Simple elegance is always welcome, IMHO. And of course, it's gotta all be about the tone, regardless of its appointments, or lack thereof.
Side note story: one of the recurring criticisms (of regular joes on various boards/conversations) I've witnessed over the years about R.Taylor is how for that price, you can easily get a Taylor BTO and spec it how
you like. True. But I think this misses the point entirely of what RT is trying to do at its core: build an exceptional
sounding guitar. Yes, they seem to take pride in their wood selections and variety of "custom" options, but their "basic" models would make zero headlines in the bling department. Look at all the base-line RTs: they are very plain looking, with the rosette being the only default adornment (and even that can be nixed). How ironic (to me, anyhow), that for those who criticized RT that this upscale marque really is
not about the visual appointments but
the build, which creates its voice; it's "upscale" voice, as it were.
Why do I bring this up? Because the so-called "plain look" has always been there with Taylor
because it appeals to lots of folks. The 3s and 4series are largely unadorned, and are huge sellers. And if one wanted to BTO a "higher end" Taylor but retain the plain look, then that's easy, too. But then there's RT whose "plain look"
is their very foundation ...no BTO, no pickguard, no fret markers, no bling, no gilding the lily (unless ya want to
); just superlative build practices yielding great tone (IMHO, of course). So there's my long answer. A "purposely plain" Taylor? ...yeah, I think there's already a lot of interest
Edward
