New Guitar Day

[Rook]

In my search for unusual sounds and uncommon instruments, I just bought this:



Now I just have to learn to play it!

[D S]

Oooh! Now there's a challenge!    I have 2 fretless basses but I've never played a fretless 6 string guitar - good luck with that. 
They are pretty rare although Vigier has made them for years.  What's the make? I can't really see from the photo - it looks a bit like a PRS but I don't think it is.
The only person I've heard making really good use of fretless guitar is Adrian Belew with King Crimson.  I think he uses one on Sleepless amongst other tracks.

[MikeEvs]

The only person I've heard making really good use of fretless guitar is Adrian Belew with King Crimson.  I think he uses one on Sleepless amongst other tracks.

I've heard Dweezil Zappa do some pretty good stuff with one too

[Rook]

The brand is "Agile" and it was a cheapie (freight cost almost as much as the guitar), but it is actually very cool. I play a bit of fretless bass, which is what encouraged me to give it a go. Took an hour or so, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I find that I have to "not think about it" and trust my fingers to find the notes.

I imagined it would be perfect for Steve Howe pedal steel parts, but... not so much. Where it really started to shine for me was when I tried pulling out some Dave Gilmour solos.

Early days yet, but lots of fun.

[JimD]

I've experimented with fretless guitar from time to time. On a 6-string the difference between the wound and unwound strings is very noticeable - the bigger strings sustain a lot more and the skinny ones just sort of tend to go "bink".

My particular fretless guitar is an old much abused Ibanez Firebird that I pulled the frets out of. I found however that moving to an open tuning changes everything with fretless guitar - I've got it currently in something like close-to-an-open-chord-steel-guitar-tuning-that-you-can-manage-with-a-regular-string-set.

Meanwhile, since we're in gear corner I am having my old HH IC100 amp serviced at the moment...



...and am very much looking forward to having a blast through that (it's getting new smoothing caps and a tweak to the long-tailed pair dontchaknow...).

[owen]

...and am very much looking forward to having a blast through that (it's getting new smoothing caps and a tweak to the long-tailed pair dontchaknow...).

I can safely say the answer to that is..."No."

[JimD]

...and am very much looking forward to having a blast through that (it's getting new smoothing caps and a tweak to the long-tailed pair dontchaknow...).

I can safely say the answer to that is..."No."

What, you don't like the idea of me playing through my amp or the tweak to the long-tailed pair? 

If it's the latter then I can tell you...that the additional current flowing out of that transistor's base was only around 50uA. So the left hand LTP transistor would then be passing around 0.53mA. With a 1.4mA CCS the right hand LTP transistor would have to pass a bit less than 0.87mA. If both LTP transistors had the same current gain then their base currents would be in the ratio 0.87/0.53 or about 1.6. This would explain why the designers chose two different base resistors - 10k and 15k...but I have no idea what that means, I am just quoting from some of the background information my amp-tech passed onto me about his diagnosis

[owen]

Oh

[Mikey]

...and am very much looking forward to having a blast through that (it's getting new smoothing caps and a tweak to the long-tailed pair dontchaknow...).

I can safely say the answer to that is..."No."

What, you don't like the idea of me playing through my amp or the tweak to the long-tailed pair? 

If it's the latter then I can tell you...that the additional current flowing out of that transistor's base was only around 50uA. So the left hand LTP transistor would then be passing around 0.53mA. With a 1.4mA CCS the right hand LTP transistor would have to pass a bit less than 0.87mA. If both LTP transistors had the same current gain then their base currents would be in the ratio 0.87/0.53 or about 1.6. This would explain why the designers chose two different base resistors - 10k and 15k...

Obviously 

[JimD]

Obviously 

<clarity type="mud">Yep!</clarity>.

Luckily it sounds ace.

[owen]

Ah