Our 150th Guitar!

I’m very pleased to introduce our 150th Guitar - the DS15. The DS15 was built as a celebration of the last 16 years of Taran Guitars and everything we’ve learned and developed through the DS series. While this is the 150th guitar, if we include our other instruments we’ve actually built over 215 instruments!

We chose the Tirga Mhor as the model for the DS15 as we feel it best represents how our guitars have evolved and developed over the years. I have collected some truly extraordinary woods over many years and it seemed fitting to be able to use some of the finest for this - our 150th guitar.

The back and sides of this guitar feature some beautifully figured Brazilian Rosewood which was procured from Stefan Sobell with full paperwork. Stefan has always been somewhat of a silent mentor to me so it means a lot to able to use this wood for such a special guitar.

We chose some exhibition grade Adirondack spruce from our amazing suppliers in the US who we’ve had the pleasure of working with for years. The neck was made with some incredibly rare, very straight grained Santos Mahogany.

The guitar is appointed throughout with a very special piece of Scottish Burl Elm that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. It is dense and phenomenally tight without the usual sort of knots, and has this heavy swirl throughout which gives it a beautiful, creamy depth. The purfling is 100% FSC African Blackwood with Rippled Scottish Sycamore Veneers.

The side interior is laminated with Special Reserve Burr Walnut veneers from the Lotus factory. Lotus used these veneers for the dashboards in their cars c. 1985! The internal flush lining are Cocobolo which were gold leaf gilded to give a subtle flash of gold when you look in through the sound port.

For the full specs, check out the DS15 page here.

Our aim for the DS15 - the last of the DS series - was to really make sure the natural beauty and textures of these incredible woods were the focal point, juxtaposing the wild figures with the clean, simple beauty of the soundboard and neck.

Exploration has always been at the heart of Taran. As a self taught maker I’ve always had to find my own ways to build, and at Taran we’ve never been afraid to try different things in order to learn and develop. The DS series has encapsulated these ideals and the 15 guitars in the series really represent the evolution Taran Guitars has gone through, not only in the past 4 years of the DS but the entire 16 years of the company.

The aesthetic of the 150th guitar is the result of a natural progression, leading us to this rich flowing aesthetic, which gives the materials room to shine, further emphasised with hot sand fading. The use of colour has become less of a bold statement in our design and is now more of an accent used to complement the woods natural beauty.

Although the DS15 marks the end of the DS series, we still have so many new ideas which we want to pursue. With this in mind, we are currently considering our next range of instruments which will look at the relationship between player and instrument in much more detail.

Stay tuned.