We are incredibly excited to have received our first new guitar from the workshop of Taran Guitars - a sublime Taran Mhor 12-fret model.
We previously previewed this instrument in our build thread, and are thrilled to show you the finished guitar in all its glory.
The Taran Mhor model sits between the smaller Taran Beag and the bigger Tirga Mhor model. This 12-fret version helps to keep some of the intimacy that players love about the Taran Beag but with more of a big-bodied sound akin to the Tirga Mhor.
The guitar features a wonderfully dark set of Master Grade African Blackwood for the back and sides, paired with a clean, pale set of Master Grade Italian spruce which has some subtle bearclaw markings to it.
A Florentine cutaway gives access to the upper frets beyond the 12-fret neck join on the incredibly comfortable, Scottish walnut neck with its slim C profile and Master Grade African Blackwood fretboard.
Tonally, this guitar is incredibly well balanced with generous projection thanks to the cylindrical back. The combination of African blackwood and Italian Spruce provides an immediacy to the notes as though you hear them before you play them. A soundport allows the player to hear a snapshot of what the listener receives - another lovely feature - while the gentle fan fret allows the strings to maintain their tension at low tunings, giving a tighter bass response to the guitar overall.
Decoratively, the guitar has some of Taran’s signature touches, including their hot sand fades over Claro walnut on the cutaway, arm bevel, headstock and rosette. The detail continues with Royal Fenland oak binding and a glorious yew and blue bird's eye maple purfling, providing such fine aesthetics in an incredibly tasteful way.
Rory and his team took the opportunity with this build to further develop the design of the Taran Mhor model, which features a new evolution of the Taran Compression Braces.
Taran say, "This African Blackwood Taran Mhor features the most recent iteration of our compression braces. For years now we've been working on developing our compression braces so that they will hold the back in its cylindrical shape, without relying on the tops of the braces to do so. We've managed to achieve this with these braces."
"They work in combination with our incredibly stiff laminated sides to hold the back in shape while allowing the back to vibrate more freely than our previous compression brace designs. These braces in particular are yew which we have found to be a fantastic material both for its strength and flexibility and also matches the detailing on the rest of the guitar. The gold anchor points on the braces now allow us to fine tune the curve of the back to an incredible degree before it is finally glued to the side unit. The sound that our backs make with these new braces is astonishing!"
Rory Dowling discusses these new braces in further detail our exclusive interview with him, which will be released later this month.
Let’s see and hear the guitar in action, in the masterful hands of Stuart Ryan:
Massive congratulations to Rory Dowling and his team on the completion of a quite astonishing instrument. This guitar oozes perfection in every way, I’m sure you’ll agree!
The finishing on any Taran guitar is always exquisite, and this Taran Mhor is no different. Every last detail is delivered with precision and excellence of the highest order.
This guitar is available now. For more information on acquiring it, please get in touch.
By Richard Poll, Founder - The Six-String Collective
