I just got through assembling a Frankenstein fretless banjo. An old pot from a nameless tenor banjo with skin head, a failed experimental neck from a bluegrass banjo with the frets removed and planed a bit. Old used waverely tuners and like that.
It's my very first visit to the world of fretless and I've spent several joyful hours slip sliding away. I strung it up with nyguts and the first hour or so was a nightmare of strings stretching and slipping and fingers struggling to go to where they needed be but eventually it all came together and I was producing wonderful honking and sliding tones that I had never heard come out of a banjo.
So I've gone through much of my repertoire and I realized some songs lend themselves to this type of banjo much better than others. I find that I have simplified several tunes and they sound great with far less notes.
So my questions are this: Do you have favorite tunes you play exclusively on the fretless? And what might they be? Are there tunings that work better and perhaps tunings to stay away from? Are there any special techniques you apply only to a fretless? Small curious minds want to know!
I'm having a ball with this. It's way more fun than I would have ever imagined. I'm still tweaking things like nut and bridge height and bridge type and placement. I suspect that will go on for awhile.
And yes I'm sure there's a ton of stuff in the archives but I find the search function for that to be far less than pleasant. So what can you tell about playing fretless?
