Asta [AMP]Nov 9
fucking around more w/ the fretless guitar (after creating a crude trem block to make more stable tuning) and this thing is just a lot of fun. Can I play music with it yet? Well, no, not yet, but...

w/ just your fingertips pressing the string into the wooden fretboard, it has a rather (slightly muted) shamisen-like sound. You can press down with the tip of your fingernail, instead, to give it a much less damped sound; ringing out quite clearly. It still has a shamisen quality (perhaps it's just this guitar? or just the nature of getting to select the temperament)

I almost wish I had a tight glove with, like, steel fingertips or something, so that I could smoothly press. I guess those would be... some sort of chainmail gloves or something. That would be awesome.
Show threadaquaponix7Nov 9
@aud that's cool I've wanted to play a fretless. Have you messed around with how much pressure you put and how it affects the sound? Also has it been difficult finding where the notes are true?
Show threadAsta [AMP]Nov 9

@FreestyleFlame

Have you messed around with how much pressure you put and how it affects the sound?ooooh, not with pressure, no! I'll give that an explicit go.Also has it been difficult finding where the notes are true?In this case, no; this is because this was a fretless conversion I did... the fret wire is actually still there! It's just ground down to the surface so it's totally even 😅 It's a 1985 Hondo Fame guitar and the frets were trashed; I figured it would be more fun to try and make it fretless. It was a ton of work to get the frets ground down; multiple people suggested I was lacking in good sense because of it XD And they weren't wrong. It took ages and a lot of sanding/grinding.

But it's pretty fucking neat! So I have nice, shiny fret markers (for the most part; I accidentally did rip one fret out while grinding, so I ended up filling that hole with a combination of gel superglue and pink posca marker paint XD)

Show threadaquaponix7Nov 9
@aud hmm very interesting. That's a cool idea that you just grinded it down haha. Yeah that sounds like a ton of work lmao! But good job now you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor! It's fun to customize your gear as you want to really make it your own. Now you have a one of a kind! Keep jamming my friend!
Show threadAsta [AMP]Nov 9
@FreestyleFlame thank you!! I had to replace the tuners and the nut, too; I ended up just pressure fitting a brass nut in there and it’s working?! To my surprise!?

But yeah, I picked up the guitar on the cheap; the electronics still work really well, and there’s something about transforming and polishing up a guitar that’s only a little younger than I am that is really appealing 🖤

I still have more tweaking to do; I want to lower the nut a bit, so I want/need to file or sand down the area it sits in a bit more to give myself more room there. But it works shockingly well!
Show threadAsta [AMP]
@FreestyleFlame eventually I would like to replace the bridge: it’s actually this really weird floating bridge!? Not a Floyd or anything like that, mind you; it’s not in great shape but converts to a hard tail rather nicely. If I’m ever able to get the tools and skills required to route a Floyd Rose, I might put one in there for the hell of if (why put a floating bridge on a guitar I can already perfectly control the pitch on!? Cause I like to fucking party 😂).

But I’d be willing to put a fender style trem/bridge on it, too; just wanna focus on finishing up these mods first.
Nov 9 at 9:21pmWeb
Show threadaquaponix7Nov 9
@aud hmm interesting, it is fun adding a whammy bar for that extra little bit of control. Haha but yeah one thing at a time. Get it all good to go then play it for a while have fun with it and see what you want the next project to do.
What kind of music are you making?
Show threadAsta [AMP]Nov 9
@FreestyleFlame loud and learning 😂 so it’s a lot of trying at the moment. No real attempts at writing stuff except playing around with chords and arpeggios, and some sort of ambient haunted type stuff. A lot of attempting to learn to play some songs I really like; so far that’s been stuff such as some Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, Rammstein, Yellow Monkey, some Roy Orbison… I like singing Queen more than I like attempting to learn any of it in guitar thus far, but

Definitely wanna try my hand at goth, darkwave, shoegaze, new wave, etc. But one thing at a time for sure!

Just picked up some brass fingerpicks, so I’ll be bending those to work for fretting on my left when I get home!
Show threadaquaponix7Nov 9
@aud right on! Fun stuff! Enjoy!