Ned Evett - AKA the Glass Guitarist,
his fretboard is mirrored glass fitted to a Fernandes Native-Pro guitar. Ned is at the forefront
of fretless guitar playing and his latest album "iStole" establishes him as a fine singer / songwriter.
Live pictures on the Gigs page.
In 2002/2003 I performed 40 shows with Satch as his support act, and was
invited to play the east coast leg of his 'evening with tour' in October
2004. The first week of the tour was all in Florida, which had just been
pummeled by 4 Hurricanes, people were ready for some entertainment.
For these tracks, recorded in Jackonville FL at the Florida theater, I used
just my fretless resonator which I've dubbed the Globro. I premiered this
guitar on tour with Frank Vigroux in February 2004, then did consecutive
tours with Jonny Lang, George Thorogood, and Eric Johnson. My approach to
playing the Globro and my signal chain evolved quickly under this busy
schedule.
The Globro has a rich powerful sound, I often seek out concrete stairwells
to warm up in. It weighs 18 pounds, so I have a neotech flexi-strap that
cushions the blow weight wise. The glass fingerboard is 3/4 thick, and looks
great against the polished aluminum. The Globro is outfitted with a
Highlander IP-1X Inline Pickup, I loop my voice by singing through the
resonator cone. It also features Planet Waves self-cutting tuners. I use
Martin Marquis Medium strings with a plain third .20, and heavy picks.
For the signal chain:
First is an ART Tube Levelar Conmpressor, into a Seymour Duncan Pickup
Booster, into a Boss OC-2, into two Line6 Dl4s ( one for looping and one
for delay effects ) then straight into two channels of the Digidesign Venue
Live Mixer Satriani was using for his last tour. The mixes are just the two
mono channels, one voice one guitar, with a touch a reverb on mixdown on the
voice track. Doug Nightwine was the Front of House Engineer.
The response on the tour was phenomenal, the songs off of my latest record
still feel fresh after a year of touring. I feel like the Globro really
connects with people sonically and visually too. I made a roadbot movie for
this tour as well:
Following these gigs, I began to incorporate my electric into the solo act,
switching off mid-song from globro to my sustainer guitar. I did a tour of
Australia in March 2005 with this set-up, and I'll be bringing both guitars
to the UK for my July 5-25th tour.
Fretless guitar rocker, performs and records with the Kraft Quartet, a New York City based
vintage instrumental ensemble that recently finished a full length album featuring songs published by ARC
Music that was mixed by Mitch Easter and mastered by Brent Lambert. He is also busy recording and releasing
music for his independent label Microearth Records and working at the Fidelitorium studio, located in the
Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina. His fretless guitars include several Fenders including a converted
40th anniversary MIJ Strat, an Epiphone hollow-body, and a custom built fretless by John Bolin of Boise,
ID, who client list includes Keith Richards, Ron Woods, Albert King, Lou Reed, ZZ Top and Joe Perry.
Morgan has exclusively performed and recorded on electric fretless guitars since 2004, when he switched
from playing bass to guitar after hearing the Black Keys record Thickfreakness.
Morgan Kraft has produced and engineered recording sessions in Boston, New York, Los Angeles,
Philadelphia, Northampton, and North Carolina (Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Asheville, Marshall).
Recently he has worked in various studios with Mitch Easter, Mark Williams, Bob Margolin, Mookie Brill,
Sean Costello, Junior Watson, Nappy Brown, Drunk Stuntmen, Jeffrey Dean Foster, Wayne Robbins and the
Hellsayers, The Sammies, Insanity Wave, Steve Davidosky (Dixie Dreggs), Trace Reading (Man or
Astro-Man?), Greg Garring, Charlie Faye, and the Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble.
As a composer, he has had works recorded by members of the New York Met Opera, the LaScalla Opera and the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has composed/performed with modern dance at Jacobs Pillow and was
commissioned by the North Carolina Chamber Symphony. Classical works include music for string quintet, solo
trombone, solo piano, brass quintet, soprano voice, cello, oboe and viola, and symphony orchestra. His
original music, as well as recordings of the Kraft Quartet are available for download through iTunes and
through Microearth.
www.microearth.com www.kraftquartet.com www.morgankraft.com www.myspace.com/morgankraft
I first became aware that you could have a guitar without any frets when
I was a kid, and Guitar Player magazine profiled Randy Roos who was
playing a hybrid double-neck electric, one neck of which had a stainless
steel fingerboard. Sad to say, I still haven't heard the album he did, and
it's out of print, but the article and accompanying photo were sufficient
inspiration for me to design and start building a metal fingerboard
electric when I was 14. As I never finished the guitar, my experience
playing fretless instruments came from growing up playing fretless
electric bass, acoustic bass in orchestras, and eventually a little cello.
I always wished I could have a guitar without frets, and a cello with them
aka a viola d'gamba. Part of that has come true as a result of the
wonderful work done for me by the amazing Paul Erhart in Denver. Paul
converted a flamenco guitar with friction pegs for me by removing the fret
wire and replacing each fret with a perfectly sized & matched piece of
white maple. Paul's attention to detail and ethical approach have always
won me over. I remember having a crack in the side of my classical guitar,
and Paul, when putting wood cleats inside the guitar to hold the cracked
seams together, noted that the luthier had stained the inside of the
guitar, and took great pains to match the stain exactly before putting the
cleats inside the instrument.
For years, I used that guitar primarily as an ensemble instrument, on
records by myself and others, and when playing with my throat singing
teacher's ensemble from the Buryiat Republic, Uragsha. (On my own Shirts
Against Skins CD, which you can check out at:
www.itunes.com/adrianromero
it is featured prominently on the tracks Crave & Wake Up!) In 2008, my
friend Yan Vagh asked me to play in the New York Fretless Guitar Festival
with him, and that was the first time that I wrote and performed music
that approached that guitar as a solo instrument.
In the near future, I am having Ned Evett convert an Ibanez Artist
electric guitar for me, so that I can have a glass fingerboard fretless
version of my favorite electric guitar. We'll see what racket surfaces
when this is complete."
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