'Wings'

*** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use.  The following is a post 
about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio.
Photographs by yours truly. ***

I wandered one fine day into a music store called Music 6000 located in Olympia WA.  I don't remember anymore what exactly brought me in.  I was probably needing to purchase something trivial like guitar strings, cables, drum sticks, drum heads, etc. Anyway, I ran straight into this Taylor 612ce set up front in the guitar dept.  Destiny, fate, love at first sight? One look, I knew I had to have it . . . What ever 'vibe' you want to call it, that's what hit me square in the face.  

When it comes to big (and expensive) equipment purchases, I'm usually pretty cautious.  I do a lot of research on the gear I'm interested in. Build a list of potential candidates from different manufactures. Compare features, costs and reviews.  I generally spend quite sometime narrowing things down until I reach a final conclusion.  In this case, however, I was 'three sheets to the wind.' Because all of my normally heedful modus operandi... my checks and balances... went sailing recklessly out to sea. I had, by this time however, begun to develop some faith in the Taylor® brand and so assumed (naively or not) this would automatically be a great instrument.  Luckily for me, it proved to be just that. The purchase of this guitar brought me out of the, "Martin camp", and into the Taylor one.  Not that I have any problem with C.F. Martin & Co.®.  They have a long-standing tradition of excellent guitars.  This was the time though when Taylor was the emerging upstart ; about to kick the established lord off the thrown. I was ready to be part of a guitar 'renaissance.'

A young Bob Taylor works on a guitar.

To simply say, 'I have come to love this guitar', would be a gross misstatement.  It has become much more than that.  This instrument is literally a part of me.  The only other guitar I can say the same thing about is 'Engedi 1.' I will have this instrument until the day I die!  And then it will be passed down to my progeny.  All you have to do is listen to it applied in the setting of a song like Divin' Down or Annabel In The Moonlight and you will understand.  I named this guitar 'Wings', referring to its wing shaped fringerboard inlays. Also, because playing this instrument feels like flying...