Fretless Baritone Build (...and Tone Demo)

[@ldub0775]

all i want for christmas is a clean tone demo

[@kadekiger276]

Ldub0775 same. Especially for this.

[@florencefaulkner782]

What's a clean tone??

[@Keebrev]

Florence Faulkner a bass tone without any effects, i.e. no distortion, delay, reverb etc

[@Keebrev]

It’s driving me insane that he didn’t play it clean

[@florencefaulkner782]

Herobrinetrollin yeah, I know...

[@Hippownage]

3:07 "You really don't want a perfectly flat fretboard" Me, a classical guitarist: *TRIGGERED*

[@dylaneverhartmusic]

Now play it with a bow

[@napalmjack]

Wouldn't work that easy. He'd need to arc the saddles and nut so the strings arched, using a bow on a guitar like a violin isn't easy. Usually can only hit the low and high e strings.

[@dylaneverhartmusic]

@@napalmjack Arc the saddles eh? Maybe that's a good idea for a future project?

[@atwinchester]

Jacob Reichert it actually sounds like something this dude would do

[@dylaneverhartmusic]

@@atwinchester what about half the strings arched so you can strum chords on the low notes and bow the high notes. Maybe try some pizzicato guitar? Lots of possibilities

[@THEzTROLLlz]

I've seen someone play an electric bass with a bow, but they modded it to have one string. It's played on öOoOoOoOoOo - Purple Tastes Like White

[@benlow46]

That’s actually a really clean fret removal job, it looked like you had very little tear out, nice job!

[@tavicotavio]

Isnt this like the 5th time you ruin this thing

[@AB-vn2jc]

Lawyer Morty sup lawyer morty? I swear I see you everywhere.

[@madiserket2]

you watch STM and Trogly's? Man of culture.

[@tavicotavio]

@@madiserket2 trogly's top subscriber baby

[@metalheadblues]

And you clicked every single time

[@No1WillMakeItOutAlive]

*enhance this thing

[@DaarthPingas]

A WORD OF ADVICE: if you plan on playing barre chords in standard you can always intonate the strings to be conducive to those chord shapes, as i do with 4 string fretless bass, so that way, lower strings are "below" the fret high up and high strings are "dead on." intonating fretless has more to do with what you're doing with it, rather than "perfectly set intonation," equally. you should also experiment with tremolo picking and tapping riffs as well and not get too fixated on chords.

[@actually5004]

Or just keep your fingers perpendicular to the fretboard like a good guitarist...

[@DaarthPingas]

@@actually5004 ew, no. that's not even solid advice when playing with frets. it's clear you've never owned or played with a fretless bass for enough time to know what you're talking about. playing a 3 note power chord in all 4ths tuning is ridiculously impractical if both intonation points on the higher strings are identical, unless you prefer baring them. even then, a little bit of slant feels better and will be less harsh on the joints of your fingers with an angle. you're locking your fingers in one direction instead of stressing them back and forth when sliding or adding vibrato.

[@actually5004]

@@DaarthPingas I've been playing my Douglas 6 string fretless for 4 years now and I'm a bass player of 12 years and if you're "locking" your fingers in any situation you're gonna hurt yourself with time. Keeping your fingers parallel to the neck is all about having the neck high enough and angled up enough to both keep your wrist somewhat parallel to your forearm to prevent carpal compression while maintaining proper thumb positioning on the back of the neck. Keeping fingers at 90 degrees to the fretboard prevents twisting stresses on your joints and allows a more fluid "back and forth" vibrato instead of a chiseling motion that can cause skipping across the strings during a glissando (that's what a slide is called, btw). Not being flexible enough to hit notes is a reason to *practice*, not to espouse bad embouchure on the internet.

[@therealandrew185]

Check out Buzz Gravelle. He's a classical guitarist, but man he really takes advantage of all the textures you can get from a fretless guitar. He makes some beautiful music.

[@mr.fictionaloxymoron3643]

I really really like this thing... I think those slow sliding power chords sound amazing and I think it has potential for some nice deathcore Great video as always Djent on man🤘

[@davidfinstein9911]

It sounds so awesome!

[@selene2951]

awesome job! i loved the ideas here.

[@wvlf]

this is really cool, I've watched a fair bit of your videos and you deserve a lot more love

[@No1WillMakeItOutAlive]

I always love ur projects man, u do the kind of stuff that so many of us imagine but that we don’t have the know how to do

[@gregoryhunter7413]

Sounds great! I would love to play one of these wild hybrid instruments

[@68able2]

ITS LIKE YOU ARE READING MY MIND!!! i saw the darell braun fretless guitar build and i had to try it, i got plenty of use out of my fretless but i knew you could do something cool with it. keep up the awesome work man

[@silverdoesmc891]

You should try putting in some EXTRA frets with something now, go microtonal!

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

Now you can play Slide Blues without a Slide on a Fretless Baritone.

[@calinguga]

i've been working on a fretless bass vi kind of instrument for a while, sat down to design the schematic and couldn't decide between a bass cut and a phase switch. opened youtube for inspiration and here we go :)

[@theyeetmeister4019]

Stevie and jered are about to have to dig up the surfboards to fight this

[@stevepethel6843]

Love your creative innovative mods...

[@stephenhookings1985]

Love the sliding pickup. My superglued neck is on its 3rd coat. The Beatles allegedly used a fretless guitar.

[@phnxsu]

It Sounds So Damn Awesome In My Opinion ^^

[@aidanzimmer9482]

this guy is sooo unrated it’s not ok🥺🥺

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

For real. He inspired a few projects that I did. I'm legit the only guy in my area with a 34" scale guitar lol. All thanks to Kevin.

[@aidanzimmer9482]

Stephen Hodgeman HE HAS BANGING CONTENT IM SO HAPPY WE HAVE SOMEONE LIKE THIS HE DESERVES SOOOO MANY MORE SUBS BROO

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

For real! I'm subscribed to Davie504 and Stevie T... They're both over 2 million subs. This guy should be on their level!

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

3:24 that's almost what Jaco Pastorius did with his... He used epoxy, but that's just a minor detail.

[@wbwillie]

marine epoxy at that

[@GrumpyTy34er]

I know Chapman said this one one of their old guitars. Sounded neat

[@jamesdarrigo8277]

This is awesome dude

[@thijs199]

You probably are going to want to wet sand that neck a couple more times, when the water dries up you can see all the spots where there the neck still isn't uniform (because those places won't dry up as fast)

[@moonchild4806]

Bumblefoot has been messing with fretless guitars for a while. I know some Bass VI enthusiasts have messed with some fretless designs too. I might have to build myself a fretless baritone for some fretless spaghetti western.

[@calinguga]

you must

[@lordvalen8133]

The two-tone fingerboard is secretly genius. The fret loc actions are still present but are merely a suggestion.

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

1:19/1:52 I don't consider myself a legit luthier, but I've done a few fret removal operations. I used a clothing iron and a metal ruler to heat up the frets... Then I used a small flathead screwdriver to jimmy the fret out lol. Then I filled in the gaps with wood putty, and voila! (: Your idea is also just as legit though.

[@hipnoninja]

bonkers! love it!!!!!! get this man a band saw!!!!

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

6:43, the only tip I can give you, is to play right on the fret line instead of a couple millimeters away. Other than that, great execution!

[@SaidTooMuchProductions]

I heard the opposite, the edge of your whole finger print is where you're fretting, not the center of your finger

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

@@SaidTooMuchProductions I played my "fretless" into a tuner, and used the outcome for intonation... That may be different for what you did. You're prolly better at this than I am, but I do have a good amount of success playing Primus fretless lines lol.

[@SaidTooMuchProductions]

I mean, if it sounds good, it is good lol

[@joshstarkey8883]

@@SaidTooMuchProductions For me it ends up being more like the edge of the finger on the line, like you say. Plus or minus a bit for string gauge, or for playing just intonated intervals etc. Ultimately you need to constantly use your ear. Developing muscle memory makes it easier over time too, you still need to listen of course though. It wasn't like learning a whole new instrument for me because I was already used to playing a fretted bass the exact same scale length.

[@mattiapascal2275]

@@SaidTooMuchProductions idk just check with the tuner and wherever works it's ok

[@joshstarkey8883]

Perfect instrument to jam with my Brice fretless in drop A

[@dillondriskill6403]

i think the microtonal part is really cool. king gizzard stuff right there

[@DommoDommo]

This one was super rad

[@anthonyrc6618]

2 tunings that you might like could be MinorMajor7 tunings: F, G#, C, E, C, f or F, C, E, C, F, G#. They prevent you from using barre chords, but on a fretless, I found the tunings to be pretty interesting, and pretty fun on the fretboard given that you move around a lot. Given how long they are as well, barre chords might not be that necessary.

[@livy1962]

7 minutes I'll never get back. DAMN!

[@TTheLemon]

Sounds awesome!

[@obeythehomeless]

this would be amazing for some doom metal

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

Said Too Much that sounds like the Synth with a portamento with is good, perhaps the Fretless Baritone could use same 4 Pickups like the Brice Bass.

[@Zawmbbeh]

4:57 definitely my favorite riff here

[@ezatos4499]

Dominic "forest" lapointe, Beyond creation thats all i'll say ^^

[@actually5004]

pin this for real

[@zvjatouslawinc.7098]

Fretless ACOUSTIC Baritone!

[@CamAnd13]

It would be a lot better if you test the mods that you do to all your instruments not only with the tons of distortion :/ A couple of tests with the clean tone would be a little bit more satisfying to hear to

[@SaidTooMuchProductions]

I know, this is just my default tone, theres a clean bass tone in there mixed with a distorted guitar, I eventually post more videos featuring the instrument with refined tones after I've messed around a little more

[@CamAnd13]

@@SaidTooMuchProductions Then, i will wait for them! I really like your vids, thanks for replying

[@wesleyzimmerman94]

French brand Vigier already makes a fretless guitar. Theirs just uses a special kind of metal (they call it iMetal) for the fretboard instead of just being a normal instrument minus frets

[@HunterSkyeMusic]

I love the sound of microtonal metal #ProbablyGannaDoSomethingLikeThis

[@GrumpyTy34er]

You know, looking back, the soldering iron to heat up the glue is a good idea in theory but meat also expands when heated

[@didi_abdillah]

advantage of fretless is you can get 1/1000 note intervals

[@MeatisMagic256]

1 HZ intervals.

[@lucasalmaraz1107]

you can try a tremolo bridge bass

[@TheaL8r_01]

If you check out Sean Angus Watson. He has a fretless barri and does some cool stuff from funk to classical on it 🤷‍♂️

[@Thr3-Words]

It would be nice to hear what it actually sounds like. With this sound it should as well be a guitar with a fuzz

[@Pipumontes]

hey try putting a microphone on the bass head or on the first fret

[@illican]

extermination dismemberment uses a fretless bass while playing slam, they tune pretty low so the bass drops right at the first hit of a slam are DEVASTATING, they crank the volume on the bass up for them as well so it becomes straight-up thunderous at times

[@AlexIsASeraphim]

Isn't there an old clip with Adrian Belew playing a fretless guitst but the neck is also made of rubber?

[@countsnekula1077]

Dude. Bumblefoot. It wasn’t a baritone, but he did have a fretless Metal neck with some really fun tonalities! He used a double neck Vigier with a fretted and fretless neck. Maybe something to consider if you’re looking to do more fretless stuff.

[@andvgeo2253]

Sounds amazing, why did you finish the neck with superglue?

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

1:58... I've definitely hit my hand a few times lol.

[@MichaelStoneham]

Did you ever fix the buzzing we want a clean tone demo

[@nmnmnm9509]

Fretless bass+extra high notes= Michael Manning + his Zon bass. But distortion is more than enough.

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

Why not update with 4 pickups like Brice Bass.

[@damienhelmold6978]

Ur videos are cool

[@rubaiyatdunno482]

Imo this thing would make great nu metal and doom metal riffs

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

Sorry for blowing up the comments, but this is awesome lol

[@pieterworm9211]

Check out thank you scientist, Tom momda has been using a frettless guitar for a while on some songs. Edit: his play through of terraformer is a great video if you're interested

[@peehandshihtzu]

Dude I just looked it up, You win the internet today, and that video was hilarious! :)

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

What a bluesy sound

[@karangurung1182]

Ron Thal and Billy Sheehan use fretless guitar and bass with Sons of Apollo

[@golduckroger]

Wow, I just finished a super glue finish on my fretless bass conversion project about a week ago. Ran into some issues to say the least lmao

[@actually5004]

He was using epoxy for the finish coat..

[@golduckroger]

@@actually5004 3:11

[@austinkash]

4:13 is great

[@mattiapascal2275]

i've played fretless bass for a year, to me the transition to the fretlesss wasn't traumatic (it has inlays whithout i'd be lost) one thing to not fuck too mutch with the fretboard is to slide instead of bending the strings, the fretboard of my bass suffered a bit because of that, however is nothing too noticeable and i don't know of any fixes, so if anyone has to say something i'm listening. for bass its cool to do diads, slides, just don't overuse them for band there are plenty with bass, i recommand intronaut, for guitar the only band i'm aware of is thank you sientist

[@actually5004]

Just do the last few steps he did in his conversion, lay down some thin layers of epoxy and sand it back smooth while maintaining the radius. If you're still dead-set on round-wounds you can also try micro-coated Elixer strings- they're much easier on a fretboard than something like Hi-Beams.

[@Slinging_INK]

I wouldn't trust him with a $1,000 guitar XD Loved the vid

[@regalseagull6810]

Microtonal baritone next

[@cobalt._.27]

Tell that to the Wyoming Lottery. They are microtonal experts IMO

[@xeno42alpha]

Yaaay microtones!

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

6:31 I do like the classical idea... But neo classical would be awesome. Some slightly technical leads or something...

[@andrewcaruso3543]

Dead Poet Society uses a frettless on occasion and makes some interesting use of it! The song .swvrm. is a great example.

[@maffooo2040]

Maybe you could refret it in quarter steps to reliably use microtonality Edit: or you could have half fretless, half fretted - i think that would be really unique

[@ulfdanielsen6009]

Ibanez has a 7 string bass along those lines.

[@GuyNamedSean]

Ulf Danielsen - That beast is my absolute dream.

[@thataway1684]

I dare you to tune it exactly like a guitar and add a whammy bar.

[@cobalt._.27]

DO THIS WITH THE 3 STRING FLORIDA BASS

[@stinky_lizard]

It must go LOWER i wanna hear DROP E when you sort out the wiring issue for the revisit of this in the next video

[@copescale9599]

Neat

[@jimbles717]

All we need now is a whammy bar

[@topsecret1837]

What if instead of using the left hand like a typical guitar you put it more into a claw which allows for more precise notes? That’s how Cellists do fingering on a feet less fingerboard.

[@doomslayer_ch4280]

surprised you didn’t play any Royal Blood riffs

[@Reprodestruxion]

Now for a diy sustainer

[@nicholas72611]

Tom Fountainhead Geldschläger plays fretless tech death

[@Toleyshreds]

He is very animated

[@AB-vn2jc]

I think that sleep would make good use off this, fuzz this thing and do some stoner rock.

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

@UCQoElgBw4Rb5zI37trQvGZQ The really cool thing about a Fretless Baritone is that you can play bluesy music on it & a really good one you should try is Nutbush City Limits as a tribute to Naya Rivera from Glee:kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoXFl5SQe6yeZrs cause Naya Rivera sadly died. It'll be in Drop G Tuning (G1, D2, G2, C3, E3, A3).

[@stephenhodgeman6496]

Just a reminder, chords won't come out the greatest on a fretless. I love what you're doing though. It's like several projects of mine combined... With slightly better execution lol.

[@miloenstad8366]

That's a coping saw, not a hack saw, at least where I am

[@nicklancaster3190]

Re-fret it to be diatonic. A straight rhythm bass player's dream/nightmare...

[@majorminus66]

Someone get Leprous one of these bois

[@caseytinsley]

A razor blade is the easiest way to remove frets, other than a fret puller.

[@sieni221]

Sounds like sunn)))

[@russellzauner]

It would be very funny if Ibanez gave you a sig model because they give everyone sig models

[@elliotjgc]

Best players of fretless guitar players that coe to mind are guys like Fountainhead, bumblefoot and guthrie govan.

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

@UCQoElgBw4Rb5zI37trQvGZQ That's a really Bluesy Sounding Baritone.

[@ulfdanielsen6009]

With the mods you have already done you could conceivably cover the entire spectrum of the string sections of a symphony orchestra. A multi split screen metal demo song with every single instrument playing a part of the backing and melody? From the lowest bass to the high pitches of the violins including the range of the Therobo over the Baroque guitar to Floyd Rose equipped high pitched wailing lead guitars... Look to Brandon Acker for inspiration. Just a thought.

[@cobalt._.27]

I thought it would be fretless 3 string Florida bass...

[@lorenzogiani7190]

Ive seen a fretless guitar with a metal fretboard to help with sustain. I guess you wont need that since it is a baritone and you use a shitload of distortion lol

[@MattPlaysBass25]

Play it with a slide

[@reliktim]

Did you put round string on fretless instrument? Dam, what a madman.