Fretless guitar

The fretless guitar is a guitar without frets. 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, where the strings are attached, all the way up to the point where the fingertip presses the string down on the fingerboard. There are also fretless variants of the bass guitar.

Advantages and disadvantages

Fretless guitars are not constrained with particular musical tunings, tuning systems or temperaments, as is the case with fretted instruments. This facilitates the playing of music in other than 12-tone scales; these scales are typically found in non-Western or experimental music. Fretless guitars produce a different sound than their fretted counterparts as well, because the fingertip is relatively soft (compared to a fret) and absorbs energy from the vibrating string much faster. The result is that the pizzicato on a fretless guitar has a more damped sound.

However, playing a fretless instrument usually requires much more training of the fretting hand for exact positioning and shifts, and more ear training to discern the minute differences in intonation that fretless instruments permit. To make this easier, many fretless guitars and basses have lines in place of frets and side position markers (dots or lines), indicating half-tone increments.

The neck of a fretless bass guitar

Acoustic fretless guitars produce less volume than their fretted counterparts, which is usually addressed by the use of pickups and amplification. Fretless bass guitars, which have much heavier strings and a bigger body, are also typically amplified.

On fretless basses the fingerboard is usually made of a hard wood, such as ebony. To reduce fingerboard wear from round-wound strings a coat of epoxy may be applied. Other strings, such as flat-wound, ground wound or nylon tape-wound strings, can also be used to reduce fingerboard wear.

Fretless instruments

Fretless guitars are typically modified versions of factory-made traditionally "fretted" guitars, the frets being removed by the player or a professional luthier. There are also professional builders specialising in custom-made fretless guitars.

Fretless bass guitars are much more common than fretless guitars, and there are many manufacturers offering these as standard models.

Famous users

In alphabetic order:

Fretless guitar

• Frank Zappa used fretless guitars on a few albums in the early and mid 1970's.
• Tim Donahue uses self-made fretless guitars.
• Erkan Oğur (Turkish inventor of the first classical fretless guitar) makes nearly all his music with self-made fretless guitars.
• David Fiuczynski plays fretless guitar extensively in his instrumental project KiF. His guitar is a double-neck, fretted and fretless: the fretless neck is the upper neck and is a 12-string short scale. He also teaches fretless guitar techniques at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
• Adrian Belew (of the band King Crimson) has occasionally used fretless guitars.
• Ron Thal (also known as Bumblefoot) has used fretless guitars extensively.
• Ned Evett fretless guitar player (video: http://www.nedevett.com/slacker.html)
• Michael L. Vick Michael ATONAL Vick is a multi-instrumentalist who focuses on fretless guitars acoustic and electric, and VVV also promotes and organizes the NYC Fretless Guitar Festival.(http://www.themichaelvicktrip.com) +(http://www.fretlessguitarfestival.com)
• Pat Metheny, the leader of the Pat Metheny Group, uses a fretless electric guitar or bass guitar for some tunes.
• Morgan Kraft exclusively plays a fretless guitar, primarily a converted Stratocaster.
• Andy Summers (guitarist for The Police) also played a fretless Hamer guitar.
• Steve Vai, a virtuoso guitarist, occasionally plays a three-necked guitar featuring a fretless neck. He has been also playing a double neck guitar lately, which also features one fretless neck.
• Rick Nielsen (guitarist for Cheap Trick) has a fretless six-string as the bottom neck on his famous five-necked Hamer guitar.
• Sugizo (lead guitarist for Luna Sea) has and uses several custom fretless guitars with ESP.
• Newbie Brad of 3 Pups Music [1] plays a fretless guitar made by luthier Doug Holt.
• Imai Hisashi (lead guitarist for BUCK-TICK) often uses several models of fretless guitar. In the early 1990s, he also utilized a violin bow on several tracks.
• Antonio Forcione (jazz acoustic guitarist), plays an 'Uddan' guitar: an Admira Model Sofia-E, fretless, modified by Bill Puplett.
• Karl Sanders (lead guitars for the technical/brutal death metal band Nile), plays a two neck KxK Warrior V guitar, which features a fretless eleven string neck.
• Hasan Cihat Orter is a famous Turkish guitar player who is well known with his exquisite compositions.

JuJu Beans from Iceland is the worlds first fretless guitarists from 1877 in meatone tunings. His daughter Furdnandy carries the tradition on.

Fretless bass

• Jaco Pastorius (bassist for Weather Report, considered by many to be the most influential fretless bass player of all time) used a customized fretless Fender Jazz Bass.
• Brent Liles (bassist for Social Distortion and Agent Orange)
• John Deacon (bassist for Queen) played a fretless bass but only on two Queen tracks, '39' and 'My Melancholy Blues'.
• Jonas Hellborg (solo bassist who has played with The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Shawn Lane, V. Selvaganesh, Jeff Sipe, Ginger Baker, John McLaughlin, Buckethead, Shining Path, Public Img Ltd, Down By Law, Dissident, and Kofi Baker) extensively used fretless bass both on his solo bass recordings and with other projects. He is known for using a fretted/fretless Wal double-necked bass before moving onto companies like Status, Vigier and Warwick. He also owns an Ovation double-necked bass, which was also fretted/fretless.
• Pedro Aznar, an Argentine bassist and composer who has played with The Pat Metheny Group, uses a wide variety of fretless basses in his studio recordings and live works, he has a wide and complete harmonic knowledge and thus takes his playing and solos to a great musical perfection, which he has tied to a variety of Latin American folkloric rhythms and chants. He is currently a solo artist and has published many albums since 1982.
• Les Claypool of Primus and solo works occasionally uses one of 2 fretless Carl Thompson basses live and on many recordings.
• Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) uses a fretless bass on one of the songs on the band's album By the Way.
• Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam has used fretless basses both on tour and in the studio over the past 15 years.
• Steve Bailey, a session bassist, frequently performs on the six string fretless bass guitar.
• Jack Bruce (of Cream) uses a fretless Warwick bass guitar.
• Sean Malone played a fretless bass on the technical death metal band Cynic's sole album "Focus."
• Kevin Corren uses a fretless bass made from stainless steel and designed for space travel.
• Rick Danko (of The Band) used a fretless bass for several years, starting from the recording of the album Music From Big Pink . However, he returned to using a fretted bass for the band's The Last Waltz.
• Steve DiGiorgio (one of the few fretless bassists in the metal scene) usually plays a five string fretless bass.
• Kristoffer Gildenlow
• David Gilmour (guitarist for Pink Floyd) plays fretless bass on several of Pink Floyd's songs.
• Marshall Jones (bassist of Ohio Players) was an early user of a homemade defretted electric bass.
• Mick Karn (former bassist of Japan and avantgarde musician) used fretless bass guitar since the late 1970s.
• Bill Laswell contributed fretless bass on Robert Miles' Organik.
• Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead has played fretless bass, although he switched to a fretted bass that could serve as a MIDI controller.
• Tony Levin famous for the bass on Peter Gabriels "Sledgehammer" and a large amount of his solo album work.
• Tony Franklin has been instrumental in bringing the fretless bass to heavy music recordings, and is his primary instrument. He is also known for having a signature fretless Precision Bass, which is far less popular than the fretless Jazz Bass, and gets a low-midrange heavy, unusual tone between that and using overdrive and distortion on his fretless, which is also fairly unusual.
• Stefan Fimmers (Bassist for technical death metal band Necrophagist.) uses one for his live performances with Necrophagist.
• Michael Manring (bassist at Windham Hill Records) is known for his fretless bass playing.
• Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas (bassist for Mute Math) plays fretless bass on many songs including instrumental track "obsolete".
• Lars Norberg (of Spiral Architect) uses a fretless bass when touring with Satyricon. He used a fretted Steinberger to record A Sceptic's Universe.
• Murdoc Niccals (of Gorillaz) uses a fretless bass in Feel Good Inc.
• Pino Palladino, a session bassist, has developed a fretless bass method.
• Sting (bassist and leader of The Police) used a variety of fretless basses with The Police including Ibanez, Gibson and Fender Precision basses.
• Jeroen Paul Thesseling, fretless bassist, plays microtonal world music using six-string fretless Warwick basses.
• Bill Wyman, (former bassist of The Rolling Stones), used a fretless bass.
• Jandek, outsider musician, has recorded entire albums of only vocals and fretless electric bass.
• Jason Newsted, (most famous for his work with Metallica), used a fretless acoustic bass guitar on the Metallica song 'Nothing Else Matters'
• Juan Alderete, (bassist for The Mars Volta) has several fretless Fender basses.
• John Myung, (bassist for Dream Theater).
• Garry Gary Beers, (bassist for INXS).
• Josh Ansley, (former bassist of Catch 22) is well known for his innovative fretless bass styles.
• Michael Todd (musician) (aka Mic), former bassist of Coheed and Cambria, sometimes used a fretless bass.
• Colin Edwin, (bassist for Porcupine Tree).
• Morty Black TNT (band) in conjunction with reverb and chorus to create a horn effect.
• Jon Taylor of the Global Goon outfit used a fretless bass on his 2004 album Family Glue.
• Percy Jones (musician) bass player with Brand X and Tunnels.
• Laurence Cottle, British session musician.
• Bunny Brunel used a fretless bass on a PBS special concert with Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Al Jarreau, and others in 1979.
• Victor Wooten uses a custom five-string fretless bass on several of his own songs as well as several Bela Fleck and the Flecktones songs.
• Geddy Lee uses a Jaco Pastorius Fender Jazz Bass on the instrumental track "Malignant Narcissism" on the new Rush album Snakes and Arrows.
• Justin Chancellor of Tool used a fretless Wal Mach II bass to record certain tracks (sometimes only sections) from 10,000 Days (such as "Intension", Rosetta Stoned, Wings for Marie and the title track) as well as some sections of the title track from Lateralus and uses it live to play some of those songs.
• Paul Simonon from The Clash used a fretless Fender Precision Bass in 1981, during the period of their Sandinista! album.
• Eddie Johnson from Amaranthine used a 5 string fretless Dean bass in 2006, during the period of their Judd album.
• Mo Foster is a highly regarded UK session bassist whose 'voice' is a fretless Fender Jazz bass.
• Alain Caron
• John Patitucci
• Gary Willis plays a 5-string Ibanez fretless bass with the fusion group Tribal Tech, and is renowned for his economical 3-finger picking technique

External links

• Unfretted.com - fretless guitar resource: history, news, reviews, tips, FAQs, MP3s, lists, dictionary, etc.
• Fretless Bass.com - fretless bass resource: interviews, gallery, boards, etc. (semi-commercial site)

See also

• Frets on bass guitar