We have tried to be as accurate as possible writing up this history.
Some of the information is difficult to authenticate and any help
with contributions, additions or amendments is much appreciated.
Before we hit the timeline there are a few notes to dwell on. It is hard to determine if there is
a point in time where we could say, this is the first fretless guitar or this guy definitely invented
the fretless.
It does seem that from time to time many guitarists have unfretted their instruments, tinkered around,
maybe recorded a track or two before hastily refretting. It may be that Western music is so well adapted
to the fixed scale it is safer with frets, while influence from asian / eastern music is more suited
to an unfretted philosophy.
Another anomoly is; why do fretless banjos keep turning up? All in the early part of the 20th century.
3,500 to 4,000 years ago - Tanburs (early fretless forerunners of the guitar) were being played
in Egyptian ensembles. (That's a group, then?)
0000
2,000 years ago - Nangarhar, The Rabab, a skin-covered fretless lute is in common use.
1900
Around the turn of the century - Ball Beavon of, Bishopsgate, London,
sold a 7 string unfretted banjo made by Matthews and Houghten of Birmingham.
1912
The Larson brothers - Manufacturers of Guitars, Mandolins and Harp guitars
produced what looks very much like an acoustic doubleneck, fretted and unfretted.
The unique model is actually a harp guitar with the sympathetic bass strings
spaced so that all strings pass over the board and thus become playable. www.larsonscreations.com
1945
Harry Partch - To use guitars with his 11-limit just intonation
scale, Partch experimented with microtonal fret
positions from 1934-1942, but eventually he decided on
fretless necks with amplification to make up for lack
of resonance. These described versions were completed
in 1945 at the University of Wisconsin.
The Adapted Guitar I (right in photo) has a smooth
fingerboard with polished-down pinheads and other
engravings to help the player locate ratios. The
guitar uses a pickup for the strings and an additional
custom microphone to amplify tapping effects.
The guitar can use 3 strings tuned to 8/5 1/1 5/4 (low
to high) or 6 strings in double pairs of the same
ratios.
The Adapted Guitar II (left in photo) is a 10 string
guitar which can be tuned to either major or minor
sets of ratios. The nut is raised high so that a
metal rod can be used to stop the strings, or used
lightly for gliding effects. The triangle patterns
identify places to stop the strings, and they use a
color scheme to show tonal relationships. This guitar
also used an electronic pickup (not pictured).
Source: Genesis of a Music - Harry Partch (1949)
Note: These guitars were modified further by Partch in
later years, Adapted Guitar I was eventually replaced
with a different design in 1952. It is this modified design that
is pictured in the 1974 second edition of the book, in which both guitars are designed to be played
hawaiian style.
These final versions are used
today along with Partch's other surviving instruments
in Dean Drummond's Newband.
Larger image and editor's comments.
1965
Track from 1965 - "Stainless Steel Gamelan"
by John Cale & Sterling Morrison: (Cembalet / fretless guitar)
1968
6th June - John Lennon (with the Beatles) appears on the Kenny Everett radio show.
Recorded at Abbey Road studios, this was broadcast by BBC Radio One on 9th June between 10.00am and midday.
The entire, uncut interview appeared on a 1986 album called "The Golden Beatles"
Dialog:
Kenny: "What kind of guitar is that? It's very strange looking."
John: "A fretless guitar."
For a long time we thought this was just one of John's smart arse quips until we purchased a
rare copy of the Japanese album:
All over the 13m45s interview John is doodling away, no question it is anything
but a fretless guitar. Its sounds very much like he had just started playing it that day. Full transcript of interview
In an interesting addendum to this information Mark Moffat contacted us with this snippet:
I came across your site while searching for info on a Hohner black widow fretess six string guitar which I restrung
and set up for Apple corps in 1973 along with numerous other guitars (Rocky, Lennon's Epiphone, rosewood tele, the original Ric twelve).
I worked at a store and repair shop in Denmark St in Soho, London, called Top Gear which was pretty much guitar central
during the "golden era".
All of the guitars that came in to be cleaned & set up were George Harrison's with the exception of John Lennon's Epiphone casino which,
given the condition of all the instruments (bad - rusty strings, oxidized frets etc.) had been stored in the same place for some time.
I can confirm that there was a Hohner Black Widow fretless among the guitars that came from Apple to be worked on.- Mark Moffat (updated 20/December/2011)
The Late Sixties
Jimi Hendrix's fretless - by Dave Peckels - In the late 1960’s, my Dad, Ted Peckels,
manufactured electric guitars in Riverside, CA. He produced some of the Black Widow’s
for Acoustic there, and also made guitars with the St. George and Hohner names.
(Mostly fretless basses for Hohner.) He died several years back, but a story he often
told was about a fretless guitar that was built especially for Jimi Hendrix.
According to the story, Hendrix really liked the guitar. It was probably an Acoustic
or my Dad’s own brand, Bartell. At some point, it was stolen and Hendrix ordered another one.
It was in the process of being built when Hendrix died. I always wondered what happened
to that second one, but maybe it was the one that ended up in the Guitar Center
with the name scratched off !
Another contributor Dave writes - I was in Ace Music in Santa Monica in the late 60's when I saw an
"Acoustic Black Widow" fretless guitar. I think the black widows were made in Japan
back then. As I recall it had a "mother of bowling ball" fretboard.
It was designed by Harvey Gerst I think.
1973
USA 1973 - Frank Zappa purchases a Acoustic Black Widow fretless. (info Jim Kimsey)
Excerpt from an interview with Steve Rosen
One Size Fits All,
from Guitar Player, Jan. 1977
Frank Zappa: I do have a fretless guitar, and I'm pretty good on that.
At one time Acoustic manufactured a fretless guitar, they made a prototype
and tried to interest people in it, but nobody wanted it. So the
prototype ended up at Guitar Center. I walked in there one day and asked
them if they had anything new, and they said, "Have we got one for you!"
And they brought out this thing, and it was really neat, so I bought it
for $75. The only restriction was they had to take a chisel and some
black paint and scratch off the word "Acoustic" on the headpiece,
because Acoustic didn't want anybody to know that they had made such a
grievous error as to make a fretless guitar. I've put a Barcus-Berry on
that, too, and I send the magnetic pickup to the left and the Barcus on
the right The thing that sounds like a sllde guitar on "The Torture
Never Stops" is actually a fretless. It's also on "San Ber'dino" and
"Can't Afford No Shoes" (both from One Size Fits All). It's different
than a regular guitar; you don't push the strings to bend them, you move
them back and forth like violin-type vibrato, which is a funny movement
to get.
Our contributor Dave comments -
No that was a production guitar, I worked at GC (the only one at that time)
in Hollywood in 1973 and I remember having that / those guitar/s I'm pretty sure
it was a guitar made for Acoustic by the Hohner Company..there was also a
production run made in Japan I do not remember which ones were made first.
The guitar was modeled on the "Esposito" guitar (the first prototype 335
style guitar) owned by Harvey Gerst (he played in a band called Sweetwater).
He was the mastermind behind the Acoustic company in the 60's. The ones that they
imported from Japan had wicked cool thin flat necks! and played like buttah!
USA 1975 - Elliott Sharp defrets a $14 Norma, which still remains his favourite.
1976
Turkey 1976 - Erkan Ogur makes his first fretless guitar.
San Francisco 1976 - While on a two week tour of the States, Norwegian guitarist
Terje Rypdal is interviewed for the May 1977 edition of Guitar Player
Magazine and mentions he has a fretless guitar, which doesn't sound too good, just for experimentation.
1977
Sweden 1977 - Gunnar Backman enters the fretless scene when he rips the frets off his
Hopf acoustic.
Guitar Player, May 1977 - Excerpt from the Terje Rypdal interview... Q. Do you have any unusual guitars? A. I have one without frets. It doesn't sound
too good though. It was just for experimentation, and I used it for some
things with a bow. I also have a quarter-tone guitar which I tried but found
it's better to just bend to get microtones. For one thing the spacing
between the frets gets pretty small.
1978
France 1978 / 79 - Patrice Vigier makes his first fretless guitar, a classical model with a glass fingerboard
USA 1978 / 79 - Guitarist Randy Roos and Steve Holland modify an SG guitar
with a stainless steel fingerboard
and infinite sustain device. The sustain device was patented by Steve Holland. They later modified a twin neck
Ibanez to stainless steel fretless which Randy regularly gigged with and can be seen on the front cover
of his album - Mistral.
This 1978 album's liner notes (by Mike Gibbs, composer/arranger & Berklee prof who,
btw, arranged McLaughlin's symphonic Mahavishnu LP) mention the
double neck as having the infinite sustainer. (Spoonfed records)
Album images and info; Kai Matthews
1979
1979 - This fretless guitar (Yamaha SA-1500) was one of 12 prototypes (this one was offered to
Lee Ritenour but he declined). The model never made it into production. Picture and info courtesy of Gary Bender.
1980
USA 1980 - Tim Donahue designs & builds his first 6-string fretless guitar.
France 1980 - Vigier makes the first commercially available fretless guitar with Delta Metal
fingerboard. This was part of the Arpège series.
1981
USA, Spring 1981 - Jim Kimsey willfully unfrets a Supro 'Super model 3/4 size guitar.
May 1981 - Andy Summers features on the cover of Guitar World magazine with his
Custom Fretless Hamer.
1984
Quote from 1984 film - "There's no such thing as a fretless guitar. You're bloody making it up. Get out."
- Nigel Tufnel, This Is Spinal Tap.
Adrian Belew - uses fretless guitar on "Three Of A Perfect Pair", track; "Sleepless" source: Toby Graves
1986
Japan 1986 - The Selva Guitar company license one of Tim Donahue's designs and produce the first
production fretless guitar; the Selva Tim Donahue Model. Tim also produces the first ever
fretless guitar tutorial book, published in full, in Unfretted's
Masterclass section.
1987
Guitar Player / May 1987 - Tim Donahue, Pioneering Fretless Guitar.
This is the first page of a Guitar Player article from May 1987, click here
to read the Complete Article.
1990
USA 1990 - Ned Evett unfretted his Strat with a pair of pliers.
1991
USA 1991 - A Chicago luthier modifies Jim Kimsey's fretless Supro making the bottom
4 strings fretless and the top 2 strings fretted and the
Fretless Super Buzzmaster is born.
1992
USA 1992 - Chet Atkins plays "Summertime"
on a Fretless Nylon Chet Atkins Gibson
that the company made specially for him. This features on the DVD "Chet Atkins & Jerry Reed at
the Bottom Line in NYC."
1993
Guitar Player / May 1993 - Dan Stearns, two handed fretless.
Poland 1996 - Ryszard Latecki creates the semi-fretless guitar
The LATAR
a cross between a fretless and a fretted guitar.
Ryszard now holds the patent for the semi-fretless Latar.
USA 1996 - Jon Szenics begins experimenting with various polymers for fretless guitar fingerboards;
in 2000 he receives a US Patent for use of a specially surface treated polymer as a fingerboard for
stringed musical instruments.
1997
France 1997 - Vigier releases the
Excaliber Surfreter (Supra and Special) fretless guitars.
1998
January - NAMM - Ned Evett debuts his Fernandes glass-neck sustainer fretless guitar.
May - The UK magazine "Guitarist" reviews the Vigier Excaliber Surfreter (standard).
1999
January - NAMM - The Aram company bring the 2001 model fretless to the show.
Specially designed as an eye catcher in deep transparent burgundy, the guitar
retails at $695, about 100 were made.
September 9th - La Nuit de la Fretless (1). The first fretless festival held in Mende, France.
2000
Patrice Vigier - Celebrates 20 years of guitar making by building a special Excalibur Surfreter (fretless).
The guitar is tastefully decorated with gold and diamonds and has a price tag of $30,000.
The book "Totally Guitar - The Definitive Guide"
(Tony Bacon / Dave Hunter) states it was made in a limited edition of two.
The Guitar Designer, Patrice Vigier, confirms that only a single guitar was made and that
is currently in his possesion.
Fretlessguitar.com - launches as the official distribution channel for
Fernandes fretless guitars, products of the company's US Custom shop.
2001
April 7th - La Nuit de la Fretless (2). The second festival held in Mende, France.
Mid year - Godin release the Glissentar a cross between an Oud and an eleven string fretless guitar.
December 7th - Fretless Guitar Masters compliation CD released.
2002
February - California patent
#6,350,940 -
Fretted/fretless stringed musical instrument.
Abstract:
A stringed instrument intended to be alternately played in a fretted mode or an unfretted mode
by raising a separate fingerboard to the tops of the frets for the unfretted mode
and lowering it for the fretted mode.
A pair of meshed rack-and-pinion assemblies are driven back and forth by a
lever the motion of which racks are translated to rails that cam the separate fingerboard up and
down through pins protruding inwardly from the rails into slide slots in
flanges of the fingerboard.
Mid year - Godin release the Multiac Fretless Nylon SA guitar.
2003
June - Ned Evett wins the North American Rock Guitar Championship.
December - Unfretted website created.
2004
September - A few items surface on ebay described as; Takamine fretless guitars,
with the first three frets intact, so you can still play chords.
The guitars are Jumbo types with no cutaway, and while they are made by Takamine
they are actually the Jasmine S35, a students model that can be purchased new for around $99
One offer on e-bay had a buy now price of over four times that!
Don't know who removed the frets, if it was a factory job or not,
but given the first three frets are still there it is going to be difficult
to set up action for good fretless operation.
About a dozen were sold in the USA and three or four in the UK, see the
Forum
for the full history. Careful with your money out there! --J
2005
August - A working fretted / fretless, switch on-the-fly, guitar is born
using a rolling fret type technology.
www.mikeyguitar.com
September 10th - 12th - The largest Fretless Guitar Festival in history takes place in
New York, USA to launch the CD Village of the Unfretted.
October - Some cheap copies / versions of the original
ARAM 2001 Fretless Guitar start appearing on ebay in the UK.
These are black with chrome hardware and have bolt on necks.
The headstock bears the ARAM logo and the words; "Technologies by USA"
(Originals were deep burgundy, through neck with black or pewter hardware)
Read the full story in the
Forum
before you buy.
October - Ed DeGenaro appears as "The Outsider" in Guitar Player
Full Interview (pdf)
November 5/7/8/9 -
Dutch Fretless Guitar Festival III takes place at
The Musicon (5th), Haags Pop Centrum (7/9th), De Pater (8th) Den Haag, Netherlands.
2009
May 29th - 31st -
Dutch Fretless Guitar Festival IV takes place at
Haags Pop Centrum (29th), De Pater (30th), Haags Pop Centrum (31st) Den Haag, Netherlands.
2010
May -
Dutch Fretless Guitar Festival V takes place at Den Haag, Netherlands.
June 26th - Glastonbury Festival UK -
Muse concert on the Pyramid stage, in the song "Resistance" Matthew Bellamy played a custom doubleneck,
top neck fretless - used in the intro and outro with sustainer. The guitar was custom made by Manson guitars and
has the model name "Casinocaster"
May -
Dutch Fretless Guitar Festival VI takes place at Den Haag, Netherlands.
2012
January -
Vigier release the Second Generation of Surfreter at Winter NAMM.
The fingerboard is now made of imetal, a chrome coloured metal that is harder than the previous Delta Metal,
it is also more resistant to wear, does not tarnish and will shine forever.
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