AlanRatcliffe
Fired by finally getting a neck I can defret for another fretless guitar, I did a quick search for fretless guitars on YouTube:
Ned Evett's Slacker Jazz
Tim Donahue
Bumblefoot playing Raygun
Ron Thal plays Vigier
Fretless Finger-Style Guitar!
Nylon fretless blues
Ron Thal and Guthrie Govan jamming
DonovanB
The one thing I found while playing fretless bass is that it's not as hard as it looks, especially if you have some sort of marker or guide. I also found the best sound comes when you play slower as opposed to very fast.
I've never thought of a fretless guitar but it must be wild. that nylon string was very good.
AlanRatcliffe
They've actually been around since the 1950s (in classical music), although in a limited way. Issei Noro from the Japanese fusion band Casiopea played a lot of fretless from the '70s onwards. Frank Zappa (The Torture Never Stops) and Adrian Belew (King Crimson's Model Man)both used them in the '80s. The advent of better fingerboard materials (specifically Ned Evett's Glass boards and Vigier's metal ones) and sustainer devices (Sustainiac, Fernandes Sustainer) helped make them more popular in the 90s, which is when I made my first.
One thing I love is that everyone approaches them differently, and there is a lot of experimentation. Some guys play them as though they had a slide on every finger, lots are using them instead of an Oud for Arabic/Turkish music. Some are using them for "New Age" drones and unusual tonalities, some are using them for microtonal stuff (or even atonal stuff - try Michael Vick if you're brave) ...and then there are Bumblefoot (AKA Ron Thal) and Tim Donahue who use them however the hell they want to. ?
AlanRatcliffe
Don't confuse fretless guitar with fretless bass BTW - huge difference. The scale of a bass makes intonation far easier and the gauge of strings makes sustaining notes relatively easy. Also bear in mid that a bass is primarily a single-note instrument, while the guitar is often used for chords. Chords are an absolute cow for fretless.
I was also impressed with the nylon blues - I've always thought the fretless was tailor-made for blues and country because of the sliding, but few have taken it in that direction (bar Bumblefoot on Govan's Rhode Island Shred ?)
Here's another one from Donahue, Dealing mainly with his fretless harp guitar. In the West Donahue is better known for his Prog Shredding albums, but in his current home of Japan, it's more the harp guitar stuff that gets attention:
Here's the same instrument, but also showing of the MIDI capabilities (quite a bit of Japanese chatter from an obviously fawning interviewer, but some great music lkater in the clip):
