source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 23 Sep 1995 01:24:41 -0700 Subject: Re: mic blues ensemble From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@compuserve.com> That sounds like fun. There is a technical consideration to work through carefully though: Fretless plucked strings other than the bass (since its strings are very heavy) tend to be somewhat muffled and have very short transients because of friction with the flesh of fingers. That is not necessarily bad of course, but it would undoubtedly affect how you would approach the musical styles you render on those instruments. Bowed strings of course don't have to worry about his because you're continuously imparting energy to the string. You suggested a fretless banjo. Like the Turkish one Ivor had, that would probably get around the muffling concern handily. It could become yet more percussive though, since the banjo is already more percussive from having an extremely resonant top (a drum head) that dissipates the energy of the pluck very rapidly - in a rapid, loud, short burst. That does bring to mind an interesting thought: Has anybody experimented with attempting to get a fretted-like sound from a fretless instrument by playing them with, essentially, thimbles on the left hand? Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 23 Sep 1995 14:22 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id FAA29468; Sat, 23 Sep 1995 05:22:45 -0700 Date: Sat, 23 Sep 1995 05:22:45 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu