Glass fretless guitar

[yddeds]

I know this is really unlikely to happen but a man can dream. I would love it if warmoth started offering glass fingerboards for fretless guitars. The problem with a wooden fretboard is its not hard enough because as your finger is absorbing so much of the vibration of the strings if the fingerboard is absorbing lots too then you just end up with absolutely no sustain at all. At the moment if you want a fretless guitar your only real options are the vigier surfretter (over £2000 and thats if you can find one) or going full custom.
Anyone else interested in some cool fretless guitar action?

 

[mayfly]

Glass?  I think you need to build that yourself.

 

[swarfrat]

Fretless guitar is well into 6 sigma territory. Good luck.

 

[Neo Fender]

I read a short article in a guitar magazine recently (probably Guitar Player) about a cat that plays a fretless (Telecaster IIRC) with a glass fretboard.  They're out there.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

I guess you could epoxy coat the fretboard - that being ebony or what ever - like they do on fretless basses? That is if you survive the process off course.  :toothy11:

 

[yddeds]

I guess you could epoxy coat the fretboard - that being ebony or what ever - like they do on fretless basses?

It doesnt work with the thin strings of a guitar the notes just die instantly

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Thanks for the info. I really must try a fretless guitar some day.

 

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

I guess you could epoxy coat the fretboard - that being ebony or what ever - like they do on fretless basses?

It doesnt work with the thin strings of a guitar the notes just die instantly

Mmm... if you're doing that, then the finish isn't hard & polished enough.  Epoxy is HARD stuff, and it's more than possible to get it as smooth as glass.  I've played a "Diamond" finished board and it sustained almost as well as my ebony fretless board.  Still, I can understand the preference, and I could see how the thinner strings won't work the same as bass strings.  You might be better off having a luthier remove the fretboard, then find a custom glass blower to make you a copy of the board.

Ask around here, you might have better luck.

 

[swarfrat]

Epoxy is TOUGH stuff, which is not the same thing as hard. Think really dense rubber / hockey puck. For this cyanoacrylate would probably be a better route.

 

[AgentPotato]

Why not use some kind of metal from the local toolstore? I guess you could get some aluminum or stainless steel or brass, sand the fretboard perfectly flat and glue it onto it. After sanding the edges you could try to round the metal to your desired radius and you should end up, at least in theory, with something close to a surfretter from vigier.
I wouldn't use glass anyways, as I would be way toa fraid to splitter it somehow. One tiny ding on the wring side of the edge and I guess is goes...

 

[yddeds]

Why not use some kind of metal from the local toolstore? I guess you could get some aluminum or stainless steel or brass, sand the fretboard perfectly flat and glue it onto it. After sanding the edges you could try to round the metal to your desired radius and you should end up, at least in theory, with something close to a surfretter from vigier.
I wouldn't use glass anyways, as I would be way toa fraid to splitter it somehow. One tiny ding on the wring side of the edge and I guess is goes...

the problem with metal like that is its very hard to get it smooth enough to play on without having tons of friction which makes sliding a pain and the crazy slides are what makes fretless the most fun or the metal being rough enough to start wearing away at the string quickly.
Glass is tougher than you think when you attach it to a lump of wood and its probably the most popular fretless guitar fingerboard material after vigiers imetal

 

[Bob Hoover Ross]

Back in the late 1970s Randy Roos played a fretless guitar that had a polished stainless steel fingerboard. Sounded ridiculously awesome. He used that guitar all over his Mistral album.

 

[stubhead]

There's a website that's central to this, unfretted.com. Here's their manufacturers' links:

http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=sitelinks#Shops

I had Warmoth make me a fretless "7/8" Warhead neck for a solid Walnut off-label body. Bloodwood neck, ebony board. It's a fierce slide guitar (what I built it for) and the board has enough sustain to do the Landreth slide/fretted combination type licks, but there are some problems with fingered-fretless guitar as a worldbeater. I've played fretless bass for 20 years, and to get two parallel notes really in tune with each other, you want to put two fingertips right beside each other - a "barre" placement isn't reliable. So wider is better.

I guess the two best fretless guitarists these days are Guthrie Govan and Ned Evett?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvTAEVr1Vs4

They both seem interested in playing a fretless so it sounds most like a fretted one as possible. Surely, something better can be thought of - just like everything else, I'm pretty sure you should play slow to get fast. And the faster you abandon the 12-tempered-tuning straightjacket, the more fun it should be.... :evil4:



Supposedly, any well-equipped autoglass shop has the tools to bend and shape and smooth glass into any shape you'd need. They don't order up prefit windows from warehouses. As soon as they finish laughing at you (maybe wave some $20 bills around) it ought to be fairly easy to figure out. I do know from this puppy, once you subtract the fret thickness from the neck, this 1" "fatback" feels none too large to me. So if you plopped a 0.250" piece of glass on a Wizard, it'd work OK. It would surely be easier on the glass shop (and you) to NOT get a compound-radius fingerboard. Actually, if I were to pursue this I might start with a cheap Ibanez, get the glass cut, then make a new neck to that exact glass piece... surely a worthy cause for a patient, young and wealthy person! Maybe somebody on that unfretted site has achieved something lately.

 

[Cagey]

Supposedly, any well-equipped autoglass shop has the tools to bend and shape and smooth glass into any shape you'd need. They don't order up prefit windows from warehouses.

No, they don't, and yes, they do, respectively.

 

[stubhead]

You know, I started looking into it and decided I'd better leave it alone - the information you get off the "unfretted" website circa 2002, 2005 makes it sound easy, but "auto parts" is yet another industry drastically transformed by the "no-inventory, no-overhead" model. It does wonders for profits in the short term, but one little part shortage can shut down a whole production line. I'm sure that all that glass bending equipment is still out there, and if you really, really needed a side window for your 1969 Ferrari you could get it - for a price. There just might be an opportunity for a fingerboard maker here. First, you find the custom glass shop, then you buy ten "boards".... that website has been rather dormant for a while, not a good sign.

 

[swarfrat]

Perhaps the real reason nobody is doing this is there's a $7 alternative that doesn't require modifying your guitar. Yes I get there are differences, but come on... this is a monumental hurdle and the differences between fretless guitar and slide are rather modest.