After about 85 days of waiting, my new R Taylor arrived last week. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take any photos until this week, and I know that without photos, it didn't happen. :-)
When the quiescing of R Taylor was announced in October, I knew I needed to order one while I still could. I have a beautiful sinker-over-IER Syle 2, and knew how special the R Taylor build was. I'd badly wanted a 12-string, and having played a few Taylor 12-strings at my local guitar store, I had a pretty good idea that an R Taylor 12-string would be out of this world. And it is. And who knows... it may be one of the last (maybe *the* last) 12-string to come off the line for R Taylor in 2011.
The best thing about this whole order was the way the dealer treated me though. I've been tight with this dealership for not-quite-a-year, and have developed a good relationship with them. I've had a couple of unexpected surgeries that have left me housebound (temporarily!) since about mid-December. When the dealer's sales manager let me know it was here, he asked when it'd be ok with me to deliver the guitar to my home. I was blown away. The sales manager brought it out himself, carried it downstairs to my study, and listened while I played it. ("Nights in White Satin" was it's first tune, BTW.) He stuck around for about 45 minutes, answering my questions about the strings, tuning, etc. I just can't imagine too many dealers that would make that kind of effort for one of their customers. I'm still blown away by that kind of treatment.
For folks interested in the technical side of things...
- Sitka top
- Flame maple back and side, neck
- no cutaway
- Ebony fingerboard, binding, head, tuner buttons
- slim carve neck
- neck width 1-7/8"
- standard scale
- Jescar fret wires
- Camel bone pins
I've gotta say this is an amazing instrument. It is, by far, the loudest guitar I think I've ever played. That may be the result of having so many strings -- I'm kinda a novice on the 12-string side of things. It's got a brassy sound, full of treble, yet still balanced with really nice lows, and so much cleaner sound than any of the other Taylors I own. I'm flat-out blown away by this instrument.
I've heard folks say that Taylor 12-strings sound "jangly", and I can understand why folks might say that after having heard this one. However, to me, it sounds like a calliope -- big notes, lots of simultaneous tones, and some incredible sustain.
OK.. enough writing... how 'bout a couple of photos? BTW, the photo of the back looks like the halves aren't matched up colorwise... t'aint true! Just an accidental (bad) trick of the lighting I used. Definitely need to do a much better shoot on this instrument.
http://www.phydeaux-deauxmayne.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/20120115-1836.jpghttp://www.phydeaux-deauxmayne.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/20120115-1835.jpg
