the time. You can definitely hear some notes being sharper or flatter than the intended pitches, but I guess our ears weren't so used to "perfect" (whatever that means) digital music and autotune, back in the day. Thanks for you time, man!
Good question and thank you! 🙂🙏 For me personally, it's a matter of different headspaces when playing fretless guitar. With my recorded works, there's a "mode" where I try to get as close as humanly possible to "perfect" intonation as in standart 440hz and standartized intervals. It's a way of pushing myself and of making fans (especially in metal) aware of the potential of the instrument beyond a niche thing. Then there's a mode where I go for non-western intervals and try to get vibes inspired by other cultures and instruments, even though I mainly do that by ear, not going for a specific system like just intonation. I find those to be rather limiting.
This is a big help for me, thanks very much for putting this together. I've recently been looking into the solfeggio scale and alternate frequencies to the western system and see fretless guitar as an option to provide more flexibility to move outside the traditional western model. Have you looked into the solfeggio system or considered using it? I'd be interested to hear your take on it.
It's an e-bow and not a pick - completely different department. :)
3 года назад+1
Hi! Might sound a little obvious but, I just wanted to know what about the neck material? isn't steel actually noisier than wood when playing fretless (kind of like a metal slide running up and down the strings)? Also, does the wood wear out by the years and starts to get scratchy and chippy? Thank you for your whole video advice!
Hi Camilo! In my experience, steel is not noisier than wood - on a regular guitar with steel frets the strings touch the very same material after all. Imagine the fretless with a steel fingerboard more like one giant fret 🙂 and yes, fretless wood fingerboards do wear down over the years (my first converted fretless is proof of that) if you are using roundwound strings like me.
Definitely a fixed bridge - which one, that depends on your personal taste, I'd say. Other people have suggested evertune bridges, which I haven't tried but am looking forward to do so in the future.
Very cool - do you lose some of the sustain with a fretless guitar or is it lessened when you hold a note? I'm very interested in trying fretless guitar and might even take the frets off an old inexpensive guitar.
In my experiencr, there's always a loss of sustain. There's many elements controlling how severe it is, but usually it IS a factor at least on the higher strings, yes. But then again, it also forces you to think differently and explore other ways of playing. 🙂
For fretless guitar to truly work you need two working in unison. You basically have both guitar players taking on hybrid roles as both lead and rhythm at the same time.
You said in the beginning that you couldn't simply remove the frets on a fretted guitar. I wish you could expound on that. I asked a luthier I know if he has ever built a fretless guitar, and he told me that he had not done so, but he offered to take a guitar I owned and remove the frets. Why would that not work? Thanks in advance for your clarification!
Hey Henry. If you just remove the frets without any extra steps, chances are that the fretboard is not going to be smooth enough to really have a comfortable playing experience. You'd have to make sure that there's no bumps, gaps or less-than-smooth points on the fretboards. Also, since most traditional fretboards are made out of wood, using regular strings will then cut into the wood over time.
Time is indeed prescient as it is as to your investments; and your audience is as far reaching as to your will to increase audience.I am not naive to your struggles and I love your push and progress.
Hi Garret. I haven't tried flatwounds with a wound g string, and I'm not sure what the point would be? If anything, I used 13 gouge roundwounds with a wound G string for a while. I like roundwounds more because flatwounds can add to the loss of high end on a fretless guitar with a wooden fingerboard, and also because I feel like I can judge and control micro-intonation better when I have wound strings under my fingertips.
@@FountainheadTV The thing with the overtones: I am a professional string player and use to play fretless since I was 8 years old. I can do it. Once I had a Bass guitar in my hands, about half the size, with strings of silicon. Absolutly no overtones. I had no orientation, how high the tone was and could not play, not a bit. You need some overtones for intonation. I can play the vibrato of the strings. You should use flat wounds to have less overtones. Then make vibrato on it to gain more overtones. Yes, vibrato makes more overtones. So you can get the singing and romantic sound, we love the strings for. Good intonation does not mean, the more overtones, the better. You need only enough of them.
Thank you very much! Personally, I prefer the ebow over the sustainiac by a mile, but that's also because the sustainiac in my Soultool guitar never really worked as well as I wanted it to. With the ebow I feel I like have more control over the tone and am able to get the desired effect on every string, unlike with my sustainiac. At some point, though, I would love to try the technology on a different guitar and see whether I get better results. Best, Tom.
Any opinion on buying a fretless vs modding an existing guitar? Is a modded fretless "just as good" for playing or are there pitfalls to keep in mind? I have a 90s strat that I want to remove the frets from.
I should probably make a seperate video about this. In a nutshell: if you mod a regular guitar, chances are that you'll encounter severe sustain issues as well as a loss of high-end. It you really want to mod yourself, best choose the brightest tone-woods possible and be very careful that you don't cause any dead spots on the neck. Best of luck! 🙂
Me: "Your intonation is off" Guitarist: "Oh am I out of tune?" /tunes up. Me: ... "Your INTONATION is off" Guitarist: Looks to tuner again, fiddles with his bridge, looks to tuner again "I'm in tune!" 🤔 Me: 🤦🏻♀️ Singer: "How am I sounding?" Me: 🤬
Tunning in NOT MORE important on fretless than on regular. Out of tune is out of tune. You must learn to play fretless a little off. LIke orchestra (viiolins, cellos, basses!) fretless players - they don't tune for the whole concert.
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Excellent summary. Keep flying the fretless guitar flag and educating people on the fretless.
Thanks, Buzz! Raising the fretless flag is what I've done for the past 10+ years, I'm not gonna stop...ever :)
I agree
As a Sarodist I have built an electric Sarode and now am about to convert a Les Paul to fretless.
This video is so different from your previous ones. New location and the intro with the logo is sweet.
Indeed, I had some more qualified help on this one, by somebody who doesn't hate making videos quite as much as I do.
Agreed on all counts with this video. It's a completely different instrument, and you have to treat it like it is. It's probably one of the most challenging and rewarding things you can play as a guitarist.
The content on your channel keeps getting better, its beyond me why this channel isnt getting more attention
I'd assume that it's because I've never put much time and effort into it in the past. I don't usually deal in "content", I've always been a recording and working musician above all. And I'm terrible with anything that's video related. On top of that, there's a bunch of successfull videos that got blocked over drama with my ex band, a smear campaign a few years back, my social media taken down by a stalker 3x and counting....kinda the perfect storm to NOT be big on a platform like this ;-) but it is what it is, and I'm certainly trying to talk this part of what I do to the next level right now, so I really appreciate the positive feedback. :)
Friends from a funny little metal band asked me once to fill in for their bassist at one short gig. I said sure, although I'm a guitar player mostly, saying I'd need his bass. I got it. It was fretless. Luckily, it had fret lines and dots marked on the fretboard but oh boy, those 3-4 songs I played were filled with OMG and WTF screams in my head :)
cool that you can share your experiences with an instrument you utilize so well. no idea why these people thought this was going to be a video of you playing guitar. you might've talked me out of ever playing one of these but it really helps baritone chugging brutes like me find an appreciation for the work it takes to squeak some incredible sounds out of these instruments
Thanks, I appreciate that. :) But who are "these people"? 🤔
Gonna pick up a fretless neck for my Tele. I got a fretless U Bass a couple months back and I love it to bits. My roomate plays guitar and I I tried to explain "bends" on fretless to him and he was shook.
Thank you for taking the time to explain things as I need to re-educate myself before I make the jump to a fretless guitar.
I just heard that Obscura just had another massive lineup change. You where right Tom. I guess Steffen is hard to work with. Great video by the way!
Thank you, Michael!
well, Muenzner and Thesseling rejoined, so i wouldn't call it massive in that sense
@@maaaaaap Well, that's always been Steffen's real creative skill - whatever clusterfuck he's causing, he'll find a way to turn it into PR gold and get people excited about it.
@@FountainheadTV lol
Needed more examples of your fretless playing in the video!
Noted - however, there's dozens upon dozens of fretless guitar videos (and thus examples) on my channel, just two clicks away ;-)
@@FountainheadTV haha totally, the last 5 seconds of full playthrough recommendations are good, I've seen them already but I'm thinking for new visitors.
but also we're leeches, we want mooooore and are never satisfied
@@MarioSpeedWagon I'm posting short guitar videos several times a week on my instagram, maybe that'll scratch the itch a bit better :)
@@FountainheadTV oh I'm ready fretlessdaddy. Following you now on IG
I have been playing mine for about 6 months. I have done a number of songs using it. I completely agree. It is its own beast.
Great introduction tutorial to beginning fretless guitar.
Thank you, Dee!
I started on fretted and fretless instruments simultaneously. (Bass) Even on a bass instrument it’s a challenge. You did a great job breaking it down for your guitar friends.
Thank you! 🙂
Hmm, talking about tuning..I am kinda surprised that Evertune wasn't immediately implement to fretless guitars, it seems like a match made in heaven.
It absolutely does. I've never had an evertune system in any of my guitars, but I'm definitely planning on trying it ASAP!
recently got an actual fretless and man it's so hard to play in tune without looking at the neck all the time...years of bad technique don't help either. still, people like you motivate me a lot, and turkish classical music is amazing to learn as well
Keep at it, Raul - all the struggle will be worth it at the end :)
My fretless basses are all conversions from fretted to fretless and I’ve been playing them exclusively since August 2020, & it’s super fun to play
I practice by watching the lines I’ve marked on the fingerboard & using my ears to correctly identify the pitch of the note I’m playing
I love playing fretless 7 string Bass.Yes cords are indeed challenging yet so cool and rewarding.And notes just sound wonderful.The vioce of a good fretless is unmistakable .Great video Mate ! I loved it.
All these points apply to the fretless bassguitar as well. There's this debate in the bass world, usually coming from upright players, who say that it's all about the ear and that lines on the fingerboard will get in the way of that. But a (bass)guitar neck is so long that you need some visual reference and need a combination of this plus muscle memory to really play well. Sometimes it does indeed look like they saw a fretless instrument in one particular setting and decided that that's all there is to it.
Great video!!!
I am a bassist, but i like this video.( I play a fretless bass.)
You explain it very good and simple.
Thanks for the lights about this instrument :)
You're welcome!
Hi Tom. Thanks for this primer on fretless guitar.
This video made me think about other ways to approach the guitar.
I was wondering how you feel about 8 string guitars generally. They seem to be becoming cheaper and fashionable now like 7 strings were in the late 1990s and 00s.
I dislike the low F# string as I think it competes too much with the kick and bass in the mix. The guitar becomes too muddy.
For that reason, I am not a big fan of the djent style unless Meshuggah or Tosin Abasi do it. For metal, I generally do not like guitar tunings below A1 on guitar/A0 on bass, or Korn tuning.
However, one could go higher on the guitar to a high A string. And one could try to incorporate the Floyd Rose as well.
I notice Floyd Rose has 8 string bridges now (I always insist on Floyd Roses--to me to be without a Floyd Rose is to be like a keyboard player without a pitch wheel). 8 string Floyds are on some newer guitars like BC Rich Shredzillas.
I would love to have an 8 string but strung high, ideally A E A D G B E A. Rusty Cooley has done a high A string with one of his custom model Deans where the scale length is 23.5" on the high A string.
However, it does not have a Floyd Rose because the high A string cannot withstand the tension of being pulled up to C or C# without breaking.
I have reached out to companies like Floyd Rose and Ernie Ball to try to generate interest in an 8 string Floyd Rose guitar with a high A string. I hope luthiers will work on it instead of trying to combine guitar and bass into one instrument.
Do you think we will ever have practical 8 string Floyd Rose guitars with high A strings?
I think there is generally more interesting music in the melodic higher registers on guitar than down low. Going low steps on the bass too much.
I would rather have independent counterpoint melodies between bass and multiple guitars than a single guitar player trying to play everything at once on an 8 string. There is only so much two human hands can do.
Only in something like Gypsy jazz and folk music do I think that 8 string is a cool approach, and of course it is cool when Meshuggah and Tosin do it, but it is not for me.
Would you be interested in an 8 string guitar with a Floyd Rose and high A string if they could figure out how to do it without the high A string breaking?
Once luthiers figure out how to make a workable high A string Floyd Rose guitar, I think if a great player like you could demo the practicality of the concept, maybe companies would take notice and mass produce guitars that use the 8 string for high notes instead of just low ones.
But musicians and the music industry have to want 8 string Floyd Rose guitars with high A strings first.
Thanks,
Aaron
Hi Aaron and i'm glad you enjoyed the video. Quite honestly, I really don't have much of a need for 8 strings, regardless of whether it's with a low or high string added. And so, I haven't really looked into the issue very much. The things that I try to develop and study don't depend so much on the range of my guitar, although it would be nice to have even greater range added to the arsenal. Best, Tom.
Come to turkey. We have very skilled fretless players. I play the oud and transited fairly easy to fretless guitar
I see this channel getting big in few years. Dope 👌
Glad you dug it! :)
That's an amazing video Tom, I guess how a fretless guitar would sound with a lower eight string and maybe a higher a string (we are now into violin upper range if I am not wrong).
My question is, how far can we take this instrument? Soloing wise, it opens up a ton of expressions possibilities since it make possible to "sing" like a voice, while on the shred side it may be more challenging to keep in tune but violin player can play Paganini's caprice finely so I think we can do the trick too.
You have showed that we can play technicall riffs on it, so I belive the true major "limit" is in chords, that's were adding some strings may be a usefull tool, especially if we would experiment a bit with the tuning.
Also I belive that an Evertune would be a perfect match for a guitar like that ^_^
I would love to see a second episode, I love your content!!! Live well
Thank you, Federico! And yes, there are so many possibillities still to explore with this instrument. Personally, I've never even owned any fretless guitar that was even comparable to a decent fretted guitar in terms of sustain and playabilllity all over the net. So just having QUALITY (and affordable) fretless guitars (and extended range fretless instruments) readyily available to the public will be a game-changer. And, just like you said, once we get into 8 string territory and different tunings, even more things can be done. All of that being said, I'd love to make part 2, but unfortunately the view count and social media spread of his video has been very dissapointing, so I might need to prioritze other content in order for this channel to grow first. Again, thank you and I hope you live well, too :)
@@FountainheadTV you are totally right, it's still a rare instrument, definitely over the medium budget that people can put into a guitar. Even if I haven't played a single fretless in my whole and still short music career I can see how many possibilities it has to be explored. I know that Rondomusic was offering the fretless option for Agile guitars, but I really don't know how these instruments sound and feel in their fretless version. Sad to hear this video hadn't the success you were hoping for, I personally loved it (as all your content) so I'll keep waiting for what's coming next and maybe a part 2 in the future 😄
Loving the direction your channel has been going in
Thank you for making this video. I've been on fretless for about a year and there's not much info out there, this was helpful
You are welcome! 😌
What about the strings? Do you use roundwonds on a fretless to reduce the finger noise on the string?
I use roundwounds. Maybe the in-depth answer to this question would be great for a Pt.2-video.
0:15 nuance, nuance everywhere
Very interesting. I always wonder if it's very taxing on the fingers to do horizontal vibrato and big slides. On a fretted guitar the hard callus of your finger just slides along the string which acts like a rail, but in a fretless situation your fingertip is rubbing against the fretboard as well. Is this why the fretboards are made out of metal?
It's actual less hard on the calluses, since there's no bending involved, plus there's always a bit of lube involved ;-) And the reason for choosing a metal fretboard are very different. Maybe that's also a good question for another video like this.
It can be, especially on a bass guitar.
I have a fretless guitar, built custom by a semi-pro luthier. Best-sounding axe in my whole arsenal. I play swamp blues primarily. This guitar was made for that sound. I love my Miss Buttercup. Yah. i name my axes.
Is it wrong to say the fretless guitar is extremely similar to the violin(besides the general differences like number of strings etc)?
Having never played violin before, I don't think I could give a good enough answer to that one, sorry! I did, however, briefly get the nickname "worst violinist in the world" when I showed up to bandpractice with my first fretless guitar, many many years ago ;-)
@FountainheadTV That’s awful people would tease you Tom for playing guitar I hate bullies I don’t find it funny and your a great guitar player fretted and fretless. I believe if you learned violin you would be amazing not the worst ever!
@@joshuawerner3074 Haha, I appreciate that, Joshua - but that tease was more like a "tough love" kinda tease among bandmates ;-)
Oh ok @FountainheadTV that’s good it was tough love and not hate! I believe you can play all the string instruments fretted and fretless!
Excellent
Great video and I totally agree with everything you mentioned here, I’m a fellow fretless guitar player too but way more of hobbyist level. Keep up the awesome content and I definitely enjoy it every time you post videos playing your fretless instruments!
Well, fretless guitar with sustainer is my drem. I know I will struggle with it for a long time, but I really want to start this journey. =)
The only thing I can't decide: do I have to use fixed bridge? I saw Adrian Belew playing fretless strat and using whammy bar a lot, and it sounds great! But all other fretless guitar players have fixed bridge, like Dweezil Zappa with fretless and semi-fretless SG guitars.
I really see no point in a fretless guitar with trem, as the fretless fingerboard allows you to do everything that a trem does (except divebombs on open strings), while the trem will steal a lot of the much-needed sustain.
love how well agreed to keep the likes at 420
This video is excellent and helpful
That was fascinating! Thank you Tom. For the record, who makes your fretless guitars? I've been looking for one but they are hard to find
The one I'm playing in the video was made by Soultool Guitars.
Vigier also makes a great fretless
Aristides has released a Fretless guitar as well, but I bet my money Soultool is the best
This video is very informative ... thank you
You're welcome, Jürgen!
Why you're using an Ebow at 10:58 if you have a Sustainiac on that guitar?, also, you're holding the Ebow backwards
Haha, actually I think everybody else has been holding it "backwards" - the way I'm holding it, I can switch between the 2 sustain modes while playing, which would be otherwise impossible. ;-) As for the sustainiac, I have to honestly say that it's never really worked for me. Maybe it's the wiring on that particular guitar, but it never gave me the results I was looking for and I ended up using it on not more than 2-3 songs over the years.With the ebow however, I've built an entire style of playing around it over the years, so I'm very grateful for its existence, despite the clunky design.
@@FountainheadTV hehe!, that's what I also say because I also hold the Ebow backwards 😅 same reason to switch between harmonic modes, only sometimes I hold it "right" to have a quicker attack on the string similar to a bow, you know, that quick signal spike when the Ebow hits the edge of the magnetic field of the pickup, also, that's why I also use and Ebow despite having a Sustainiac, for that effect of the attack more similar to a real bow hitting a string which the sustainiac lacks, but sustainiac also gives me flexibility for quick note runs and other stuff, so they complement each other
Brilliant brilliant explanation!
Your works in Obscura is goddamn masterpieces
hello, great video, what kind of pickups you recomend for fretlessguitars? strings should be flatwound always?
Thank you! I never use flatwounds (and talk about that in the video as well 😜 ). Pickups: totally up to taste, but be mindful of high-end loss on wooden fretless fingerboards, in which case I'd recommend very bright PUs as countermeasure.
One you missed thats a huge misconception is about sustain. Specifically on the unwound strings. Believe it was ron from bumblefoot that addressed it by saying they've been doing it in middle eastern and asian music for centuries it just takes using your fingernail; which he also said he thought, he thought of it but realized thats also a technique they've been using for centuries
Edit: its possible im confusing thai with net evett on that statement 🤔
Hey. I didn't miss it, I simply thought that the video would be tighter and more informative if I would narrow it down to the 5 things I focussed on. The sustain is also very dependent on a lot of different factors in the instrument itself, so it's not something to generalize right off the bat, in my personal opinion.
@@FountainheadTV good points!
Keep up the great content 🤘
You said it all. Great Video!
This is jimmy,,thank you very much.
Excellent video.....well done sir!
Very interesting! Amazing skills on the fretless, btw!
Do you find yourself playing some intervals differently than on a fretted guitar? Like, major 3rds? Even within the equal-temperament system, standard frets are a compromise. Do you make up for those imperfections? Although, just intonation minions will say that equal temperament is a musical abomination XD.
I've noticed that your intonation is out of this world. I've listened to quite a few upright bass players on some old jazz records and you can hear that they're not spot on 100% of the time. You can definitely hear some notes being sharper or flatter than the intended pitches, but I guess our ears weren't so used to "perfect" (whatever that means) digital music and autotune, back in the day.
Thanks for you time, man!
Good question and thank you! 🙂🙏 For me personally, it's a matter of different headspaces when playing fretless guitar. With my recorded works, there's a "mode" where I try to get as close as humanly possible to "perfect" intonation as in standart 440hz and standartized intervals. It's a way of pushing myself and of making fans (especially in metal) aware of the potential of the instrument beyond a niche thing. Then there's a mode where I go for non-western intervals and try to get vibes inspired by other cultures and instruments, even though I mainly do that by ear, not going for a specific system like just intonation. I find those to be rather limiting.
@@FountainheadTV I see. Thanks a lot for you time! Cheers!
This is a big help for me, thanks very much for putting this together. I've recently been looking into the solfeggio scale and alternate frequencies to the western system and see fretless guitar as an option to provide more flexibility to move outside the traditional western model. Have you looked into the solfeggio system or considered using it? I'd be interested to hear your take on it.
Please explain about the thing you hold in your hand, can you use a regular pick or do you have to have that device?
It's an e-bow and not a pick - completely different department. :)
Hi! Might sound a little obvious but, I just wanted to know what about the neck material? isn't steel actually noisier than wood when playing fretless (kind of like a metal slide running up and down the strings)? Also, does the wood wear out by the years and starts to get scratchy and chippy? Thank you for your whole video advice!
Hi Camilo! In my experience, steel is not noisier than wood - on a regular guitar with steel frets the strings touch the very same material after all. Imagine the fretless with a steel fingerboard more like one giant fret 🙂 and yes, fretless wood fingerboards do wear down over the years (my first converted fretless is proof of that) if you are using roundwound strings like me.
Great video! I do have a question, what would you say is the best bridge for a fretless guitar?
Definitely a fixed bridge - which one, that depends on your personal taste, I'd say. Other people have suggested evertune bridges, which I haven't tried but am looking forward to do so in the future.
Very cool - do you lose some of the sustain with a fretless guitar or is it lessened when you hold a note? I'm very interested in trying fretless guitar and might even take the frets off an old inexpensive guitar.
In my experiencr, there's always a loss of sustain. There's many elements controlling how severe it is, but usually it IS a factor at least on the higher strings, yes. But then again, it also forces you to think differently and explore other ways of playing. 🙂
For fretless guitar to truly work you need two working in unison. You basically have both guitar players taking on hybrid roles as both lead and rhythm at the same time.
You said in the beginning that you couldn't simply remove the frets on a fretted guitar. I wish you could expound on that. I asked a luthier I know if he has ever built a fretless guitar, and he told me that he had not done so, but he offered to take a guitar I owned and remove the frets. Why would that not work? Thanks in advance for your clarification!
Hey Henry. If you just remove the frets without any extra steps, chances are that the fretboard is not going to be smooth enough to really have a comfortable playing experience. You'd have to make sure that there's no bumps, gaps or less-than-smooth points on the fretboards. Also, since most traditional fretboards are made out of wood, using regular strings will then cut into the wood over time.
10:58 this phrase
Do you use standard tuning on the fretless or do you approach it more like a slide guitar and do like an open E tuning?
I use standart tuning (and sometimes tune everything down a whole step, depending on the project).
I gotta ask if bends are not possible because of the lack of frets? Or is it just really difficult.
It is possible but it's more difficult and also kinda pointless, because you can slide to the desired pitch so much easier than bending to it.
@@FountainheadTV Chicks love it though haha
@@chocomalk LOL!
Time is indeed prescient as it is as to your investments; and your audience is as far reaching as to your will to increase audience.I am not naive to your struggles and I love your push and progress.
great video!
Thank you! 🙏
How are flatwounds on a fretless guitar with a wound g string.
Hi Garret. I haven't tried flatwounds with a wound g string, and I'm not sure what the point would be? If anything, I used 13 gouge roundwounds with a wound G string for a while. I like roundwounds more because flatwounds can add to the loss of high end on a fretless guitar with a wooden fingerboard, and also because I feel like I can judge and control micro-intonation better when I have wound strings under my fingertips.
@@FountainheadTV The thing with the overtones: I am a professional string player and use to play fretless since I was 8 years old. I can do it. Once I had a Bass guitar in my hands, about half the size, with strings of silicon. Absolutly no overtones. I had no orientation, how high the tone was and could not play, not a bit. You need some overtones for intonation.
I can play the vibrato of the strings. You should use flat wounds to have less overtones. Then make vibrato on it to gain more overtones. Yes, vibrato makes more overtones. So you can get the singing and romantic sound, we love the strings for.
Good intonation does not mean, the more overtones, the better. You need only enough of them.
Amazing content thank you so much. I would like to ask about how is the reaction of sustainiac vs ebow?
Thank you very much! Personally, I prefer the ebow over the sustainiac by a mile, but that's also because the sustainiac in my Soultool guitar never really worked as well as I wanted it to. With the ebow I feel I like have more control over the tone and am able to get the desired effect on every string, unlike with my sustainiac. At some point, though, I would love to try the technology on a different guitar and see whether I get better results. Best, Tom.
Any opinion on buying a fretless vs modding an existing guitar? Is a modded fretless "just as good" for playing or are there pitfalls to keep in mind? I have a 90s strat that I want to remove the frets from.
I should probably make a seperate video about this. In a nutshell: if you mod a regular guitar, chances are that you'll encounter severe sustain issues as well as a loss of high-end. It you really want to mod yourself, best choose the brightest tone-woods possible and be very careful that you don't cause any dead spots on the neck. Best of luck! 🙂
@@FountainheadTV yeah I definitely wouldn't diy something like this
Me: "Your intonation is off"
Guitarist: "Oh am I out of tune?" /tunes up.
Me: ... "Your INTONATION is off"
Guitarist: Looks to tuner again, fiddles with his bridge, looks to tuner again "I'm in tune!" 🤔
Me: 🤦🏻♀️
Singer: "How am I sounding?"
Me: 🤬
Fretless is freedom, but you need a life long way
Can you teach me fretless guitar?
Sure, I also offer skype lessons, including on fretless guitar.
Instead of talking me to death,I wish he had just played!
Feel free to watch any of the hundreds of fretless guitar videos I have out on YT, Insta, FB etc. :)
YOU DID IT GOOD BRAVO -- VIGIER OUT -- I KNOW THIS ASS H TO LONG
Bumblefoot !! 🎸🧀🦶🏻
Is one of my heroes.
Im so tired of hearing bends, I havent bent a string in 15 years
Tunning in NOT MORE important on fretless than on regular. Out of tune is out of tune. You must learn to play fretless a little off. LIke orchestra (viiolins, cellos, basses!) fretless players - they don't tune for the whole concert.