Celebrating the rich musical heritage of mahogany, Taylor Guitars is pleased to expand its popular mahogany 500 Series with several new all-mahogany models.
Frankfurt, Germany (April 12, 2013) -- Celebrating the rich musical heritage of mahogany, Taylor Guitars is pleased to expand its popular mahogany 500 Series with several new all-mahogany models. Offered in all five Taylor body shapes, the models are making their debut as part of a special First Edition offering at the Musikmesse trade show in Frankfurt, Germany.
Mahogany has been prized by instrument makers for decades for its beauty and tonal strength, offering players a meaty midrange character with a strong emphasis on the fundamental frequencies, especially with the inclusion of a mahogany top. "It's a strong, direct sound," says Taylor master builder Andy Powers. "Mahogany acts as a natural compressor, so once a note has been played and the frequency set in motion, you hear the pure note without complex overtones." With its dry, crisp projection, mahogany lends itself to a variety of playing applications. "It works well in a live setting, amplified, on a recorded track with other guitar parts," Andy elaborates. "Musically, mahogany offers a lot of versatility. Whether it's someone who is playing with other musicians or a solo fingerstyle player, it will amplify well and make an amazing stage guitar."
The new all-mahogany guitars will be released in a limited run of First Edition models in each of Taylor's body shapes: the Dreadnought (520), Grand Concert (522), Grand Concert 12-Fret (522-TF), Grand Auditorium (524), Grand Symphony (526) and Grand Orchestra (528). Each guitar features special appointments, including ivoroid binding, a black pickguard, and a new "Century" inlay, which incorporates a retro-inspired progressive fretboard pattern and headstock detail. Each guitar will be available with optional Expression System electronics and/or with a cutaway and available at Authorized Taylor Dealers.
For more information:
Taylor Guitars
It’s almost over, but there’s still time to win! Enter Stompboxtober Day 30 for your shot at today’s pedal from SoloDallas!
The Schaffer Replica: Storm
The Schaffer Replica Storm is an all-analog combination of Optical Limiter+Harmonic Clipping Circuit+EQ Expansion+Boost+Line Buffer derived from a 70s wireless unit AC/DC and others used as an effect. Over 50 pros use this unique device to achieve percussive attack, copious harmonics and singing sustain.
Does the guitar’s design encourage sonic exploration more than sight reading?
A popular song between 1910 and 1920 would usually sell millions of copies of sheet music annually. The world population was roughly 25 percent of what it is today, so imagine those sales would be four or five times larger in an alternate-reality 2024. My father is 88, but even with his generation, friends and family would routinely gather around a piano and play and sing their way through a stack of songbooks. (This still happens at my dad’s house every time I’m there.)
Back in their day, recordings of music were a way to promote sheet music. Labels released recordings only after sheet-music sales slowed down on a particular song. That means that until recently, a large section of society not only knew how to read music well, but they did it often—not as often as we stare at our phones, but it was a primary part of home entertainment. By today’s standards, written music feels like a dead language. Music is probably the most common language on Earth, yet I bet it has the highest illiteracy rate.
Developed specifically for Tyler Bryant, the Black Magick Reverb TB is the high-power version of Supro's flagship 1x12 combo amplifier.
At the heart of this all-tube amp is a matched pair of military-grade Sovtek 5881 power tubes configured to deliver 35-Watts of pure Class A power. In addition to the upgraded power section, the Black Magick Reverb TB also features a “bright cap” modification on Channel 1, providing extra sparkle and added versatility when blended with the original Black Magick preamp on Channel 2.
The two complementary channels are summed in parallel and fed into a 2-band EQ followed by tube-driven spring reverb and tremolo effects plus a master volume to tame the output as needed. This unique, signature variant of the Black Magick Reverb is dressed in elegant Black Scandia tolex and comes loaded with a custom-built Supro BD12 speaker made by Celestion.
Price: $1,699.
Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine is one of the loudest guitarists around. And he puts his volume to work creating mythical tones that have captured so many of our imaginations, including our special shoegaze correspondent, guitarist and pedal-maestro Andy Pitcher, who is our guest today.
My Bloody Valentine has a short discography made up of just a few albums and EPs that span decades. Meticulous as he seems to be, Shields creates texture out of his layers of tracks and loops and fuzz throughout, creating a music that needs to be felt as much as it needs to be heard.
We go to the ultimate source as Billy Corgan leaves us a message about how it felt to hear those sounds in the pre-internet days, when rather than pull up a YouTube clip, your imagination would have to guide you toward a tone.
But not everyone is an MBV fan, so this conversation is part superfan hype and part debate. We can all agree Kevin Shields is a guitarists you should know, but we can’t all agree what to do with that information.