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Thread: fretless mando

  1. #1
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    I'm thinking bout building a fretless mando. Is this insane? Has anyone done it/played one? Any thoughts/opinions?
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  2. #2
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    First I would consider why you want to do this. If you decide you need to do it, I would think that a single strung instrument might make more sense than a double strung one. Then again (see below)

    There are folks playing these:
    Turkish cumbus

    Peter Fairbanks Miller plays one built by Rigel.

    Dick Levens hasa fretless electric.

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  3. #3
    Registered User otterly2k's Avatar
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    I think I remember a thread about this on one of the other boards... having to do with the need for quarter tones and slides in Klezmer and other world musics where the scales we consider "standard" appear to have huge gaps... Frets force the pitches into Western pitch concepts. Without frets, one could presumably play a wider variety of music with more accuracy.

    I think I remember that the short scale length and high tension makes it very hard to finger a fretless mandolin with clarity, but that it can work with electrics and single strung better... but if you think sustain is hard to achieve on mandolins WITH frets, it would be even harder without them. Fretless works for violins because the bowing technique creates the sustain...

    I'll look for the thread and see if I can post a link...
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  4. #4
    Registered User PaulD's Avatar
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    My first thought when I read this is how hard intonation would be, but it is the same scale length as violin. As KE pointed out, though, the single strings with lower tension makes violin easier... although it still doesn't take much finger movement to be out of tune. I would think it would be hard to get a pair of strings depressed at exactly the right place to maintain proper intonation. I'm sure it could be done with practice.

    I guess if you wanted to play with it you could either get a cheap mando, pull the frets, and fill the slots. Alternately, you could build a fretless and if you don't like it you could install frets.

    My two cents...
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  5. #5
    Ben Beran Dfyngravity's Avatar
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    I have no knowledge of building but I have contemplated the same thing many times. Since there are no frets, then the nut does not have to be as high? Or is my thinking wrong? Therefore with very light strings and lower action it would make freting a little easier on you, maybe not as easy as a really low action with frets. But thats just my thinking and very well could be wrong. I would love to here a fretless mando. And that Rigel looks amazing....I wanna play it.

  6. #6
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    Think about the sound of a plucked fiddle --- with no frets, you won't get much sustain, unless you build electric.

    Here's a fretless mando from Will Bright, at www.sunmandolins.com , he includes a bow with it



    I think Will posts here; you might ask him how it turned out.



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