Martin 5k and Asian 5-Style Copy from NAMM 2006

I was looking through the NAMM photos on my hard drive and I ran across this Asian 5-style copy. I forgot who made it but I thought it would be interesting to see what it looked like next to the Martin 5K.–MJS MYSTERY SOLVED: The Asian uke is made in Japan by Hosokawa under the Nakanishi brand. The model number is NS-200 and it’s made from mahogany rather than koa.-MJS

1 comment February 18th, 2006

More R. Taylor photos from NAMM 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

Add comment February 14th, 2006

Final NAMM 2006 Post

So, this is the last post about the 2006 Winter NAMM Show. I’ll leave you with a final batch of random images. Thanks again to Patrick Ford for taking all these photos for us.–MJS

Add comment February 7th, 2006

Al Dodge

Although he didn’t have a booth, Al Dodge was at the NAMM Show with his latest creation: a very nice concert uke that was inspired by the work of Jose do Espirito Santo. As with all of Al’s ukes, it was meticulously crafted and it sounded quite lively. Al is one of the founding members of the Cheap Suit Serenaders and is the leader of Dodge’s Sundodgers. If you want to contact him about his ukes, you can reach him through the Sundodgers’ page.-MJS

1 comment February 7th, 2006

Akulele

Joe Todaro, that’s him on the right, has ukes carved from a single piece of wood in a style that is similar to the way wooden charangos are made. (No, he doesn’t make them from armadillos.) The carved pineapple style is particularly striking.-MJS

Add comment February 7th, 2006

C.F Martin & Company

As usual, Martin had a load of guitars to show off at NAMM. Here are some of the fancier ones.-MJS

Add comment February 7th, 2006

Rickenbacker 5002V58 Electric Mandolin

Rickenbacker introduced the original version of this electric mandolin in 1958. The new version is a faithful repro and has an intriguing jingle-jangle, Byrds meets bluegrass tone.-MJS

Add comment February 4th, 2006

R. Taylor Guitars

Although the workshop for R. Taylor is on the Taylor Guitars campus, it’s actually a separate company. The crafting of R. Taylors is overseen by Tim Luranc, Larry Breedlove and Ed Granero, who are three of Taylor’s most skilled builders. (Tim has actually been with Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug from the beginning and was there on the very first day of business when they spent the day cleaning up from a flood instead of building guitars.)

The R. Taylors are built with a lot of handwork, and unlike the standard Taylor line, you can order them with different neck profiles and top bracing patterns. You can order guitars made from a wide variety of wood combinations, including tops of cedar and different varieties of spruce, and bodies of maple, koa, mahogany and Indian or Brazilian rosewood. You can also order them with abalone trim, but to my eye the wood is of such a high quality, the plain ones looked mighty fine.

Since they were displayed in a hotel suite instead of on the main NAMM floor, I could actually hear what they sounded like. I was particularly taken with the mahogany/cedar, but the maple/Sitka spruce with a cutaway also sounded exceptional. Production will be very limited and only a handful of selected dealers will be stocking them. The R. Taylor workshop is also something of an incubator for new designs, and the new GS shape, which is Taylor’s first new body shape since the Grand Auditorium came out over a decade ago, was developed there.-MJS

6 comments February 1st, 2006

Museum of Making Music

The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California, had a teaser display for an upcoming exhibit of Howe-Orme instruments. These mandolin family instruments are extremely rare and it was a real treat to see them all in one place.–MJS

Add comment January 31st, 2006

OME Banjos

Chuck Ogsbury of OME Banjos had a nice sampling of his work on display. The standout was this very fancy custom banjo with a very fancy price to match. OME shared a booth with Weber mandolins, which meant that there was some good bluegrass jamming going on pretty much at all times. -MJS

Add comment January 31st, 2006