Vintage is a hard term to apply to an Unfretted guitar.
It may be old, out of production, or a quirky one-off.
Anyway, here's a few, and if you don't consider them vintage...
Fretless Yamaha SA-1500
This guitar was one of 12 prototypes made in 1979
The one pictured was offered to Lee Ritenour but he declined.
The model never made it into production. Picture and info courtesy of Gary Bender.
Custom 48 Fretless Explorer
Crafted in the mid 1980s by Japanese luthier Yoshi, this Custom 48 shop NYC
is a through neck guitar using premium ESP parts, a Kahler locking tremelo system,
2x single coil and tapped humbucker, with selectable passive / active electronics.
Gibson Fretless Prototype #81628501
Fretless Nylon Chet Atkins Gibson that the company made specially for him.
Chet tells us Gibson initially built the guitar with red fret lines,
which he couldn't see, so they replaced them with white.
The serial number dates the guitar to June 1988
Harry Partch's fretless guitars.
The guitar on the left had a raised nut and therefore would be played as a lap guitar.
The guitar on the right would be played as a fretless guitar, the polished pin heads
on the fingerboard allowing the player to locate microtonal pitches.
Picture: Genesis of a Music - Harry Partch (1949) first edition only
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