fretless looping guitars

[roberto <roberto@nomade.worldonline.co.uk>]

In the Loopers' archive I found a series of one-year old messages by a
number of fretless guitar players, started by one named Leander - any of
these still around?
If so:
It's nice to see that there are some people experimenting with fretless
guitar and it surprises me it took so long (fretless bass has been around
for ages)..
I have been playing fretless guitar for a couple of years too. I tried many
variations; starting from an old Strat copy I removed the frets and 
levelled
the fretboard nicely. Then I started trying different kinds of strings and
tuning, using middle-eastern and oriental scales as a base. At the moment I
am using the guitar with much thicker than normal, all metal bound strings
tuned in various ways, such as G D G C D G or C G C E G C.
When I use the guitar "clean" I get a warm, "wooden" sound, a way in 
between
a oud and a sitar, otherwise I use it with an e-bow and a Zoom 40-40 set of
effects, obtaining very interesting, cello-like sounds. Sometimes I still
use a Montarbo Sinfotone, an ancient fuzz/sustain pedal I had since the
seventies that produces a sound reminding a lot of the early Fripp's sound.
I am considering buying a Fernandes Monterey fretless/sustainer, although I
have never had a chance to put my hands on one to try it as they seem to be
very difficult to find in Europe (I have only seen them in the fretless.com
web site). Do you know anything first-hand about these guitars?
I am also trying to convince a local luthier (I am in London, UK) to build 
a
fretless guitar I have designed, with moveable individual strings bridges
(like a Japanese Kodo) that would allow for dramatic tuning changes while
playing and a small harp-like extension.
If you want to hear some sound samples from two CDs I have produced
partially with the fretless you can visit the Rusty Robot web site at
http://www.rustyrobot.com
go to the catalogue page and look for the "robat" cds
(The site is being redesigned and a new version will be up shortly)
Any other fretless looper out there?

cheers

Roberto 


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Roberto Battista
http://www.robat.scl.net
http://www.robat.scl.net/lectures/index.shtm
Tel. 0044 020 8449 1995
Mobile 0775 960 4344
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