[jahloon]

Anyone seen an Aram 2001 fretless before?

The website www.aramguitars.com doesn't give pricing.

Why have we missed these? Think they are from Nashville.

Just like buses in the UK, along comes another in an e-bay auction:

e-bay Aram fretless from Wild Rainbow Music in London.

No reserve and the bids are up to £51 as of Saturday morning. Seller does a 14 day money back g'tee and a year's warranty.

--j

[Kai]

They look nice, would love to try one. I question the assertion on the site, though, that they are "the world's FIRST production fretless guitar" - I consider the Vigiers to be production models, not bespoke, even if the runs are limited in quantity.

But any new manufacturers are welcome, of course.

[Newbie Brad]

They haven't responded to my email.

[jahloon]

With over 350 Vigiers out there they have to be in serious production, pity Aram's marketing dept didn't look into that in more depth.

Aram didn't reply to my e-mail either. The ebay one has suddenly been pushed up by a mysterious (0) sale bidder. Just what Villager always warns us about. Will not be bidding on that item.

Would be nice to know the US dollar price.

Jeff

[thejim]

Hmmm, it looks quite cool. But why have a floyd rose on a fretless guitar? It won't be very useful and will ruin the sustain. Looking at the other guitars that the seller is knocking out I think it is best to give it a wide berth!

[Newbie Brad]

I'd like to try a Floyd on a fretless. Hoping to start again on converting my old Kramer.

[Kai]

Newbie Brad, on Oct 4 2005, 10:09 AM, said:

I'd like to try a Floyd on a fretless. Hoping to start again on converting my old Kramer.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps you should try one of these bridges of his - the Speedloaders. The rapid string change feature is nice.

Just checked one out the other day (on a Floyd Rose guitar - quality for the price, < $500, seems good enough to consider for a fretless conversion, see Emre's maxim) at a local guitar shop. Apparently Floyd was in the shop recently to deliver the latest batch.

I initially left the whammy on my Yamaha post-frets, but used it so little I took it off.

I'd get the fixed one myself, but if you're gonna get a whammy bar, this looks like the one.

[jahloon]

Welcome VisualSound!

Like Emre says, a cheap guitar often becomes a quality instrument, once defretted.

Perhaps the frets hold them back?

Jeff

[Newbie Brad]

So sorry, that last one was mine. I'm visiting on my friend Jim Hearn's computer. Jim's project is VisualSound, http://www.myspace.com/visualsound. He liked the cd and I'm trying to get him on to the fretless instrument.

[Kai]

hmmm, now that I've had a second look (online), The FR guitar might be problematic for a fretless conversion due to its special strings - bullet ends on both ends to fit his particular hardware, and they're prestretched, with standard tuning in mind. Also roundwound. Bleh.

One could modify one's own roundwounds by adding a bullet end on the headstock end of each string. (Where to get such?) Some careful work with pliers, or maybe there's an existing tool just for crimping little tubes of metal onto wire...

Then one could have the quickchange advantage of the FR guitar in a fretless. If you're going to try a lot of whammy work with a fretless, string break frequency may increase, so it's worth looking into. (One reason I don't use a whammy bar any more, besides the fact that similar effects can be accomplished via munging and zinging, etc., is that my strings last much, much longer now.)

But the bridge still looks good for adding to a standard guitar, assuming standard ball-end roundwounds could be fit into it.

Time to go back to the guitar shop for a closer IRL look.

Will check out VisualSound soon.

[transient]

Newbie Brad, on Oct 4 2005, 08:57 PM, said:

that last one was mine.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow Brad, you're getting better at this

.
e

[Newbie Brad]

Wylie Coyote'....

[jahloon]

Well the ARAM sold for £86.56 an odd sum but the winner - kkaammeelliiaann should be happy at that price.

Perhaps we will hear from him.

I've e-mailed ARAM requesting their permission to put up a link up to their site, but nothing has been heard from them.

Jeff

[Villager]

Oh dear, its all happening again.

Another ARAM appears on e-bay, two players tiddling it out, up to £31 so far.

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...item=7355874378

Make your own judgements!

V