For one of the £100 challenges I made a weird looking fretless guitar, which was fun but somewhat limited. Anyway, it's been at the back of my mind to learn from that and try another, sometime, in fact sometime like nowish.
One thing I noticed was that all fretless guitars seem to be aimed at super fast widdly types and are of the SuperStrat variety, but as I don't really like Strats much and play as fast as a sloth on Mogadon I figured I'd make a Tele.
So I got myself a nice walnut La Cab Especial body, which I'm going to finish in a white "Mother of Jooky" opalescent paint.
I next bought a Wamoth fretless Tele neck (birdseye maple with an ebony 'board), went blingy on some gold Sperzels, and then dug up a nice Hipshot hardtail bridge. Faux frets have been scored into the 'board, which I'm hoping will help as last time I was playing it like a drunk penguin.
For the single pickup, one thing I remembered from the last time is that there is bugger all sustain so I asked Marc at Mojo to make me something verily hot in the shape of one of his Mojotrons (I may be making that name up). He is also doing me a wiring loom for good measure.
Other than that, I've ordered some flatwounds and all the other little bits..
This is the starting point....
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gnbcBln850c/UtksH2uoPRI/AAAAAAAAGxY/FTdI4QYuZcM/s1600/IMG_5210.JPG
Comments
Ah, nobody has ever accused me of that...
I had the frets removed from one guitar, and wood inlays put in. I found that although I love variety in my guitars, I couldn't emulate Philip Catherine.
I would recommend active EQ (or a pedal), to get the best sounds. Maybe mix in a piezo?
@JayGee I know what you mean, and I'm dithering I must admit.. maybe I'll just pearl the top transparently, instead of going for the forty-coats-of-mayhem look
@vaselmayer - Thanks for that. I was already feeling inadequate, but now at least I know I'm not deluded
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iMdF8Zf3_gg/Ut5WgdEjO1I/AAAAAAAAGyk/u0Z3Fz_h1zM/s1600/Mojotronic+Blade.jpg
is that a metal fingerboard? Ah.. "some alloy" he said
GG is an alien, how can he be so musical all the time?
I love the way he looks rock and roll, plays amazingly, and speaks in a proper mild-mannered English way
I do think a video of me sliding around Twinkle Twinkle leetle star could be entertaining though...
As for the pickup - they are blades apparently, with wire and lots more wire and and wire and a cover, sure there was a cover, or maybe a box, possibly and I'm sure he mentioned magnets probably magnets come into it somewhere and well, err, @mojopickups - hayulp
As for the back, it will be stained and wax oiled as I didn't want to lose the look of the walnut entirely.
For the rest, I've gone totally blingy with gold bridge, knobs etc. and will have to think of something clever to do about the pickguard.
As for the neck, I've planed the fretboard flatter than a squished-thing, which seems to be the way of things on a fretless as obviously the idea is to get the strings microns off the surface. We'll see later I guess how well I've managed to do that.
I missed the postie as I was away for the weekend, so the Mojo pickup and wiring are no doubt being used as a football in the local sorting office. All good stuff.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wT1vL9F3TA0/UuZN4b6h44I/AAAAAAAAGy8/e-zKqOqQSlM/s1600/IMG_5229.JPG
I was really surprised that the walnut has quite a subtle flame to it when I came to stain/hard wax the back, it is very pretty, and the opalescent/inside-of-a-shell top worked out well too. Worryingly neat, I have to say. Not quite sure how that came to pass
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mv2JGuDZplw/UujHiYyzZNI/AAAAAAAAGz0/RezeVJWoXRQ/s1600/IMG_5241.JPG
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1tiuZIEz1lk/UujHjfQmXXI/AAAAAAAAGz8/NKOgnTevQpI/s1600/IMG_5242.JPG
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PWBq1yJDasQ/UujHnY8-pdI/AAAAAAAAG0E/Ng4AS6MpedY/s1600/IMG_5243.JPG
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu15/erikryman/IMG_5238.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-keVwBffsOpw/UujHtP-qIMI/AAAAAAAAG0M/6BHKoYhdOBY/s1600/IMG_5244.JPG
It looks great! I've never really heard a fretless guitar bar the vigier video, so I'm quite interested in how this comes out.