Conference napalm::guitar

    I thought about this myself, and it occurred to me . . . how would you
    play chords?  For single-note lines it's a simple matter to get your
    fingers into just the right position, but if you think about it, many
    chords have you fingers pretty convoluted to begin with, and often it's
    absolutely necessary to have your fingers at various positions in the
    fret area.  Without frets you'd need fingers with an extra joint! 
    

    re. .1
    
    Hmm, good point. But I'd think it would have some value as a monophonic
    (for the most part) lead/melody instrument. I would think you'd get
    some neat glissando & vibrato effects.
    
    Rodney

    
    European guitarist Phillip Catherine has used a fretless guitar in the
    past, and one of the guys from the band Kittyhawk (known mainly for its
    twin Stick players) played one as well.  
    
    I have the two albums that Catherine recorded with Larry Coryell for
    Elektra about ten years ago and his fretless work is featured about 25%
    of the time.  It sounds a lot like Jaco to me, only about an octave
    higher...as you might expect.
    
    BTW, the Kittyhawk guys predated the amps...and they used Rolands,
    anyway  8^)  8^)
    
    						Brian

    There was a guy at the boston guitar competition with a Les-Paul clone
    guitar ( bolt-on cort ). The frets had been replaced or ground down.
    He lost, too!
    

It always made sense to me that there should be fretless guitars for playing 
slide. You just set the action a little higher than usual, and then slide 
away. Of course, you couldn't switch from playing chords to doing a slide 
solo, but I'm sure there are songs that only require you to play slide....

alan

    What about steel ( pedal ) guitars? Thain't got any frets!
    
    toenail who likes western not country

    You can get fretless mandolins.
    
    They are called violins :-) :-)
    
    
    andy
    

I've got a tele that's a virtual fretless guitar...there are some metal 
bands where the frets used to be :-)

dbii

	A Dobro with a raised nut is virtually a fretless guitar.

	_gary

    
    About 15 years ago I believe the Acoustic Corporation made one.
    
    Frank Zappa used a modified one of that type (Barcus-Berry inserted
    into the neck) on a couple of recordings during that time, such as 'The
    Torture Never Stops' and 'Wind Up Working in a Gas Station' (from "Zoot
    Allures").
    
    Never heard much of it after that.
    
    Peter
    

    I can recall that Adrian Belew used a fretless guitar frequently on the
    Crimson albums he played on.  So much kahler abuse tho, who can tell?
    

    A former teacher, Randy Roos (who played in Orchestra Luna...mid
    70's Boston band) used one at the time.  It had a metal neck with
    no frets.  He used it strictly for single note lead lines.
    
    I played it once.  Interesting tone, great for glissandos and some
    wild vibratos.  It also taught me how much work I needed for my
    ear, since I was constantly off from the correct note.  Humbling
    experience.
    
    The guitar was made by Kramer, but I kbnow it was a special.
    
    Regards,
    John K.

     When I had seen Crimson (a ong time ago at the Metro in Boston) Adrian
    was using a fretted guitar (a strat that was painted by some two year
    old with a small paint brush and lots of pastels, it looked nice to my
    eyes). He sounded just like he did on Discipline (this is the only
    album they had then). Did he use one on the second the second album?
    The guitar sounds that you hear on Discipline would most likly be
    Robert Fripp (and his Frippetronics) He likes to use (back then
    atleast, he has since dropped electric guitar and plays acoustic only)   
    all sorts of synths. He gets a definite "fretless sound", a good
    example of his sound (probally his most famous works) would be with
    David Bowie "Heros" and the work he did on the "Scary Monsters" album
    notibly "Fashion" (Chuck Hamer played on the song Scary Monster). I'm
    glad the previous note mentioned Crimsom, it brings back alot of
    memorys........what a group.....Bill Bruford on drums, Tony Levin on
    Bass + Chapmin stik, Adrian, Fripp..................................
    .................................Charley Dee
    
    

    from the back of the "Three Of a Perfect Pair" album,
    
    			Adrian Belew
    	     Voice, Fretted and Fretless Guitars
    
    I don't know where he's playing them, I haven't listened to the
    thing in a while.  I might just toss it on after the ctrl-z here, tho!
    
    

    Three years later...two more fretless guitarists working in the Boston
    area are Dan Stearns and Scott Dakota.  
    
    Dan fronts a band called Private World which performs his compositions
    (very dissonant fusion pieces).  
    
    Scott is in the Moors, which is a rock band with medieval and Celtic
    elements.  He uses a homemade axe which includes a low B string from a
    5-string bass so he has a range of an octave and a fourth below a
    normal guitar.  
    
    							Brian