Re: "self resonating" fretleess electric guitar -- ideas?

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

Per Boysen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Thought I should ask if someone on the list has experience and tips on 
> this project. I'm thinking about rebuilding one of my guitars (probably 
> a telecaster) into a fretless guitar. I'v been playing fretless guitar 
> quite a lot in the past, but I was never happy with the short sustain. 

Sustain increases a lot if you can use your fingernail to hold the string 
down.

> Today I'm playing my Stratocaster with "tone extention" provided by a 
> tiny speaker cone gaffa taped to the neck's head, driven from an 
> amplified signal tap taken from the guitar's pickups (i.e. a "poor mans 
> Sustainiac"). So I just had the brilliant idea to combine these two 
> somewhat dissatisfying experimental trips into something that actually 
> works as a playable instrument to rely on.
> 
> Here are the details as I'm envisioning the process so far. Please 
> comment if you know better methods:
> 
> - Taking off the frets. (done that before, no problem)

You were lucky.
Sometimes this alters the tension in the fingerboard and the neck goes 
banana.
(or so I hear, not actually seen this happen)

One way is to file down the frets. 


A neat way to get the neck really flat is attach sandpaper to a mirror 
with double sided tape.
( has to be a mirror, then if reflection is accurate you know it's flat)
 

> - Covering the fretboard with some super strong gloss (what's the best? 
> The stuff you do floors with? Boats?)

The stuff for boats definitely.
Epoxy paint with a tube of hardener. 

> - Tapping the signal (how to do this inside the guitar's electronics? 
> Can I simply solder a "Y" connection somewhere? 

Just Y connecting will probably affect the tone/volume 

> At the moment I'm 
> tapping it from a Pod pedal with two outputs)
> - Mounting the little speaker somewhere inside the instrument's body 
> (eventually also the battery driven amp; a disassembled mini Marshall 
> practice amp)
> - Maybe I should as well think about a "power plug-in" jack on this 
> guitar? (batteries tend to let you down)
> 
> My idea is to use flat strings for a murky sound and minimal string 
> noise during the glissandi.

I played fretless bass for years, and only tried flatwound once.
Roundwound don't have a noise problem with glissandi.
...and a murky sound is v.easy to get by technique.

An interesting fretless guitarist is
Erkan Oğur 
( Erkan Ogur is that doesn't format)
...uses an ebow for sustain

andy butler

> 
> Greetings from Sweden
> 
> Per Boysen
> www.boysen.se (Swedish)
> www.looproom.com (international)
> http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast)
> http://tinyurl.com/2kek7h (CC donationware music releases)
> 
> 
>