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