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#1
01-27-2011, 09:47 AM
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*The 'Taran' Guitar Tour - A Review!* (From Scotland)
Hi everyone,
I thought I would post-up a review of the Tour Guitar that is currently going round the UK from Rory Dowling of Taran Guitars of Edinburgh , Scotland. Taran Guitars Website I have been playing for 20 years or so and focus only on fingerstyle acoustic these days...lots of celtic, DADGAD, and jazz fingerstyle arrangements.. I have played several Taran guitars before...I visited Rory at his shop in Edinburgh once (about an hour from me) and had the chance to play three different models...They got me interested in what he is trying to do out there and I gladly went on the TOUR list... Here is what Rory says about the tour on his website...with some pictures... This is my Tirga Beag MK2 (Large OM size) in Indian Rosewood (from Sefan Sobell) and Italian Spruce, the neck is Old Growth Brazilian Mahogany with Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood head veneer and Ebony bridge and fret board. The scale is 25.4'/ 645mm with Gotoh 510s tuners and fitted with a Headway under saddle system.   And before the finish went on...   I went with Rory to the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow as the guitar was being played that night By Matheu Watson on stage with the World-famous Indian musician Zakir Hussain...it was quite the most astounding musical experience...and the guitar sounded great!  I've passed along the Tour to the next chap...he looked excited and I am sure he will care for it well. I put a new set of Elixir Nano Phosphor Bronze 12s on it and gave it a polish and it was all good as new! First off I should give you a summary - I can definitely say that I enjoyed playing it all week, it grew on me as all good instruments should...it revealed more of its capabilities as I adjusted my playing to suit its strengths... I can see a clear progression from the Taran guitars that I played before and that is great to see..Rory is really going somewhere with his instruments...this would give me the confidence to order something from him in future and know that it would be built by someone who's really trying to innovate and move forwards.. I guess the brass tacks question is whether having had this guitar would make me more or less likely to commission one from Taran in future... The answer to that is 'more likely'...so that's all that need be said about that! So...it's split into sections... Playability Really liked the way things were set up...played almost perfectly...almost! I loved the neck...big and meaty but totally comfortable..a beautiful shape in the hand...nicely rounded edges with no sharpness anywhere to disturb the flow...lovely piece of mahogany too... There were minor changes I would have liked to the set-up but I dont think that's worth mentioning here...a guitar like this on a National Tour has to be set-up to fit all hands and that's no easy task... Minor set-up issues aside, I loved the playability...obviously it could easily be dialed in from where it was... THE SOUND Ah well, the sounds the thing isnt it? Why we play... This guitar certainly wasn't immediately what I would normally gravitate towards in terms of sound......I found it quite cutting and direct...not very forgiving... BUT....the next day things were much better...I had forgotten that Rory had just put new strings on it at the concert hall after we collected it! When the strings died down a bit and lost their zingyness things really started to come into focus...lots more sweetness and much less brightness...(I hate the first few hours of most strings, so this was totally normal for me...) I still wasn't sure what to make of it when I took it into my office to show my colleague who also plays...its a large open-plan office, like a shed...I played a few tunes for the staff, just fingerpicking some DADGAD stuff and some Martin Simpson melodies...people kept commenting on how good it sounded...even coming from twenty or thirty feet away...it really projects a lovely clarity and evenness of tone...it was easy to make it sound good for an audience with little effort... This is definitely in contrast to other guitars I have played in that room...my Forster struggled a bit more..it's slightly quieter with more of a harp-like sound...my Collings was good but needed more care to avoid dynamics getting out of hand ...bit more of a 'thump' to the Collings bass with quite 'heavy' sounding treble strings...(which I love when playing in small rooms) I wondered if this is from Rory's developing things with Matheu Watson and other performers...particularly those with a smooth style and more plectrum use...I can imagine this guitar fitting right in to a group setting or a recording studio...the tone is so even across the strings and so easy to get out that it would be my choice (out of the guitars I have) for these situations...it's almost like it had a built in tube compressor...and an EQ with the upper-mids bumped.... In fact one of the things that it reminded me most of was the projection you get from an archtop jazz box...but obviously with a very different overall sound.. But that was also what stopped it from being 'just right' for me...It wasn't as woody and warm as I usually go for...I would have sacrificed ten percent of the clarity and projection for ten percent more warmth/lower mids/woodiness... I wondered if it was the combination of the quite crisp-sounding euro-spruce and a more dense 'metallic' rosewood...or maybe the arching of the top and back? Heck, i don't know! But for me, I would probably want a less 'controlled' instrument...but I can certainly see why it would work perfectly for some folks...especially in a group setting, for a singer song-writer or for recording as I said. This is a very personal thing I know and others may well disagree...again, that's why custom builders exist! Fit/Finish/Appearance So, a bigger than average OM size (about 15 3/4") in Rosewood and Euro spruce...the woods are top notch and immediately strike me with their quality...the Rosewood is dark and deep with a nice tight grain...the spruce very 'creamy' in colour with close, even grain...the neck mahogany is, again, clean and simple...all ebony is black, glossy and smooth...the machines are the standard gotoh 510s...the bone nut and saddle are both just right... To be honest I care far far far less about how a guitar looks as long as it sounds the business and feels great to play...but with commissioned guitars this does make a bigger difference as it should be possible to reach closer to a personal 'dream' design etc... The styling strikes me as super-clean...not a wasted line anywhere and no extravagance...a new guitar shape must be something very hard to achieve, and I would be able to pick this guitar out of a line-up from just the silhouette which speaks volumes for the design... I love the bound sound-hole, and the purfling and binding is classy with super-tight mitred joints (which I really like to see...which probably makes me a bit anal...oh well...)...the insides are immaculate as well, so all you folk who like to get the inspection mirror out you wouldnt be disappointed (I do love to see that kind of attention to detail...) The finish is the same as on my Forster and the same as used by Stefan Sobell....applied by Dave Wilson in the North of England...in my experience this picks up a beautiful lustre as it ages... Overall? I had a great time with the Tour...a quality instrument which rewards all the time you give to it....it feels streamlined and functional like a professional music-making tool should... Its a classy instrument and I could literally feel and hear the last few years of development Rory has put into it.. For me I would like some tweaks, as is only to be expected for any guitar built on spec. by a custom maker.. ...but I would have total confidence that Rory would build me a guitar that I could love... I hope this review helps anyone here who has been interested in Taran's (or any other custom build!) ...it certainly made me think about what I am looking for! And thanks to Rory, for letting me in on the Tour...I appreciated it very much... Cheers, Damian and here is a video of Matheu Watson playing a similar model...(the audio is camcorder quality, the guitars sound much better in real life obviously... but its a lovely tune so worth a look....) Matheu Watson Taran Video 1 Matheu Watson Taran Video 2 Last edited by DamianL; 01-27-2011 at 12:07 PM. 
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#2
01-27-2011, 10:58 AM
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Great review, Damian. Thanks for sharing. I've not had the pleasure of playing a Taran, but would love to try it someday.
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#3
01-27-2011, 11:25 AM
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Looks like a very nice guitar. Curious about the width and depth of the lower bout.
Thanks for sharing. Cheers,
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#4
01-27-2011, 11:31 AM
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What a great review, Damian, thanks for sharing. Rory is a fantastic builder, and if I was going to commission a new guitar in the near future, I'd be giving Taran very serious consideration. I love the clean lines aesthetic of Rory's guitars, and the quality and tone are just wonderful.
The Taran road trip guitar guitar is due to come and visit me sometime in May, and I'm really excited about it - can't wait! Fliss Last edited by Fliss; 01-27-2011 at 11:41 AM.
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#5
01-27-2011, 11:52 AM
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The sizes are all on his website....
tirga beag sizes. Scale: 648mm (25.5”) Frets to body: 14 Body Length: 490mm (19.2”) Max Body width: 394mm (15.5”) Depth: 110mm (4.3”) Width at nut: 45mm (optional) Spacing at saddle: 57mm (optional) Is that not a trifle on the large side for you Fliss?  (Your love of the Parlor is well known...)I played a scrumptious little maple parlor at his shop which might have suited you... in fact it was the one on his site... http://www.taranguitars.co.uk/guitars_meilein.html I loved it...
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#6
01-27-2011, 12:21 PM
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Quote:
Possibly too large, but we'll see. I'm sure I can cope for a couple of weeks! I have tried one of Rory's parlours, and it was a wonderful instrument! That was at the Cheltenham Guitar show in 2008.... I wasn't in the market for a new parlour at that time, having just taken delivery of my Bascetta, but if I had been in the market, I would surely have bought that one. (However, in the interests of full disclosure I must confess that not being in the market didn't stop me from ordering a parlour from Andy Manson after trying out one of his at the same show. That's no reflection on Rory's guitars, it just says a huge amount about Andy's...  )Fliss
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