NGD - oh, what a feeling!

[fazool]

I used to play electric and switched over to acoustic when I came back to guitar playing. I love acoustic now but always thought of playing a little electric, too. I bought a few electrics, including my beloved sentimental old electric Gibson - which I love having.

But I really (I mean REALLY!) wanted a guitar that felt like my short scale Taylor.

Well, I stumbled across one.....here was my GAS post:

Originally Posted by fazool

So.......it turns out this guitar, on paper has literally everything I've wanted in an electric guitar.
...
As silly as it sounds I've been intrigued by the Dean Signature Rik Emmett flying V from the MTV-80's era. The interesting thing about that was that he was a guitar virtuoso and that was their breakthrough period and he had this custom made with just a single bridge-placed humbucker and a single volume knob. Everything else was done with pedals and the amp. Everyone else seemed to be going nutso with double and triple pickups, coil tapping, coil splitting, parallel and series wiring and a million variables. On my Gibson, I always keep the knobs in one place (on eleven) so thought this concept of "simple" made sense.

I wanted an electric that closely mimic-ed the feel of my short-scale GC7 to make the transitions seamless.

So, my mental checklist was:

• Taylor neck profile - check!
• 1-3/4" nut (most have 1-11/16") - check!
• 24-7/8" short scale - check!
• Simple single pickup - check!
• High gain humbucker - check!
• flat/slab body (no carved top) - check!
• contoured cutaway - check!
• arm bevel - check!
• Bolt-on adjustable neck - check!
• no plastic overlay on headstock (nice streaked ebony) - check!
• Black body, chrome hardware - check!
• Ebony or rosewood fingerboard (the latter) - check!
• Tapered Taylor headstock (my fav aesthetic!) - check!
• Upgradeable - check!
• No cheap build quality skimping brand - check!
• Guilt-free affordability - check! check!

Can't wait to post NGD pics and impressions. I lived on my electric guitar back in college and have pined for a little more electric playing time. Super psyched about this.

And today I received it, installed my black Schaller strap locks, plugged it int, tuned it up and noodled around.

This is simply love at first play! Thus electric is the one I've been searching for. It is simply everything I wanted in an electric. Everything! And it's gorgeous - the headstock has a beautiful subdued grain streaking (that doesn't show up in photos real well).

I also was pleasantly surprised to learn that this has a built-in coil split pull switch, which works really well (better than the coil tap on my Gibson).

And these pickups are truly great - very hot, but crystal clean.






And, here is my new "wall of Taylors"




The only thing I don't like is the black plastic truss rod cover - so I am going to get a nice low-key one, maybe from Bill Nichols again.

[donh]

That looks like a very fun guitar! :-)

[pieterh]

Congrats on the new Taylor! Looks neat and I'll bet it's a lot of fun to play too.

Enjoy!

[blue]

Dig it! I'm a fan of MOT guards. I too wouldn't have expected the coil split on such a straight-forward machine. What a great surprise!

[fazool]

I've owned the following

1956 Gibson ES-225T
1967 Gibson Melody Maker SG
1980 Gibson Sonex 180 Custom
2012 Les Paul Junior Deluxe
1981 Gibson Sonex 180 Custom

So, one would think Gibson is my preferred electric brand.

But, there really is something in their secret sauce: this guitar is so comfortable and the playability is just indescribable. It was like alien robots snuck in to my bedroom while I was sleeping and took measurements of every part of me and then designed a guitar on their super-computer that perfectly matched my body. Clearly I'm smitten but that's the way this feels.

[Dru Edwards]

Congrats!!! Nice pic with the cat . As much as acoustic is enjoyable to play there's something special about an electric. Enjoy.

[Sombras]

Congratulations! I once missed the chance to pick up a Taylor solid body and have regretted it for four years.

OK, now the inevitable gear-geek question: What are you playing it through?

[ifret]

Very nice....enjoy!

[fazool]

Originally Posted by Sombras

Congratulations! I once missed the chance to pick up a Taylor solid body and have regretted it for four years.

OK, now the inevitable gear-geek question: What are you playing it through?

So far, I have only noodled around with my Vox Amplug AC30 headphone amp and my Fender Acoustasonic 15W acoustic amp. My big amp is a 1980's Peavey Special 130 Solo, which is a killer solid state amp.

[The Growler]

Congratulations! That should be a lot of fun.

[BoneDigger]

Heck yeah! Looks like a lot of fun for sure!

Todd

[Texsunburst59]

VERY nice. I've never had the opportunity to play one of the electric Taylors.

I've heard they're great guitars, and it's obvious that you agree.

Congrats and Enjoy your new Taylor.

[Darwin]

Very nice, first single pickup that I have seen. They are great guitars! -- Darwin

[Crash]

Very cool. It's the first single pickup version I've seen as well.

I'm curious about the single knob. I assume it's a volume knob but why isn't there a tone knob as well?

Enjoy.

[fazool]

Originally Posted by Crash

Very cool. It's the first single pickup version I've seen as well.

I'm curious about the single knob. I assume it's a volume knob but why isn't there a tone knob as well?

Enjoy.

No - I've never had a guitar without a tone knob and was intrigued when I read about the one I described above. It made so much sense to me- I usually dial in my preferred tone and then use amp/pedal settings so, effectively, my tone knobs never moved. This is beautifully simple.

The volume knob also has a pull-up coil split function so its a high-gain (their name for a hot) humbucker or a single coil. This is the most effective split humbucker I've ever heard - I don't know singles real well, but it sounds like a totally different guitar - last night I was messing around with my telecaster-twanginess. Others I've had (*cough *cough Gibson) barely made a difference.