You should check out Wristwatch Revival if you just like soothing videos of people repairing things and don't have to stick to a particular type of repair. One of my favorite channels for the same reason.
I respectfully disagree. Ross's thing was to teach people how to have fun ruining canvases and smearing paint. He would not sell his paintings. He knew they were crap. The point was simply to relax and enjoy.
@@ncc74656m I've seen that channel and I like it! I'm much more interested in guitars (mostly basses). I'd never be brave enough to attempt any of the things this guy does though, and I'm so thankful that I have my own awesome guitar repair man locally.
I wager that was played with a slide, I instantly noticed that shim stack under the nut. My dad and I pulled the frets out of a Peavy predator back in the 90's, it was a friends guitar so I couldn't keep it.
As a Korean Canadian, I can say that those QC marks have Chinese characters. So final assembly and the body might be Korean (I know a bunch of the 1990's Hamers were made in Korea and I had an Korean made acoustic from that era). But the neck came from China (kinda doubtful as IIRC Chinese build quality was not great in the 90s) or more likely Taiwan. ETA: As a fellow Hamiltonian, Mohawk shuttering their music program "is a humiliating kick in the crotch" for our fair city.
@@davedavidson9996 I don't think so since Japan was the more expensive labour market in the 80s and 90s. If anything, it would have been the opposite. Yeah the days before CNC reduced body and neck milling times to minutes. I'm pretty sure Fender used to order parts from LaSiDo (Godin and Seagull's parent co.) and do assembly in CA when the Canadian dollar and Canadian wood prices made it feasible and profitable. IIRC, right now Asian guitar factories do everything in house except hardware and electronics. But I describe a lot of that stuff (Chibson and Aliexpress) as "guitar shaped objects".
the 木地 part didn't make sense to me as it's not a Chinese word, 木 meaning wood, 地 meaning floor or earth, but apparently (after some googling) it's a Japanese word meaning wood or bare wood.
The sound you get out of it is very cool. I think the process of filling in the frets was really informative! Specifically, how you filled them but also the importance of having the visible lines to enable playing in tune.
As I remember it, the big selling point of these guitars was that it was a solid wood body for around £150. Most sub £200 guitars at the time had plywood bodies.
In Canada, that was the selling point of the budget guitars from Godin and Peavey. You got a well built domestically produced guitar made from solid woods. There were obvious cost cutting measures but it took a long time to "out grow" those instruments.
@@ileutur6863 I think you need to play a few more guitars to get a sense of the difference. Plywood kills the sustain and leaves the tone flat and devoid of life. If you can't tell the difference, then it doesn't matter for you, but the difference is there, and there's no pickup that can bring plywood to life, though EMG made pickups to emulate some of that character.
Seeing that nut makes me think a previous owner probably dedicated this guitar to slide. Which, interestingly enough, offers some similar playing opportunities to playing fretless. As long as you are not using "playing behind the slide" techniques, a high nut is great. The Joyo is cool and cheap but a Fernandes sustainer system would free up a lot more musical options. I pulled the frets on a bass I had once that had a rosewood fretboard. Instead of cutting veneer strips to fill the slots left behind after removing frets I found they naturally filled with rosewood dust while sanding, which seems to be noticeably lighter color than the board itself - almost orange. So I just put a little super glue on top and left it at that. Far less noticeable than the light wood veneer, but an effect I liked. Your approach does make it much easier to repair tear out damage I suppose.
Ive worked on a few of these Yamaha Pacifica's and they really do punch above their price point, the only issue ive really come across with them is the plastic jack plate breaking,very easy to swap out for a metal one though. Great work on this one!
I played one of these (maple neck) alongside a Mexican Strat back in ‘96; I bought the Pacifica. It’s been modded and painted over and over again since then. I love it, it’s my Frankenstein monster.
Hi Ted! Big fan of your contents here, I'm an Italian musician, former guitar player but I've spent many years learning the oud and turkish music in particular, i also own some fretless guitars made there. Was great to see you going fretless and mentioning that specific style of playing, just wanted to share my 2 cents about fretless conversion: for turkish style playing both with plectrum and ebow is of great importance to achieve an extremely low string action. Basically the strings on turkish fretless guitar have close to zero action at the nut and very low and regular action throughout the neck. A well set-up Turkish oud usually has an action not above 2.5mm at the neck joint which corresponds to the 7th fret, guitars are no different. You may encounter some string buzzing here and there but that's generally accepted as part of the sound, the right amount of string buzz actually compensate a bit for the natural lack of sustain that fretless instruments may have. Great job!
Today's 'quotable quote' is "...we're dealing with musicians, after all." Glad I tuned in for that! It made my day. Edit: That is a beautiful piece of ash on that guitar. No double-entendre intended there at all. Vraiment. Anyway this is nice seeing you do something for yourself just for fun. You sound happy and relaxed. I took a couple days off recently to do a long-delayed customization on one of my own guitars. It was the best time I've had in six months. Gotta take care of yourself once in a while, brother.
That client who missed out on this project has got to be regretting it. If Woodford WANTS to do work on your guitar, you have him do that work. I like the detailed explanation on the fret pulling process. You’ve done it before, but I never get sick of watching it while you spoon feed us the explanation of the process. And for this job, the removal of the frets is especially important. I have played fretless electric bass for the past 15 years or so. We don’t see fretless guitars often, and after this, I hope to see more.
I can remember an email conversation with you about fretless 6strings from about 2 years ago, when you said you would get a reasonable priced 6string and defret it. It's been a long wait but the result is well worth the wait!!! Thanks for this one Ted
This was one of your best videos, so cool seeing you build something purely for your enjoyment, I’d like to see it more often and just watch you experiment with guitars, now I gotta do a fretless guitar and pinstripe one, both looked like fun.
cool jamming out the pinstriping. I have a Pacifica in the loft I was going to practice upgrading but so far I have just looked at it. Maybe this vid is the inspiration I need. But I think I'll skip the fretless.
Bloody hell!...Learning something new every video and now I want one of those fretless guitar shaped objects too! un freakin believably amazing contraption. Thank you Sir !
Among the many interesting things in this video is that the previous owner had actually shimmed the nut to make the ridiculously high first fret action. Presumably it was buzzing like mad because there was so little relief and possibly bad neck angle. Great to see a call out for Rotosound. A great UK institution which has only really achieved fame for its bass strings. The regular guitar strings are OK, but nothing special except for the ones which have an exposed core over the saddle on the wound strings. I was intrigued in my youth by something called the Gizmo (used and I believe designed by someone in 10cc) which was kind of a mechanical precursor of the Ebow. That guitar sounds great.
Next challenge - a scalloped fingerboard. McLaughlin mastered it, doing both Indian and Jazz styles. Indian music uses just intonation and does lots of very subtle bends in and out of perfect resonance, so the scallops allowed him to adjust his pitches on the fly and sound more Indian on his Shakti albums, and he could play jazz chords on his scalloped electric, where each finger moved independently as he modulated keys, making it sound very horn-section like.
very cool mod. That is the first fretless I have seen with "markers" on the fretboard. I agree it will make playing much easier and more accurate. As for E-bow, The 1997 album Disciplined Breakdown from Collective Soul, Ross Childress played some very emotional fills and solo with the little vibrator. Love this content, Mr. Bob Ross of the luthiers
I took the frets of my cheap ass Rockster guitar back in the day after seeing a friend convert his bass to fretless. Fun to play around with but I never got to any level of proficiency playing it. I've seen some people leaving the lower frets to play rythm stuff and go fretless on the high ones for weird leads :)
Interesting!. the fret, nut, and neck adjusting; the ebow-like device, and even the pinstriping...which I'm not big into but it kinda worked in this case. Interesting to see how it is done
my 1st electric guitar was (still is, i'll never get rid of it) my 1991 Yamaha Pacifica HSS. the white plastics have 'tanned' nicely, and the wood has a natural finish sunburst. it's a gorgeous guitar and was (to me) a steal back in the day for around $150. Watchin you work on your made me appreciate mine. AND I'M TOTALLY GOING TO FRETLESS SOME OTHER GUITAR THAT WAS AMAZING. I just missed you in Chicago; I was there but had a packed schedule. If the conference had gone to Sunday (like I thought it did and I had planned for...) I could have attended all day. Oh well.
I have always been impressed by these guitars - they are definitely a cut above when it comes to build quality. Well worth picking up if you see one going for a good price.
You broke the biggest rule in pinstriping!!!! All lines must join! Haha iv been incorporating it into my custom paint jobs for over 15 years and still find myself wiping off a whole piece if I'm not happy with one line. Good video as always, keep it up.
My friend bought a Pacifica recently and it's a very nice guitar. The one you got there is particularly nice wood and it's great with the natural wood showing rather than being painted over
For the first time after being schooled in every video you’ve made I actually have an input - don’t get a tiny allen key to push out the strings. Use the 6th string. Thank you for your great content, Ted 😊
Nice one!! Been tempted to do this to an old guitar as well ;) I've already converted a bass to fretless some years ago, but instead of oiling the fretboard, I've put a layer of epoxy on & sanded that to radius and polished it. This really brought out the harmonics! Even with flatwounds it has that nice, almost human voice quality "wowww" sound you'd expect, and it sustains beautifully...
I did a crude de-fretting of a guitar in the mid-1980s when I heard that Adrian Belew had a fretless guitar. I think It is still in my basement somewhere....
Great as always Ted! I've just defretted a pair of lefty basses, and I'm happy to see I didn't miss many of your steps! I drilled out the side dot markers and put new ones on the Fret line. I used RAT test swab sticks for the white dots :-) I moved the dots because I had a defretted Fender bass and sold it because I found the dots and fret lines too distracting. I have a Factory fretless maple P bass now, with just dots where the 3rd, 5th etc frets would be. I also have a 80s Torch factory fretless Jazz bass, but had to redo the dots, which were *between* the frets, ie a quarter tone flat!
Another incredible video as always. I really appreciate you practicing something you're not good at on camera for us to witness. I've often considered making a fretless guitar many times, this will serve as a great tutorial!
Very cool! I’ve always wanted to do this to (indeed) be played with an E-bow. I went a slightly different way, because at the time I didn’t want to do something as extreme as removing frets, although I did think that was the best option if money wasn’t an issue. So instead of removing frets, I started using a bottleneck. It’s not the same, but it gets you in that same ‘violinesque’ vibe. Very nice project indeed! ❤
Great episode. I had the amazing Rick Kelly of Carmine Street Guitars do this to my bass. It came out way better than I ever anticipated. The fret lines made it much easier to transition to a fretless.
You're already the Bob Ross of guitar repair my guy. Thank you for entertaining me and teaching me arcane knowledge that I'm unlikely to ever use.
You should check out Wristwatch Revival if you just like soothing videos of people repairing things and don't have to stick to a particular type of repair. One of my favorite channels for the same reason.
I respectfully disagree. Ross's thing was to teach people how to have fun ruining canvases and smearing paint. He would not sell his paintings. He knew they were crap. The point was simply to relax and enjoy.
@@ncc74656m I've seen that channel and I like it! I'm much more interested in guitars (mostly basses). I'd never be brave enough to attempt any of the things this guy does though, and I'm so thankful that I have my own awesome guitar repair man locally.
@@ncc74656mGood call I love his videos.
@@JiveDadson"ruining canvases and smearing paint." 😂 That's a bit harsh don't you think? 😂
I wager that was played with a slide, I instantly noticed that shim stack under the nut. My dad and I pulled the frets out of a Peavy predator back in the 90's, it was a friends guitar so I couldn't keep it.
As a Korean Canadian, I can say that those QC marks have Chinese characters. So final assembly and the body might be Korean (I know a bunch of the 1990's Hamers were made in Korea and I had an Korean made acoustic from that era). But the neck came from China (kinda doubtful as IIRC Chinese build quality was not great in the 90s) or more likely Taiwan.
ETA: As a fellow Hamiltonian, Mohawk shuttering their music program "is a humiliating kick in the crotch" for our fair city.
I'm curious did Korean guitar companies ever get part from Japan back in the 80s and assemble them?
@@davedavidson9996 I don't think so since Japan was the more expensive labour market in the 80s and 90s. If anything, it would have been the opposite. Yeah the days before CNC reduced body and neck milling times to minutes.
I'm pretty sure Fender used to order parts from LaSiDo (Godin and Seagull's parent co.) and do assembly in CA when the Canadian dollar and Canadian wood prices made it feasible and profitable. IIRC, right now Asian guitar factories do everything in house except hardware and electronics. But I describe a lot of that stuff (Chibson and Aliexpress) as "guitar shaped objects".
+1 for the Police quote.
says 木地 合格 kinda just means it's up to the standards.
the 木地 part didn't make sense to me as it's not a Chinese word, 木 meaning wood, 地 meaning floor or earth, but apparently (after some googling) it's a Japanese word meaning wood or bare wood.
"Sometimes we do things just for the experience."
Best Ted quote ever!
The sound you get out of it is very cool. I think the process of filling in the frets was really informative! Specifically, how you filled them but also the importance of having the visible lines to enable playing in tune.
THE BEST CONTENT YET. Seriously, been watching your channel for awhile, clearly doing your own projects gives you juice. More please.
As I remember it, the big selling point of these guitars was that it was a solid wood body for around £150. Most sub £200 guitars at the time had plywood bodies.
In Canada, that was the selling point of the budget guitars from Godin and Peavey. You got a well built domestically produced guitar made from solid woods. There were obvious cost cutting measures but it took a long time to "out grow" those instruments.
Yeah the ad showing the comparison between a yamaha and squier plywood body 😂
That's such a weird selling point. I'd rather have better pickups or hardware than "good wood"
@@ileutur6863 this is from "back in the day" where really poor guitars with plywood bodies were marketed at beginners
@@ileutur6863 I think you need to play a few more guitars to get a sense of the difference. Plywood kills the sustain and leaves the tone flat and devoid of life. If you can't tell the difference, then it doesn't matter for you, but the difference is there, and there's no pickup that can bring plywood to life, though EMG made pickups to emulate some of that character.
Seeing that nut makes me think a previous owner probably dedicated this guitar to slide. Which, interestingly enough, offers some similar playing opportunities to playing fretless. As long as you are not using "playing behind the slide" techniques, a high nut is great. The Joyo is cool and cheap but a Fernandes sustainer system would free up a lot more musical options. I pulled the frets on a bass I had once that had a rosewood fretboard. Instead of cutting veneer strips to fill the slots left behind after removing frets I found they naturally filled with rosewood dust while sanding, which seems to be noticeably lighter color than the board itself - almost orange. So I just put a little super glue on top and left it at that. Far less noticeable than the light wood veneer, but an effect I liked. Your approach does make it much easier to repair tear out damage I suppose.
Always love a new Twoodfrd video!
Ive worked on a few of these Yamaha Pacifica's and they really do punch above their price point, the only issue ive really come across with them is the plastic jack plate breaking,very easy to swap out for a metal one though. Great work on this one!
I played one of these (maple neck) alongside a Mexican Strat back in ‘96; I bought the Pacifica. It’s been modded and painted over and over again since then. I love it, it’s my Frankenstein monster.
I think lots of Yamaha guitars punch above their price points.
I have an early 80s Yamaha acoustic guitar that I wouldn't trade for anything.
Hi Ted! Big fan of your contents here, I'm an Italian musician, former guitar player but I've spent many years learning the oud and turkish music in particular, i also own some fretless guitars made there. Was great to see you going fretless and mentioning that specific style of playing, just wanted to share my 2 cents about fretless conversion: for turkish style playing both with plectrum and ebow is of great importance to achieve an extremely low string action. Basically the strings on turkish fretless guitar have close to zero action at the nut and very low and regular action throughout the neck. A well set-up Turkish oud usually has an action not above 2.5mm at the neck joint which corresponds to the 7th fret, guitars are no different. You may encounter some string buzzing here and there but that's generally accepted as part of the sound, the right amount of string buzz actually compensate a bit for the natural lack of sustain that fretless instruments may have. Great job!
Ron Thal (Bumblefoot) is amazing on his fretless Vigier. Also, I had one of these Pacificas, the best $99US guitar ever.
Guthrie Govan plays fretless guitar at times. Truly amazing.
He’a an extraordinarily talented player, so he can make it work. For us mere mortals, a fretless guitar is… _less than ideal._
Today's 'quotable quote' is "...we're dealing with musicians, after all." Glad I tuned in for that! It made my day.
Edit: That is a beautiful piece of ash on that guitar. No double-entendre intended there at all. Vraiment. Anyway this is nice seeing you do something for yourself just for fun. You sound happy and relaxed. I took a couple days off recently to do a long-delayed customization on one of my own guitars. It was the best time I've had in six months. Gotta take care of yourself once in a while, brother.
I will now go and listen to Station to Station
That client who missed out on this project has got to be regretting it. If Woodford WANTS to do work on your guitar, you have him do that work. I like the detailed explanation on the fret pulling process. You’ve done it before, but I never get sick of watching it while you spoon feed us the explanation of the process. And for this job, the removal of the frets is especially important. I have played fretless electric bass for the past 15 years or so. We don’t see fretless guitars often, and after this, I hope to see more.
Thanks for taking us on your journey! That was very interesting.
I can remember an email conversation with you about fretless 6strings from about 2 years ago, when you said you would get a reasonable priced 6string and defret it. It's been a long wait but the result is well worth the wait!!! Thanks for this one Ted
No frets, no polishing! 😂
Great video as always. I missed the classic polishing-polishing bit though :)
without the frets you get a type of zitar sound when sliding
This was one of your best videos, so cool seeing you build something purely for your enjoyment, I’d like to see it more often and just watch you experiment with guitars, now I gotta do a fretless guitar and pinstripe one, both looked like fun.
IT'S PRONOUNCED GIFMEN JUST LIKE GIF
This was a lot of fun. A light-hearted video with a definite change of pace. Good stuff.
You are for sure the Bob Ross of ‘luthiering’. Great work on this one! 🎸😎👊
I have seen videos of Billy Gibbons doing pin striping on a Less Paul, He is very practiced in it .
I love that "mid 90s coffee table vibe!" I'd like a Tele with that walnut Danish oil look.😊
As always, a total treat. Thanks!
cool jamming out the pinstriping. I have a Pacifica in the loft I was going to practice upgrading but so far I have just looked at it. Maybe this vid is the inspiration I need. But I think I'll skip the fretless.
Looks like it was setup for slide playing originally.
That was my first thought too
Yep, that was not the original Yamaha Pacifica nut.
Loce Duncan's designs, would love to play if i ever get the chance. Cool to see you dipping your toes into the fretless mod world!
Great stuff, as always 👏 👍
Bloody hell!...Learning something new every video and now I want one of those fretless guitar shaped objects too! un freakin believably amazing contraption. Thank you Sir !
Among the many interesting things in this video is that the previous owner had actually shimmed the nut to make the ridiculously high first fret action. Presumably it was buzzing like mad because there was so little relief and possibly bad neck angle. Great to see a call out for Rotosound. A great UK institution which has only really achieved fame for its bass strings. The regular guitar strings are OK, but nothing special except for the ones which have an exposed core over the saddle on the wound strings. I was intrigued in my youth by something called the Gizmo (used and I believe designed by someone in 10cc) which was kind of a mechanical precursor of the Ebow. That guitar sounds great.
The pin striping has that old arcade pin- ball machine art vibe ....very successful
Next challenge - a scalloped fingerboard. McLaughlin mastered it, doing both Indian and Jazz styles. Indian music uses just intonation and does lots of very subtle bends in and out of perfect resonance, so the scallops allowed him to adjust his pitches on the fly and sound more Indian on his Shakti albums, and he could play jazz chords on his scalloped electric, where each finger moved independently as he modulated keys, making it sound very horn-section like.
a piece of Holly wood, Hooray!, ticking off the humor as well as the tasks, nicely done,
Magical, fantastic work, looks awesome, especially the "frets" 🤩
I'm just a couple minutes in on this video but please do not desecrate that beautiful Yamaha Pacifica. That thing is gorgeous.
I particularly enjoyed this one. It's fun to see you entertaining your whimsical side!
Likely a riot to fool with on the bedroom amp. I’ve made fretless bass guitars for people but never a 6 string. Brave move and nicely done Tim!
@twoodfrd... No problem Tim. I’m in Cornwall Ontario if you’re out and about. 🤓
@twoodfrd... I don’t know how to post my email privately here
Hey there gang!
I love when he says that. I really feel like I'm in his gang. 😂
YES!!! That sound with the flanger was amazing! I would get LOST goofing around with that setup. Your pinstripe work was great too.
Yamaha Pacifica guitars actually used to have Seymour Duncan pickups.
This is one of your most interesting vids... and most entertaining!
It's nice to see you just having fun, and not stressing about hidden problems. Thanks very much!
very cool mod. That is the first fretless I have seen with "markers" on the fretboard. I agree it will make playing much easier and more accurate. As for E-bow, The 1997 album Disciplined Breakdown from Collective Soul, Ross Childress played some very emotional fills and solo with the little vibrator. Love this content, Mr. Bob Ross of the luthiers
I’ve never seen a Yamaha Pacifica I’ve lusted after. Until now.
I took the frets of my cheap ass Rockster guitar back in the day after seeing a friend convert his bass to fretless. Fun to play around with but I never got to any level of proficiency playing it. I've seen some people leaving the lower frets to play rythm stuff and go fretless on the high ones for weird leads :)
Ned Evett is a killer fretless player, one of the pioneers I think. His album "An Introduction to Fretless Guitar" is pretty great.
"I don't know about the truss rod"
"Oh no it has a truss rod"
That's fun.
Awesome! Great result. Happy to see you work on something for yourself too!
Interesting!. the fret, nut, and neck adjusting; the ebow-like device, and even the pinstriping...which I'm not big into but it kinda worked in this case. Interesting to see how it is done
my 1st electric guitar was (still is, i'll never get rid of it) my 1991 Yamaha Pacifica HSS. the white plastics have 'tanned' nicely, and the wood has a natural finish sunburst. it's a gorgeous guitar and was (to me) a steal back in the day for around $150. Watchin you work on your made me appreciate mine.
AND I'M TOTALLY GOING TO FRETLESS SOME OTHER GUITAR THAT WAS AMAZING.
I just missed you in Chicago; I was there but had a packed schedule. If the conference had gone to Sunday (like I thought it did and I had planned for...) I could have attended all day. Oh well.
I have always been impressed by these guitars - they are definitely a cut above when it comes to build quality. Well worth picking up if you see one going for a good price.
Love it! Some things completely different!
I had a Pacifica just like that one. Good guitar. I gave it to my step son who still plays it.
Nice to see a professional use their craft not only for the monetary aspect but also because they genuinely enjoy their craft.
How to learn:
"Sometimes we do things just for the experience."
"The main thing 's to know when to stop, of course."
"I may have taken it too far."
Totally enjoyable in all aspects. Humor, talent, results.
"I'm doing this one for myself." We know, we can hear the giddiness in your voice...
Go ted! Nice to see some personal projects on the go, great fun and absolutely how I'd spend a spare day too
That's a sound worth investigating, lots of creative upside could be rendered
Really enjoyed the bagpipe music from outer space at the end.
You broke the biggest rule in pinstriping!!!! All lines must join!
Haha iv been incorporating it into my custom paint jobs for over 15 years and still find myself wiping off a whole piece if I'm not happy with one line.
Good video as always, keep it up.
Bought one today. Good quality.
This episode is just fantastic Ted
One can see the potential in the possibilities of soundscaping with that set up. Very cool and very nice work, as always. Thanks.
Did not expect this sort of thing but hugely interesting. Its good to see you doing something "just because"
Awe that's unfortunate. I went to Mohawk for applied music in the late 90's. Excellent faculty at the time
My friend bought a Pacifica recently and it's a very nice guitar.
The one you got there is particularly nice wood and it's great with the natural wood showing rather than being painted over
Was starting to worry.
A perfect example of the e-bow Mick Ronson playing with David Bowie song Heroes on The Freddy Mercury tribute. Good stuff indeed .
Thanks! Happy holidays! 🤶🎅🏻🙂😎
Nice work! I have been playing with a similar idea, utilizing a sustainer pickup of some sort. I love the way you inserted the veneer "frets".
What a cool project! Glad to see you actually making something for yourself for once, you certainly deserve it!
"She's a beaut, Clark!"
Love it, especially the clean-ish drunk bagpiper sound 😅
That's one way to not have any fret buzz :D
Not the Craw, the CRAW!
Since a Friend sayd to me " A good Pacifica is the Backbone of many Studios "
For the first time after being schooled in every video you’ve made I actually have an input - don’t get a tiny allen key to push out the strings. Use the 6th string. Thank you for your great content, Ted 😊
Im sure he already knows this. He just prefers using the tiny allen key
What a satisfying video to watch, thanks for sharing!
The graphics that you did on the top of that guitar are perfect! Ole'
Yamaha makes a top tier Piano , stereo equipment and yes very good guitars
This thing surprised me. I'm not a big Yamaha fan, but this particular model is beautiful.
Nice one!!
Been tempted to do this to an old guitar as well ;)
I've already converted a bass to fretless some years ago, but instead of oiling the fretboard, I've put a layer of epoxy on & sanded that to radius and polished it.
This really brought out the harmonics!
Even with flatwounds it has that nice, almost human voice quality "wowww" sound you'd expect, and it sustains beautifully...
„That mid-nineties coffee table vibe“ 🤣😂🤣
I did a crude de-fretting of a guitar in the mid-1980s when I heard that Adrian Belew had a fretless guitar. I think It is still in my basement somewhere....
beautiful guitar
Great as always Ted! I've just defretted a pair of lefty basses, and I'm happy to see I didn't miss many of your steps! I drilled out the side dot markers and put new ones on the Fret line. I used RAT test swab sticks for the white dots :-) I moved the dots because I had a defretted Fender bass and sold it because I found the dots and fret lines too distracting. I have a Factory fretless maple P bass now, with just dots where the 3rd, 5th etc frets would be. I also have a 80s Torch factory fretless Jazz bass, but had to redo the dots, which were *between* the frets, ie a quarter tone flat!
Thank you Ted 👍🎥🎬🎸❤🔥
Seems like I walked off the set of Kung Fu into an ELO concert.
“Looks like a booger!” - my wife on the morning before laundry. This is why I do most laundry.
Another incredible video as always. I really appreciate you practicing something you're not good at on camera for us to witness. I've often considered making a fretless guitar many times, this will serve as a great tutorial!
I've done Fretless conversions on Basses, but never on a guitar. Dadgum it Ted, now I've got to try it too. LOL.
I want a fretless baritone. That makes so much more sense.
Very cool! I’ve always wanted to do this to (indeed) be played with an E-bow. I went a slightly different way, because at the time I didn’t want to do something as extreme as removing frets, although I did think that was the best option if money wasn’t an issue. So instead of removing frets, I started using a bottleneck. It’s not the same, but it gets you in that same ‘violinesque’ vibe.
Very nice project indeed! ❤
the (mostly) copper composition of the frets explains the green
Great episode. I had the amazing Rick Kelly of Carmine Street Guitars do this to my bass. It came out way better than I ever anticipated. The fret lines made it much easier to transition to a fretless.