If you had a mechanism to change the string tension instead of length, then the frets on the neck would still be correct. You'd wear out your strings a whole bunch faster, though, doing this.

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latkin 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

This exists and there are a few artists who feature it, e.g. Michael Manring https://youtu.be/lt5jVpno2yI

	▲	72deluxe a day ago \| parent [-]
		I can only imagine the difficulties to truss rods this would cause with associated neck warping over time.

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TylerE 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Called a whammy bar. They don’t really wear the strings out though. Steel on steel contact is pretty low friction and the strings go dead from skin oils way before it would be an issue.

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stephencanon 2 days ago | parent [-]

Whammy bar is continuous; for the use here you'd want something discrete.

	▲	jimnotgym a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes but....jeff beck used it often to find descrete notes
	▲	sublinear a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		You have the wrong mental model because the guitarist chooses when to pick, when to mute, and when to bend. It can be either continuous or discrete. Vocals are also "continuous" by your reasoning, yet most notes are sung in a "discrete" way. A precise whammy bar technique can be accurate in pitch (arguably more accurate than frets due to their fixed equal temperament intonation) and you get the added bonus of no fret noise. Fretless guitar necks exist for similar reasons. I'm actually now curious if there exists a guitar with a fretless neck that runs the full length of the string from nut to bridge.