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 Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:43 pm
My current guitar was an Ibanez Jetking II until about two hours ago. You're probably asking, right about now, something along the lines of "Wait, that doesn't make sense, Axe. How did you magically change the guitar into another one?" The answer is simple, friend. It's a misnomer, of course, the name is a composite made up of two different ideas. The base is obvious: the model is still an Ibanez JetKing, I mean, hell, it even has it in easy to read block letters on the upper pickguard. But why Zero? They don't make a zero model, and my model sure as hell didn't come before theirs. Anyway, the reason is as follows:  So I had a couple hours to myself tonight, for once, that I wasn't wasting away on guitar related articles and answering silly questions on gaia. I said to myself, "Self, you remember how you always wanted a fretless guitar? Now is the time." So I popped all twenty two frets off. The operation took about an hour and a half (I didn't have a fret popper, so I substituted a hammer, a 1.8mm flat tip precision screw (used like a chisel), and a pair of nail clippers for one. This greatly lengthened the process.) It sounds pretty badass, although sustain suffers as you would imagine. I can do quarter tones with no bends, and slides with no jumps. Certain chords are much harder, some are of equal ease, and it's gonna take me a while to get used to playing fretless. I'm going to change out my nut for brightness and swap out my .022 cap for a .047 cap because losing the frets dampened the brights in my sound a LOT (I'll probably swap for 1megohm pots, too). Do I regret it? Hell no! I have a brand new instrument for minimal work, and I'm certain that its new abilities will be make ultimate. So that's how my night went.
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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 8:53 am
So, I am going to admit my complete ignorance here and hope that it doesn't get me into trouble, but I know almost nothing about guitars. I had no idea a fretless guitar was possible. It is very interesting. It seems like it would be more capable of techniques imployed by orchestral strings (cellos and the like).
Are fretless guitars common?
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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:26 am
Only in bass. Until now, I've never, ever heard of a fretless six string.
That sounds so ******** cool, thoug-
OH MY GOD A FRETLESS MOOG GUITAR.
THAT WOULD BE SO AWESOME.
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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:20 am
It does, in fact, allow you to do things along the lines of orchestral strings. I'll get some sound bites up as soon as I figure out how to set up my stuff so the poor electronics balance isn't too gross.
As for the moog system, it's a nifty gimmick, but it doesn't do anything that a basic sustainer, whammy bar, and ebow couldn't do to my guitar (excepting the harmonic overtone emphasizer, that is pretty interesting.) I doubt it'd sound as good without frets, though. MAYBE if I gave it an 18% nickel-silver (The material that frets are made of) fretboard or something... actually, that isn't such a bad idea for THIS guitar.
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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:27 am
Hannibal Mannibal Only in bass. Until now, I've never, ever heard of a fretless six string. That sounds so ******** cool, thoug- OH MY GOD A FRETLESS MOOG GUITAR. THAT WOULD BE SO AWESOME. Ahahaha well Steve Vai had a fretless six string with a Fernandes sustainer I think, it was the bottom neck on his triple necked guitar... you know... that one.
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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 2:14 pm
TheAxeKnight It does, in fact, allow you to do things along the lines of orchestral strings. I'll get some sound bites up as soon as I figure out how to set up my stuff so the poor electronics balance isn't too gross. As for the moog system, it's a nifty gimmick, but it doesn't do anything that a basic sustainer, whammy bar, and ebow couldn't do to my guitar (excepting the harmonic overtone emphasizer, that is pretty interesting.) I doubt it'd sound as good without frets, though. MAYBE if I gave it an 18% nickel-silver (The material that frets are made of) fretboard or something... actually, that isn't such a bad idea for THIS guitar. The Moog Guitar is also a god-like instrument in terms of quality, too. I'd rather pay $6,000 for a Moog than a Gibson. @Teh: Yeah, but no one cares about Steve Vai XD
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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:27 pm
You should try some slide with this bad mofo.
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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:24 pm
The cool part is that my new linear slides don't need a glass or steel slide to make sound. It's bloody amazing. Today I finally started figuring out how to play it (and also realized that the electronics are fine, my buddy's amplifier just needs a balance. Sound bites will be recorded and go up tomorrow if I wake up early enough.) and realized that my ear and hands are ALREADY trained to play this thing through osmosis. I moved to shredding like I was from the middle east within the hour.
Mang, if my family weren't around, right now, oh, the things I would do with that instrument.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 12:44 pm
Putfile fails, so I had to upload them to my myspace, which will be to the chagrin of anybody who listens to them. http://www.myspace.com/loganlacossApologies for the weaksauce on my hammer riff, I didn't have the backing track playing when I recorded it (hindsight is twenty twenty) and didn't think that the high note was THAT flat. Anyway, these two clips demonstrate some of the ownsome potential of the instrument, as well as the potential for it to completely rape you if you don't pay extreme attention to what you're doing. Barre chords are ALSO a b***h.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 4:59 pm
AGH CAN'T LISTEN TO IT PIERCES MY EARS ********
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:09 pm
Hannibal Mannibal TheAxeKnight It does, in fact, allow you to do things along the lines of orchestral strings. I'll get some sound bites up as soon as I figure out how to set up my stuff so the poor electronics balance isn't too gross. As for the moog system, it's a nifty gimmick, but it doesn't do anything that a basic sustainer, whammy bar, and ebow couldn't do to my guitar (excepting the harmonic overtone emphasizer, that is pretty interesting.) I doubt it'd sound as good without frets, though. MAYBE if I gave it an 18% nickel-silver (The material that frets are made of) fretboard or something... actually, that isn't such a bad idea for THIS guitar. The Moog Guitar is also a god-like instrument in terms of quality, too. I'd rather pay $6,000 for a Moog than a Gibson. @Teh: Yeah, but no one cares about Steve Vai XD Ahaha well Steve Vai owns your a*****e buddy. JK IM ACTING KIND OF WEIRD LATELY I shaved my head....
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:05 pm
I know, right? Technical ability (or lack thereof) really shines through on this fretboard, and I've yet to get down laser accuracy, especially when I'm incorporating quarter tones.
The second one is much smoother, and sucks less hard. That one's a demonstration of the sliding capabilities.
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Tomatoes and Radiowire Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:07 pm
Hannibal Mannibal AGH CAN'T LISTEN TO IT PIERCES MY EARS ******** class="clear"> sort of agree.... you might want to invest in some recording gear and a less traditional playing style with the fretless
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:09 pm
`Teh Hannibal Mannibal TheAxeKnight It does, in fact, allow you to do things along the lines of orchestral strings. I'll get some sound bites up as soon as I figure out how to set up my stuff so the poor electronics balance isn't too gross. As for the moog system, it's a nifty gimmick, but it doesn't do anything that a basic sustainer, whammy bar, and ebow couldn't do to my guitar (excepting the harmonic overtone emphasizer, that is pretty interesting.) I doubt it'd sound as good without frets, though. MAYBE if I gave it an 18% nickel-silver (The material that frets are made of) fretboard or something... actually, that isn't such a bad idea for THIS guitar. The Moog Guitar is also a god-like instrument in terms of quality, too. I'd rather pay $6,000 for a Moog than a Gibson. @Teh: Yeah, but no one cares about Steve Vai XD Ahaha well Steve Vai owns your a*****e buddy. JK IM ACTING KIND OF WEIRD LATELY I shaved my head.... wtf? didn't you have long hair?
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Tomatoes and Radiowire Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:36 pm
Hahah. You don't gotta tell me, bro. Again, these are totally to show off what the guitar can do, and not what I can do. I don't even know what's considered tonally acceptable where 24 equitempered is concerned, and I've yet to get my Shure SM-94 back.
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