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Microtonal Guitar (Fixed Fret) - Tolgahan Çoğulu

Microtonal Guitar - Tolgahan Çoğulu
Demos
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this demo3 months2015–2022 score 3
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Linked in music theory and tuning threads as a listenable example of microtonal guitar that sounds good.

Tolgahan Cogulu demonstrates a fixed-fret microtonal guitar, playing music that uses notes between the usual twelve semitones. The channel is dedicated to his microtonal guitar designs.

“Tolgahan Çoğulu and his awesome microtonal guitar creations” (HN, 2022)

3 recommendations · 1 citations · Demos

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@ZenoArrow May 2015 Recommends
on HN thread How Eddie Van Halen Hacks a Guitar
That sounds like a cool instrument, would be interested in hearing what it sounds like, do you have any clips of you playing it? I like the idea of a guitar that can easily reach lower registers. Whilst 7-string (and in Charlie Hunter's case, 8-string) guitars are possibly more versatile, I'm quite partial to baritone guitars. This sounds beautiful to me: [link] Talking of unconventional instruments, you may be interested in hearing these microtonal guitars, I think the second one in particular sounds pretty good: [this video]
Microtonal guitars that sound good.
@ZenoArrow Aug 2016 Recommends
on HN thread The same melodic sequence appears in a surprising number of recent pop songs
> "But don't hold your breath for oriental tuning. I don't see any reason why that would ever catch on. ick." I can understand your personal preference. That said, I think the ear is more adaptable than you might think, I've found myself enjoying music that employs microtones. To give one example, here's some Turkish music played on microtonal guitar: [this video]
Turkish music played on microtonal guitar.
@kortex Aug 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Why are D-sharp and E-flat considered to be two different notes?
Read more
Anyone who is interested in going down the beyond-12-equal-temperment rabbit hole: - xeharmonic wiki: [link] - xenharmonic playlist: [link] - Tolgahan Çoğulu and his awesome microtonal guitar creations: [this video] Some bands with more "approachable" sounds (vs the xenharmonic playlist, which gets spicy) known for microtonal work: Psychedelic rock: - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (namely albums Flying Microtonal Banana, KG, LW) - Altin Gün - Gaye su Akyol Classic blues rock (Led Zeppelin and the like, but also OG blues like Robert Johnson, that's another rabbit hole) also has a surprising amount of off-12Tet notes, because of the blues scale In the electronic realm, Aphex Twin does some interesting stuff with microtones - Jacob Collier - musical prodigy, mostly a capella/vocal arranging, but is a genre polymath, does some incredible stuff with just harmony If anyone has anything to add, please do! I can't get enough of this stuff
Microtonal guitar creations to explore beyond 12-tone equal temperament.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@rdlw Feb 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Music theory for nerds (2016)
Except for voice [0], any fretless stringed instrument [1], any fretted string instrument with separate frets for sharps and flats [2], keyboard instruments that allow expression [3], keyboard instruments with split flat/sharp keys [4], and electronic instruments that allow unorthodox tunings without huge hassle [5]... I'm sure I'm missing some, but other than that you're totally right ;) [0] [link] , [link] [1] [link] [2] [this video] [3] [link] [4] [link] [5] [link]
Example of fretted instrument with separate sharp and flat frets.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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