How to make a fretless guitar with a glass fretboard!

Step 6 Afterthoughts.

There are a few things I would have done differently. The first would be to either remove the fretboard entirely and sub in a similar-in-thickness piece of glass, or ensure that I COMPLETELY SANDED OUT THE RADIUS! This gave me a severe loss in sustain and tone, and I'd hate to have some kid do this to his only guitar and ruin it. The other would be to make the contact points all of glass, as in the bridge and nut. I think this would change the tonal color in an interesting way, or maybe it would just deaden it? Who knows. You should get all your measurements perfect, as you can see in the pictures, I never allotted for the extra height of the fretboard, and I had to shim my bridge and nut.

Hope you guys liked it!

Comments

[ccurtis6]

Would you ever be willing to make that guitar again and sell it? I am extremely interested in this guitar. The almost cello look is beautiful. Glass fretboards are amazing. My only issue is that it doesn't have a classical neck. I'm currently doing an undergraduate degree in Classical Guitar, and I would love to show off this instrument.

[pigpenguin]

If you wanted markers you could use some etching cream might look cool to :D

[wellcausedwall]

 Southpaws unite! that thing would be perfect for a bit of combining fingering and slide, i always get a little too carried away with my slide on my acoustic and end up bumping over some frets, if i ever end up wih an extra acoustic this is definitely somethign worth trying out.

[JKibs95]

This is severely cool... video would make it cooler... Left-handed? Noticed your strings are on backwards...

[guitarman63mm]

Indeed, I am a lefty.

[the_eradicator]

So am I but lost part of my middle finger on my right hand and now I can't play a lick :-p

[TheGodsMustBeCrazy78]

One player comes to mind who excelled with this same handicap, Jerry Garcia! Dont give up just adjust to the challenge adapt brother adapt.

[christotrash]

Well Django could only use two fingers on his fretting hand(some would say 3) of course.

[JKibs95]

Oh man... that seriously bites... how'd it happen? (If you don't mind my asking)

[the_eradicator]

It happened while on active duty in the Army....thats all I am going to say....lol All part of being a soldier.

[monkeyboychase]

really? hmm i heard he was in a fire as a kid and they got fused together.. crazy... i will have to look it up.

[guitarman63mm]

Artillery crew? Many guys that lose their digits still try to play, with several coming to mind. In fact, in the style that the video is in-gypsy jazz-, the founder, Django Reinhardt, lost the ability to move his pinky and ring fingers, and became one of the greatest guitarists, if not the best, to ever live. I myself am joining the military once I get out of school...

[abadfart]

one of the guise from black sabeth was missing fingertips on his left hand and i once played with a bassest who was missing down to the second knuckle on most of the fingers on his right

[Jonny Katana]

Tony Iommi is the Sabbath member you're referring to, and he was actually the guitarist, not the bassist. He had prosthetic fingertips custom-made for his two damaged fingertips and strung his guitar with light-gauge strings. And he's still shredding :P

[Tsukasa]

Funny side note, it was a record of Django Reinhardt that inspired Tony to continue playing guitar after he lost his fingers.

[abadfart]

ya but the basest that i referred to was one of my buddies that we all called blender boy

[Jonny Katana]

Ah, I should've read that better. My bad.

[JKibs95]

... charming...

[abadfart]

he lost them when using a blinder hints the name and he always gave me crap for the nail threw my foot so its ok

[JKibs95]

Never mind... Just looked at your profile... left-handed...

[blazingpencilsdotcom]

Could you demo it with a bottle on your finger, slide guitar style? Wonder if you could find & cut some radiused glass, maybe from a car windshield. But how to keep the windshield from shattering when cut? Hmm.

[chainsaw66613]

windshield glass is tempered as well as coated. the only way to cut it is with a waterjet.tempered glass cannot be scored and cut, only scratched. a tiny ammount of sanding is possible, but with ALOT of grease on the sanding disk or belt. more often than not it explodes in your face. i work with tempered and annealed glass for a living. even the water jet solution is impractical as it is tremendously expensive and can still result in explosion. annealed glass can be redically shaped just like wood, but temperatures must be kept low by using grease or water. you can then polish the surface with a cotton wheel impregnated with a mixture of cerium oxide and water. and if it is glued entirely to the fretboard movement of the wood could cause breakage. glass will flex to a certain extent, but not much. however, the fretboard shouldn't experience tremendous movement. just use a semi soft adhesive like silicone caulking, but not liquid nails or mastick as they harden to a non moving state.

[srilyk]

High speed diamond wheel. But don't breathe the dust! Or really be anywhere near it, glass dust is nasty stuff.

[guitarman63mm]

I tried it, but there wouldn't be much of a point, being that it would sound the same as a normal archtop, being that the scale length is shortened by the slide, not by the sheet of glass. I thought about a radius, but it seemed impractical. Most people won't be able to tell the difference between no-radius and something like 9" anyways, especially in something like this. Cheers.

[marreola09]

Nice work!! I'm most certainly am going to give it a try!

[pmccarvalho]

I would love to here the sound of your guitar.