“The world’s first fretless guitar rockstar” -Guitar Player Magazine

Born in Nashville Tennessee, Ned started playing ukelele at age 11, graduating to his first guitar at 15. At 16, Ned got his first classical guitar and gave his first professional performance as a guitarist.

In 1984, Ned witnessed King Crimson ‘Sleepless Live in Japan’ on MTV, and was mesmerized by the fretless guitar wielded by Adrian Belew; this chance viewing would come full circle years later.

Intent upon developing a distinct style and sound on electric guitar, Ned benefited from Fulltone custom effects founder Mike Fuller working at a local guitar shop. He introduced Ned to the basic concepts of electric guitar tone, loaning him pedals and guitars to experiment with.

Ned won a college scholarship to study classical guitar, but a Michael Hedges performance in 1986 changed the course of his life; he dropped out of college to pursue songwriting and electric guitar full time. He spent the next five years traveling across the US playing six nights a week with numerous bands.

” The master of the fretless glass-necked guitar ” -USA Today

New years eve 1990, Ned had had enough of cover bands. He smashed his strat onstage and built his first fretless guitar from the neck which survived intact. He appeared with his fretless acoustic in the May 1993 issue of Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine, then on record with Warner Brothers recording artists Built To Spill in 1994.