Every January, my friends Jason and Carl and I go to the NAMM Conference in Anaheim, which is, more or less, the CES for music gear. While I’ve been tempted by cool gadgets and incredible guitars every year, this is the first year I actually bought something I saw at NAMM — a walnut solid body electric guitar made by Taylor in their Builder’s Reserve line that is one of the most beautiful electric guitars I had ever seen. I’ve played a wonderful Taylor koa wood acoustic guitar for years, and love the instrument, so when Taylor unveiled their SolidBody electric line, I had to have one.
There were only 50 of these Builder’s Reserve guitars made, all from the same hunk of walnut tree that fell in the property next door to Taylor’s lutherie. I’ve been waiting months for it to arrive, after I ordered it immediately after NAMM through the fine folks at Wildwood Guitars in Louisville, CO, who also happen to be one of the biggest (and best) high-end guitar dealers in the country. If you are interested in seeing more, you can check out the rest of my photos of the guitar on my Flickr set, and you can watch this video about the guitars shot at Taylor’s suite at the NAMM show. Thanks for Taylor for making this incredible instrument, and thanks to Wildwood for helping me buy one!