More R. Taylor photos from NAMM 2006

February 14th, 2006

We’ve been getting more hits for the R. Taylor post than everything else combined, so I figured I’d put up some different shots of them from NAMM 2006. I don’t have much to add to the first post except to say the new tapered headstock design actually has a functional aspect apart from its visual role of setting the R. Taylors apart from the standard line. On “snakehead” style headstocks, to swipe a phrase from the mandolin world, the strings above the nut are in a straighter line than on other headstocks. This means the strings are less likely to bind or get caught in the nut, which makes moving into open tunings like DADGAD a little easier.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to Bob Taylor about this at NAMM, but I suspect that functional bit influenced his thinking on the headstock as much as the aesthetic part did. I know that making something look good is important to him, but making something work better is even more important. Speaking of Bob Taylor, that’s him on the left looking very natty in his T-5 T-shirt, which is of course promoting his guitar and not an as-yet-unmade Terminator movie. The guy in the middle is Larry Breedlove and the fellow on the right in the green aloha shirt is Tim Luranc. Larry and Tim have been friends with Bob since the days before Taylor Guitars existed and they have been working with him very closely on the R. Taylor project. –MJS

Entry Filed under: NAMM 2006, Guitar