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Frequently Asked Questions

1: What is a Fretless Guitar ?
Answer for guitarists: It's a guitar without any frets


Answer for non-guitarists: Almost every guitar you have ever seen has frets, these are fine metal strips (around 22) attached to the guitar neck directly under the strings and when the guitarist presses a string down an adjacant fret ensures a correctly pitched note will sound. Frets ensure accurate notes, fine sounding chords, its a system to lock everything in tune. The fretless guitar does not have frets, its free of frets, its like walking on ice, everything slides about a lot, nothing is fixed.


2: Why does a conventional guitar usually have 22 frets?
Answer for guitarists: Read "Catch 22"


Answer for non-guitarists: When they put frets on the guitar neck they first leave a fair gap between the first and second one, the gap must get smaller for each fret, up around the 22nd fret it gets too difficult for people with big fingers to fit frets closer although 24 frets is not uncommon and some show off fretters have got up to 36, it ain't pretty.


3: Is a fretless guitar like a violin to play?
No, you can't get it under your chin.


4: I'm thinking of taking up the guitar, should I buy a fretless?
Times will be hard and you may wish you had purchased a violin. Not any tutorials that I know of. You will have the distinct advantage of not being tied to frets and not having to relearn everything, but may miss out on the unfretting experience.


5: Where can I buy a fretless guitar?
It took me five years to find one. The list of manufacturers (and its a small one) is on our fretless links page.
http://unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=sitelinks


6: Is a fretless like a slide guitar?
No, no, no. A slide guitar is a tameable instrument. You get the one slide and it goes up and down the neck with precision. With the fretless you get the four fingers and they all slide independantly. (This is why Giraffes don't live in the arctic)

Historia

http://unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=history

Q U O T A T I O N S


Its time somebody said something about the Fretless Guitar.
In fact its time to gather all the quotations by the famous and
soon to be famous and post them here. Starting with the classic...



There's no such thing as a fretless guitar. You're bloody making it up. Get out.
Nigel Tufnel, Spinal Tap, 1984.



I do have a fretless guitar, and I'm pretty good on that.
Frank Zappa, 1973



The Slide is on the other Side.
Ned Evett, 2005 (when asked if he ever used a bottleneck)



Playing FretLess Guitar is like having sex without a condom. It is more Dangerous & just Feels better.
Michael ATONAL Vick, 2004



Fret not thyself
Proverbs 24:19 (Biblical)



Oh that Instrument has Frets????? I think we can get those out.
MV, 2004



Fretless guitar is like abstract painting, but with music.
Billy Dugger IV, October 2004



Now is a good time to pull out the old frets (detwelvulation).
Buzz Kimball, 2003



Surf's up dude. Fret Ye Not!
Simon Bradley, Surfretter review, Guitarist, May 1998



Don't let me find an Instrument with Frets on it in this House.............
AC, 2004



The Fretless Guitar allows players to access MicroTones like never before, and this idea opens the Musical World to various new colors and tones never heard from the fretted guitar; which is the most played instrument in the World today.
Michael L. Vick, 2005



Referring to the cumbus (Turkish 12 string fretless banjo): You only play it if you're a chainsmoking alcoholic loser from a despised ethnic minority with a long string of petty criminal convictions.
Jack Campin, 2005



Cheap guitars don't look & feel cheap anymore once unfretted.
Emre Meydan, 2005



You play the blues guitar with your soul, and the fretless guitar with your spirit.
Jahloon, 2005



The future of the guitar is missing something - frets.
MAV, 2005



Guitar without frets is like girl without a beard.
Majkan - Croatia, 2007



In a never ending quest for unique guitar sounds and unique music, one must consider a change in the most basic aspect of the instrument; the frets.
WolfV11 - New York, USA, 2008