I've been wondering, has this ever been tried before? I understand ripping the frets out of the melody side is going to kill the tone and sustain, but couldn't a dense/hard fingerboard correct this? I know Vigier has a fretless guitar with a metal fingerboard, they used to use glass too.

I'm not saying I would rush out and buy one, but is a full fretless NS Stick possible?

Thanks

Ask BSharp if he can do a retro-fit of your NS. Don't attempt it on your own, you'll most likely mangle the stick. If SE can do a half fretless, I don't see why a full fretless wouldn't be possible, given enough time and $.

Oh no I'd never attempt it myself on an instrument of this caliber lol I'm just curious if a full fretless neck is possible

No reason why it could not be done...

But there are many reasons not to. On the low notes as relatively close together in terms of frequencies it give a lot more room for error in terms of tuning.

As far as the mids and highs go, it gets a lot more difficult to play in tune. And without the benefits of frets any sort of chords pretty much goes away.

As a possible option you might find a luthier that could make you a replacement fretless neck. It should not be THaT much. Considering you are just looking for basically a flat board with a couple of side bevels.

That way.. when you figure out if it works or doesn’t you have not ruined your neck.

Do you think Emmett would be willing to sell me a full fretless replacement neck? That way its kosher and would be made to spec. I'd estimate it'd be like $1k though

I am sure that SE would do it.

But if you are not a fretless player. I would suggest picking up something like a Godin fretless guitar to give a feeling for what you are getting into. At least if you try that and it works for you, then you have a sellable item you could sell to finance the fretless NS. And if it doesn’t work out, you have something you will be able to get rid of and not get hurt that badly.

I think you will find that a fretless guitar range instrument is a very specific thing. And it tends to be a very much special purpose small niche tool. Lead lines, swoops, effects, taking the role of an oud or sarod.

Tapping a thin string tends to result in little sustain. A large string has a lot of mass and momentum, so the dampening effect of your finger does not rapidly dampen the vibration.

Fretless guitarists often advise avoiding thin plain steel strings for this reason, such as anything thinner than .013.

With a fretless guitar, you have the pick that allows putting a lot of energy into the string, which partly compensates for the above problem. When tapping, inherently much less energy is put into the string.

So, much less energy to start with, and rapid dampening from your finger.

However, do not let me put you off. But i would strongly recommend buying a cheap fretless bass first, set it up for tapping and string it with thin strings, to try this out first.

There is a video somewhere of a full-fretless tapper.

There are a handful of half-fretless sticks out there. If you want to know how well they play...ask one of the owners. I for one would never attempt to play one because I need frets for finger positioning. Sliding into notes would be an advantage though.

Daniel Schell playing the Boditar, built by Siggi Abramzik.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4V9wDCavw
A metal fingerboard would improve sustain a little, but it cannot completely compensate for the dampening effect of a finger.

The Boditar sounds strange, like a classical Arabian glass slide guitar! I've been playing fretless bass for a couple years so intonation isn't a major concern of mine. What I'm skeptical about is whether or not a metal fretboard actually improves sustain, tone, and volume with thin gauge guitar strings. I know Le Fay makes a fretless 6 string bass with a metal fingerboard (It's gorgeous btw), Alembic made one for John Mcvie at some point, and Vigier have been doing it for years. I may just have to take the plunge on this fellas...