Shawn Serrels' 2nd guitar, a fretless electric version 2.0 [Pictures] - created 02-22-2009

Serrels, Shawn - 02/22/2009.19:13:29

By the time I finished my 4th guitar, my 2nd guitar was somewhat of a disappointment. The neck was way too thick, the headstock too thin and deformed, the tuner holes were not drilled in the right spots, the walnut fingerboard felt awful, the frets were a mess, the neck heel was way too big, the top was carved poorly and the recurve was cutting into my arm when I played, the finish was ugly and full of dust and cat hair, etc, etc... But I didn't want to leave it sitting in the corner unplayed. So I got the big idea to transform it into an instrument I'd never played before: a fretless electric guitar. So I pulled the fingerboard and replaced it with piece of Brazilian Rosewood I found in a scrap pile. Then I cut almost all of the headstock off and scarfed a piece of maple to what was left, added some maple ears, then veneered both faces with walnut. Then I reshaped the neck, heel, and top, and then carved a belly cut for the heck of it. When all the sanding was done, I finished it in Tru-Oil, and then realized that the original bridge was way too high for even remotely playable action. So I ended up cutting one out of a chunk of aluminum, and to my surprise, it worked alright.

PRS style Walnut/Maple neck-through

Brazilian Rosewood fretless fingerboard

Flat radius

No markers, no sidedots, no idea where my fingers are

Schaller tuners

Stewmac hotrod trussrod

No name eBay pickups

Aluminum one-piece bridge

Delrin nut

.013-.054 flatwound strings

Here's the back

Here's the only evidence of the new headstock splice, the Walnut laminations in the neck mysteriously disappear:

Very pretty. I wish I had your scrap pile! I LOVE Brazilian Rose, and just can't find any without having to hock the car.

So what do you find the sustain to be like on this instrument? I ask because decades ago when I was at Berklee, there was a guy there who was playing a double neck that he built, one neck of which was fretless. His name is Randy Roos, in case you've ever heard of him.

He found that in order to have any sustain at all, he had to build some electronics to plug into that was some type of a compressor of another. I never did ask him about it, though I should have. It was a box that he kept on the floor, and it gave him almost infinite sustain. He played it at several concerts before he graduated, and I really liked the sound of it, though it looked like a real bear to play.

Nice work, and really pretty woods. Have fun, though, of course, you don't need ME to tell you that.

Thanks! Actually the sustain is a lot better on this than I thought it would be. The heavy bass strings sustain the best, but the high, unwound strings sustain very well if I use my fingernail to "fret" the string. Ebow is really cool with this.

Here's the old headstock for comparison

Very nice rebuild job! I especially love that fingerboard - but I always have a hard time with the fretless concept, I have a tough time playing anything recognizable even with frets - my hat is off to you!

Great work, Shawn. The bridge is cool. Overall very nice.

I really like your guitar. Very clean. If you are interested in reading more about fretless guitars, check out this website if you haven't already.

http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=main

I've wondered one thing about making a fretless guitar and that is how, or if, the intonation is set. Do you just find where the 12th fret would be and take it from there?

Great looking guitar.

Thanks, guys!

It's certainly not easy (for me) to learn how to play anything recognizable on this thing. Especially with the lack of position markers. But I figured if a violinist can master a blank fingerboard, I should be able to get used to it eventually. One good thing is that it really forces me to listen to what note is being played instead of what fret my fingers are behind.

Thanks for the link, Perry. AFAIK, intonation is not really an issue, since the notes are dictated by where your finger is and not where the fret is or how high the action is. If the note sounds wrong, you just move up or down a little. That's why I didn't worry about compensating my bridge at all. It's just flat and straight. One thing about this guitar is that it used to be 25" scale length, but after the fingerboard removal and different sized bridge, I think it's about 25 1/4". If I had markers, I probably would have taken intonation and scale length into account.

Shawn, thank you for your answer about intonation. I noticed in your description that you're using flatwound strings on this guitar. Was this to lessen the wear on the fretboard? I quess that's another question I have about making a fretless guitar. How does the fretboard wood stand up to the wear caused by the strings? Thanks again for your answer.

Man, that's a heck of salvage! That would have been a shame to have let that go by the wayside when that instrument was potentially in there! I love the fretboard.

Classy!

Nice save, Shawn. I rebuilt my first-ever electric guitar last summer, better to redo it and play it rather than let it sit.

Perry, yeah, the flatwounds are to reduce wear. I tried out some roundwounds before it was done and I noticed they were marking up the board a little. Then I tried some D'Addario 1/2 rounds and they left some marks too. I don't know if it actually helps reduce wear but I rubbed epoxy into the board. The rosewood itself should stand up to some abuse, I would think.

Here's the pretty end of the fingerboard. Most of it is actually very dark.

That is so clean I thought the 1st pic was a photoshop conceptual drawing.

Very tidy. Nice work, Shawn!