unplugged & unfretted

Bio:

.. "unplugged + unfretted's" YOUTUBE CHANNEL is now up and running.

Hi Friends....

UNUN has just decided to expand into the realm of VIDEO!

Today - - - The UNPLUGGED/UNFRETTED YouTubeChannel was born.

Here is how it works. . . . . anyone who has a video clip of an acoustic fretless musical performance and would like to have it posted on UNUN U-TUBE then either:

1- upload this clip to YOUR youtube channel, and give us the link to it. We will download it from youtube and upload it with a new name onto UNUN U-TUBE.

2- upload this video to your FTP and give us the link.

3- send us a physical CD with the clip (send us a PM if you want this option)

www.youtube.com/unpluggedunfretted

- - -

..The ACOUSTIC FRETLESS GUITARISTS of the WORLD

.. The UNPLUGGED & UNFRETTED 2008 COMPILATION CD
NOW AVAILABLE!!!

"Unplugged & Unfretted" is a page exclusively devoted to the Acoustic Fretless Guitarists of the world. Any serious musician focused primarily on the non-electric, non-fretted guitar as his/her main instrument is welcome to be documented right here. To request documentation, just send us a message, and WELCOME!

Originally all guitars were acoustic. The invention of the electronic pickup, and it's application to the guitar, in fact signified the birth of an entirely new instrument. Playing techniques, sound, and musical possibilities are vastly different between acoustic and electric guitars, hense the absurity of the outdated notion that a "guitar is a guitar" be it acoustic or electric.

All music was originally untempered, and therefore all guitars were originally fretless, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the grandfather of all guitars was a fretless instrument. The guitar was born in Spain inspired by the "lute" which is a fretted version of the Middle-Eastern "oud" which is fretless.

Furthermore, all guitars were originally strung with low-tension "gut" (nylon in modern times) strings. The relatively recent invention of high-carbon steel wire and it's use on the guitar, has harolded appearance of yet another distinct genre of instruments; the steelstring acoustic guitar. The "steelstring" revolution tranformed the tonal colour of music around the world as the soft, warm sound of gut/nylon string instruments was suddenly replaced by the more fashionable, metalic sound of steelstringed versions of previously gutstringed instruments. Spanish guitars became steelstring guitars; ouds became lautos; Afgani rababs became sarods; sarangis became esrajs... very definately there is a genre gap between the nylon string and the steelstring world of guitarists and fretless guitarist, but for now, on this page, we shall consider an acoustic guitar as being either nylon or steelstring. In fact, some guitarists today are playing strings which are made from both steel AND nylon.

Welcome to the first space on the net dedicated to the new and undeveloped field of the Acoustic Fretless Guitar!

No fret, the easy way

 

Member Since:

September 13, 2007

Members:

Merih is a very talented and well-rounded young Turkish musician. He began early with traditional Anatolian folk music, but later, like so many others, experience an inner musical transformation after meeting the revolutionary musician (the world's first serious acoustic fretless guitarist) Erkan Ogur. Merih began playing fretless guitar and now allows his musical spirit to flow through a variety of instruments including Turkish-style acoustic fretless guitar.
myspace.com/merihaskin

Multi-instrumental, multi-genre, multi-tasking, multi-talented Gunnar Backman has been around for a long time offering his own unique breed of creativity to the world of music and the arts. Very pleased are we to have here Gunnar's fretless Dobro track... it is one of our very favourites!
brakophonic.com
myspace.com/brakophonic

South African Ben Badenhorst is a wild electric player who also plays the Acoustic Fretless Guitar. Ben's music shows maturity, fire, and openmindedness - melting together rock, jazz, African, and Indian influences.
myspace.com/defrostyourchops

Young and upcoming musical genius Matt Bearne is a cat to watch out for. Matt is new to the Acoustic Fretless Guitar but already plays with depth and accomplishment not found in many veterans. Matt has a profound and global musical curiousity and it will be very interesting to see where this will take him.
myspace.com/matthewsmusicshed

Melih is a very talented and sensative young Turkish guitarist who has been greatly influenced by the work of Erkan Ogur. Melih's work is highly melodic and shows a profound tonal sensativity.
myspace.com/merihaskin

Cenk is an accomplished and widely respected Turkish guitarist, equally at home playing Turkish makams on fretless Spanish guitar as he is playing modern jazz on fretted electric. He earns his living primarily by composing and recording his own original music for full length film productions and TV programs, therefore Cenk can usually be found in his private recording studio in Harem, Istanbul. Cenk's debut album is now complete and soon to be available.
cenkerdogan.net
myspace.com/cenkerdogan

Buzz is a newcomer to the world of the Acoustic Fretless guitar but has none-the-less deeply shocked us all with the beauty, depth, and maturity of his very first offerings. From L.A., Mr. Gravelle is a veteran guitarist of many styles but very likely will go down in history as the world's first Western classical fretless guitarist - he seems to have been the first, and to now hold the genre all to himself! So now, thanks to Buzz, we can finally hear classical guitar playing in "Just Intonation".
myspace.com/buzzgravelle

Neil Haverstick is primarily known for his pioneering music and research in the area of microtonal equal temperament - (what is THAT?)... or more simple put, playing and exploring the possibilities of guitars with more than 12 equally placed frets per octave. He is also intrigued and incredibly imaginative with fretless guitars, which of course do not deal with equal temperament. Neil is a veteran die-hard, soon to be reaching Legend status, who's career is now, after many decades of dedication, really beginning to blossom.
microstick.net
myspace.com/microstick

A fretless and microtonal guitar (19TET) player from Croatia. He was first introduced to guitar by his father at an early age. From that time affinity towards rock, experimental, blues, jazz was constantly developed. Jura teaches, performs, records, and proudly carries the beacon microtonality and alternative tuning systems into the world of music.
myspace.com/juricajelic

Kevin is primarily a fretted acoustic player well known and respected for his modern classical abstract intuitive style which feels something like quantum physics in sound form - however in recent years he has been drawn deeply to the fretless acoustic guitar. Featured as the 'exit' track on the new UNPLUGGED UNFRETTED compilation CD, we are all eagerly awaiting new AFG offerings from this immense talent.
kevinkastning.com
myspace.com/kevinkastning

Brad, from 3 Pups Music is perhaps UNUN's most original and alternative minded member. Brad has taken UNUN's non-materialist philosophy to new hights playing his self-built Acoustic Fretless Guitar which is in fact cut straight out of a sheet of plywood(!). Sounds GREAT to us!
3pupsmusic.com
myspace.com/3pupsmusic

A truly talented and unique "guitarist" from Spain, Mr. Perez began his career in L.A. as a successful studio musician. Success didn't satisfy him as he was soon bored by the commercial music he was hired to play. Fernando dropped this "job" and hit the road - he has since travelled ALL OVER the globe with the intention of learning local musics and then applying them to the guitar. This is what he does, in a far from typically superficial manner! Fernando currently lives in Alexandria, Egypt and collaborates with the finest musicians of the Middle-East.
.. mojorootsmusic.com

Edward began as an electric guitarist, but later switched to the sitar and Indian music. Over the years Edward's passion grew to include the oud and Middle-Eastern music. Known as one of the early pioneers of the fretless guitar after having modified a steel-string acoustic guitar into something which might be called a "sarod-guitar". Edward now plays a 33-string, 3 neck acoustic fretless guitar of his own creation, which was inspired by the oud, the sarod, and the acoustic guitar.
edwardpowell.com
myspace.com/edwardpowellmusic

Sandor Szabo is Hungary's first solo acoustic guitarist, beginning his career in the 80's. In the 90's he achieved international acclaim with his unprecedented work with the 16 string baritone guitar. In recent years Sandor has also included the acoustic fretless guitar in his repertoire and is featured on the 2005 UNFRETTED release "Village of the Unfretted". Sandors most recent addition to his astonishing collection of top quality acoustic guitars is a double-neck oud which he intends to play on his upcoming CD which will entitled "The New Hungarian Makam". There are more than a few of us who just can't wait to hear that!
sandorszabo.com
myspace.com/sandorszaboofficial

Acoustic fretless guitarist, teacher, painter, sculptor, Itsik also builds his own guitars himself at home! This Berklee trained Israeli musician is bringing yet another voice, another beautiful colour to the world of Acoustic Fretless guitarists.
myspace.com/ishetrit

Peter Thörn from Sweden offers our ears a breath of fresh wind and a taste of raw earth in a musical world forever dominated by sterile professionalism and pointless pursuit of technical perfection (nowadays called "shredding"). Peter present us with none of this nonsense but instead a rootsy, foot-stompin', right-out-of-tribal-africa groove on recycled acoustic fretless guitars rescued from the guitar graveyard. Peter is featured on track 5 of the UNUN COMPILATION CD.
myspace.com/peterthrn

Yan is a rare talent and a well kept French secret. His 10 nylon string acoustic fretless guitar can be heard on the opening tracks of the world's first fretless guitar compilation album "Masters of the Fretless Guitar". It is difficult to categorize Yan's beautiful, jazzy, understated music - except to say that he has successfully carved out a style uniquely his own.
yanvagh.com
myspace.com/yanvagh

Michael can be credited along with Jeff Berg and others, for bringing the fretless guitar movement into the mainstream - Michael is the founder of the NYC International Fretless Guitar Festival. Musically, Michael's playing style and personality are inseparably intertwined, the music clearly reflecting his courageous, exploratory, witty, and compassionate character.
themichaelvicktrip.com
myspace.com/themichaelvicktrip

Record Label:

Unknown Indie