Fretless Guitar blues

[cmjpgreen]

Man you really like you chilling out there

[BlacklaceBabe]

wow lol - thanks for sharing this! :D

[jerryleesprague]

very interesting to watch I will have to buiuld one now...maybe with a sustainer..Good job!

[mewnessbro]

I love it lol. Sounds so kool.

[BaktolKillWithGuitar]

is that a tom delonge signature stat?

[krestivo1]

@BaktolKillWithGuitar Actually it's a Bob Mokricki signature Squire. A friend who is a guitar player helped me pull the frets. Then I made him sign it. That's the signature you can see there.

[Laburnus]

krestivo1 don't You think that a fretless guitar blues sounds like a good old delta blues??? I found this thing yesterday after removing the frets from my peavey t-15.

[chubbymosher700]

sounds like slide! awesome, gotta get me a fretless.

[EvoPogo]

reminds me of Ronnie Wood in the old days with Rod Stewart.

Nice

[DalonMaxFonFon]

Love your style :).

[shvejkas]

Well, there's an easy trick how to loosen your frets producing far less chipping. Just tighten the truss-rod so the neck bends backwards - this will widen the fret-slots a little. At least it works perfectly with mahogany necks. I Haven't tried this on hard maple yet :)

[xloserx4xchristx]

This is great. It sounds like, well... slide guitar. But poppier/punchier, you know?

[cast390]

NEVER pull fret cold,you'll chip the board and make unnecessary repair work.Use a soldering iron on the frets to loosen the glue then pull the frets

[krestivo1]

@cast390 : On this cheap Squire, the frets were NOT glued in. We tried an iron, but it was useless, the frets were pressed in and held in by prongs on the fret itself. There was no glue. We had to just pull the frets out, and it did crack the fretboard a little. But, yeah, on a good guitar where the frets are glued in, use a clothes iron or a soldering iron to melt the glue.

[jvms111]

@krestivo1 how did u pull it off?

[Bulletwithguns]

@krestivo1

once you remove the frets, should u sand the neck down?

[krestivo1]

@Bulletwithguns Yes I had to fill the holes with putty, then sand the neck down.

[DiCola119]

So once you remove the frets that would mean you have to play where the actual fret was and not in between like you would if the frets were intact, right? Like playing slide guitar?

[krestivo1]

@DiCola119 : Yes, you generally fret the note on the line where the fret used to be, much like a slide.

[jonguitarist]

very nice smooth jazzy like sound. Watch Out George benson N Carlos santana

[krestivo1]

@LosBerkos yes it did leave ugly marks. We just left 'em. I did sand down the putty with sandpaper, yes, after it dried.

[LosBerkos]

@krestivo1 Ok, thanks for the info! Sounds all ok though, judging from this video at least, som maybe I should give it a go.

[LosBerkos]

@krestivo1 Ok, thanks for the info! Still sounds all ok though, judging from this video at least, so maybe I should give it a go.

[BillysFlipCamcorder]

If anyone needs help with fretless guitar making, just message me!

I have a fretless that im building right now that looks just like this one.

[thenamesfrancisco]

this guy is a badass on guitar

[carlitos07way]

its like a violin you pluck instead of bow

[Manu404]

come on white john lee hooker ^^

Greets from belgium

[ARVNpistola313]

Hehe, slightly out of tune. But thats how some very expressive blues sounds right? Awesome. 5 star

[MrRG7321]

are harmonics easy or hard to get?

[krestivo1]

The same as with a fretted guitar, I've found.

[rmxrider20032000]

What all did you have to do beyond pulling the frets? Did you fill the fret cut and if yes with what?

[krestivo1]

A friend and I pulled the frets with a pair of pliers, then filled in the gaps with ordinary wood putty.

[overoath123]

was that converted from a fretted stratocaster?

[krestivo1]

It was a cheap Fender Squier. I think I paid $160 for it in early 1999, and pulled the frets out a month later.

[overoath123]

nice. gotta love cheap guitars. is fretless difficult?

[6disco6stu6]

i was thinking of pulling the frets off one of my basses. any precautions i should be aware of? nice song by the way, nothing short of amazing ;)

[krestivo1]

Thanks. A friend did the work for me, so I'm not sure what-all the issues would be to do the job on a bass.

[pridetiger]

thank you, that was amazing!

[panseto8raustis]

sunny weather,long hair,a chair by the door and a guitar...just perfect....bluesman for life........

[thrashmetalkills]

oh thats awesome, seems kinds like playing slide guitar, but with more freedom to playing pentatonic scales and stuff

[powergamermii]

it looks like its speed up......

but great played....

[fluffy1255]

very great sound an great video, too

[ToothDecay7758]

I've always wanted a fretless guitar so I can put a sustainer pup in there

[DamnedArtemis]

You had a fantastic tone there...It was really fun listening to you. Greetings from Turkey!

[kratanuva725]

awesome, you should make a fretless telecaster.

[sintaxera]

i was sick in my mouth a little bit when I read that.

[dildodave5000]

i lol'd

[esprite101]

Cool, that strat Frusciante used on Mellowship Slinky in B Major solo recording

[BigNoseMusic]

how do you know that..

[stripes5150]

great idea! i'm doing it right now to one of mine....fuck the slide!

[Doginthefog]

Great man!! 5 stars!!! :D

[hkdaijobu]

sounds like a shamisen lol

[PunkyBurger]

what kind of amp r u using?

[krestivo1]

I was using a LADSPA (Linux) digital simulation of a 1959 Fender Bassman tweed, via the C*VTS plugin.

[gregieb0i]

nice setting, guitar, sound, great.

[electrikfox]

great. sounds like dobro with slide or shamisen!

[sveempa]

it's like using a slide

[bagettttt]

you

should watching to erkan oğur

[dano4734]

Absolutely the best blues guy I have ever hear

Amazing is the only word to come to mind

WOW

Dan

[Sliverhandsonbass]

sounds like slide :-)

[BluSpiderProductions]

cool. nice vid

[mattchurchill]

Nice vid man, thanks for posting.

[cearleywine]

cool idea, I think it would of sounded better with flatwounds though. :)

[takeemetoo]

yeahhh that would be so cool sounding. it would make the tone really cool. especially on a strat.

[66sicbastard]

wow thats a beautiful impro dude :D its really nice to see someone play with that much feeling :)

[actooon]

You're good, play with feeling. I made myself Telecaster fretless. With first 3 strings from bass guitar. Cheers!

[rOckGarryxD]

Oh !! Its very very good

[childofbodom4life]

what did you use to fill the spots where the frets were? becuase i REALLY wanna try this myself

[krestivo1]

A friend and I took the frets out and filled it with wood putty. I'm told there are better ways to do it, but this way was fast and cheap. It was a $100 guitar and it took us a couple hours to convert it to fretless.

[matcomarket]

Try marine grade epoxy! Mix the hardener and the filler, apply before it hardens completely, and sand it down.  Perfection! (See my video for example.)

[TheAgentofEvolution]

The most important part is to file down the slots in the nut.

[manuFUNKture]

This guy is whet feeling is all about. Or rather the other way around.

[rockerdude29]

So could I make a fretless with a maple/maple neck with the frets removed and filler put in?Cause I really wanna try this.I liked your video too,the guitar has a unique sound.

[xiaoyuanz]

sounds like a banjo

[inalilahi]

how can we read the tab / note / chords?

[krestivo1]

There were none. It was all improvised.

[Megamaniac610]

That's awesome, it sounds like you're playing slide on almost every note.

[neopunk86]

love it.

[deargdoom07]

Nice man, Where did ye get the guitar?

[krestivo1]

I bought it from a local music store in early 1999. It is a cheap Korean Fender Squire; a friend removed the frets for me.

[c0olmind]

I love this!!

[sjalajal]

Hey this is great but i wanted to know im a guitar player and i kind of wanted to learn some blues so do you recomend any thing to learn i would geatly apretiate it

[krestivo1]

Get a good teacher. Or just listen to a lot of it. If you learn to play rock, jazz, funk, soul, gospel, etc. you will end up getting at least some feel for blues because those styles are all based on blues anyway.

[imgooley]

Is it an effect of it being fretless that makes it sound so twangy? Either way, it's kinda psychedelic...

I'd imagine it would be cool to play slide on.

[krestivo1]

It's the wood fretboard. It doesn't have a lot of sustain, so it has a quick decay, makes it kind of twangy. You'll see in the comments here some mention that glass or metal fretboards have more sustain,less twang. Check the other videos of those kinds of guitars.

[mdeonx12]

fretless ftw!

[krestivo1]

Most ordinary guitar chords are difficult. I suppose you could tune it to an open chord and just barre across the strings to get it (Curtis Mayfield used to do that, I'm told).

[fnaguitarplayer9]

is it alot harder to note then a fretted neck? It seems like it would be

[krestivo1]

It's different. The action is a lot lower. I really have to grip hard in order to get any kind of tone or sustain. I do vibratos by moving your finger up and down on the neck instead of side to side. It's more like playing a violin or double-bass.

[anonymous69er]

did u take the frets off urself?

[krestivo1]

A friend did it for me, almost 10 years ago. It was a cheap Fender Squire, and the frets were pressed in. They came out with a pair of pliers. Then we filled in the holes with wood putty.

[GretschGod]

only a fretless could make that great blues sound

[mjmcad]

when you make a fretless guitar is it better to put a glass sheet on the neck or just to leave it wooden. im planning on building one this summer. get a crappy guitar and take of the frets and fix it all up.

[krestivo1]

I do not know what is "better".

On a whim, a friend and I ripped the frets out of this cheap Fender Squire one afternoon almost 10 years ago, and filled in the holes with putty, and I've been playing it ever since.

[johnaiton]

glass is way better than bare wood,

but you can use an epoxy hardener instead on the wood for the same effect

I think I wrote a guide on making a fretless a while back on bumbleforums if you need to know how to epoxy a fretboard

[arizonapg]

well depends on the wood, with cheap rosewood you're likely to get very poor sustain, i'd recommend wither using a very dense non porous hardwood or using a metal fretboard as the few companies that produce fretless guitars often do.

[wbwillie]

i just made my old electric into a fretless, and I just left it wooden, and it sounds phenomenal, still have to put the electronic stuff back in it, but it sounds really good so far

[veglvegl]

good one kelly but he surely looks like a hippy..simmilar...sorry...no offense...you look also like my friend named Pero (Perica) he's from Portorož in Slovenia ... and he also rocks...he knows what f and d chords are.hahahaha.chuck rip

[krestivo1]

Oh I have plenty of cares in the world; that's kind of required in order to play a blues properly anyway.

[BR4X0R]

You inspire me, just sittin there playin without a care in the world.

[KellyMullet]

If music was on acid this is what it'd sound like.

And you'd just have to sit there groovin' on it.

[wfranklin]

That sounds like so much fun.