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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) > > >