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Hi!
I recently purchased a Martin Taylor Virtuoso on an impulse buy. I´m suprised how good this guitar sounds: at 15" it is incredible loud and it has an acoustic sound that is punchy and articulate! I´m very impressed!
The shop couldnt tell the year of production and I never get a response from peerless via email... so, can anyone shade some light on how to read the serialnumber? PE3009118.
Looked under the floating pickup but there is no lable, no number... Any idea what PU peerless uses on these guitars? Could it be a KA without label?Last edited by lapideusvir; 02-23-2015 at 11:04 AM.
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02-23-2015 05:56 AM
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Hi,
My guess would be 2013, month 09 and the 118th guitar produced that month.
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OK, it makes sense, since these models where introduced ... 2012(?). The digit 3 maybe refers to 2013... Any Peerless Virtuoso users who know about the pickup or who have upgraded it?
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hijack alert...
I am wondering about those guitars... what is the back of the neck like. is it deep or more of a flatter classical style carve?
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Width at nut is 1.76" (44.68mm), width at the end fret is 2.33" (59.11mm).
Feels comfortable to me. I nearly always get used to different necks of guitars, imo it´s just a thing of acustimization by playing... Cant really tell if the neck is "deep", it isnt flat of course but no "baseball bat".
additional remark: I read somewhere that the neck and fingerboard construction is well suited for fingerstyle playing... I dont play fingerstyle and I dont care about Martin Taylor... I just think this guitar is great and has a phenomenal (acoustic and electric) jazz sound. To be honest, I wish I could delete the lettering "Martin Taylor" from the headstock, not that I dont like MT but I dont like having guitars with names on it.Last edited by lapideusvir; 02-23-2015 at 12:55 PM.
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Hi to all, a few nigths ago I was on the net wachting archtops in my iPad when I saw the Peerless virtuoso and suffered a GAS attack, so inmediately I Messaged Foulds music to reserve it, price has been 1290 € incluiding the bank money changes and transfer charges. A good deal? What was the cost two years ago? Mine arrive in about ten days.
Last edited by hagstrom; 12-30-2016 at 07:50 PM.
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how about the PU ? Is a KA.?
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Hi hagstrom,
I think this is a good deal! You will not miss a bigger guitar! For me the best (small) archtop I ever had. PU is KA, yes (although not labeled).
Experiment with strings. It will come with roundwounds, I prefer flats. Or try the Thomastik Swing 0.12 or 13.=great!
Have fun,
lapideus
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According to an interview way back in UK mag 'Guitar and Bass' Martin Taylor says the pickup on the Maestro is a KA, the one on the Virtuoso is a Peerless version. He said he likes the sound of both. When I tried both of these out 2-3 years ago in the UK, they were priced around £1000-Virtuoso, £2000- Maestro. Both nice guitars to play. I decided to pull the trigger a month later only to find Peerless had upped the UK prices by 80%! No further action taken. Recently these two guitars have started appearing again at close to the original prices - I guess nobody bought them in the interim - which anyone could have told Peerless would happen.
I have bought from Foulds before, and they are very easy and pleasant to deal with, and pack well.
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The PU on the Virtuoso is a non-labeled KA (I talked to Peerless personally at Musikmesse Frankfurt). I would not say the Maestro is a better guitar compared to the Virtuoso. It just sound a bit(!) differnet due to laminate vs. solid. At half the price of the Maestro the Virtuoso is second to none.
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Thanks so much for your words, I really apreciatte it. Cause I already have 3 Eastmans carved, I was looking for a nice laminated and confortable one. I had a monarch and a Manhattan, they sounded very fine but sadly I had to resell them cause there were 17", too much for my 1'70 mt. Tall. And the neck did not suit me as the 1'75" Eastman necks suit me. 16" is the maximum I can play, so two of my Eastmans are 16" but the other one the 605 that I found at Foulds is 15" really easy to play, it is the one that suits me better. So I think the virtuoso is going to go very well along with my 605, best of the two worlds, laminated and carved, and both with KA PU.
Lapideus, Yes, I use to use TI,s jazz swing 012, I'm glad to hear that you still enjoy your virtuoso.
Bananafist, Yesssss. Dan is the man.
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Please share your experience when you receive the guitar. Have fun!
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Before I bought my Maestro, I called around to understand the differences between the Virtuoso and Maestro (other than the price of course) since I did not have the chance to compare them by playing.
At the end, it was mostly a cosmetic decision for me, ebony fretboard with minimal inlay vs rosewood with dot fret markers. The reviews indicated almost no difference in the electric sound and little difference in the acoustic (both good enough for unplugged practice, neither good enough for acoustic performance). Maestro was available in all black finish also.
I really like the neck and the board on this guitar, great playability for my hands and style. The pickup and the electronics are slightly noisier than I like in the very beginning but I don't hear it any more after two minutes of playing into a Fender George Benson HRDx amp.
So I believe the Virtuoso is a superb deal to have, but you may be able to hunt down a great deal in a used or unsold Maestro too if you watch carefully.
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Yes, guitar is Going to be shiped from UK on January 9th, cause I am out from home till then. I'll write back some lines on mid January.
Last edited by hagstrom; 12-31-2016 at 03:17 PM.
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Well, the solid construction of the Maestro makes some sonic difference, but I also think that it´s a matter of taste. A laminated top doesnt mean the guitar is inferior. Maybe theres a difference in sensivity for feedback? I read that somewhere.
Originally Posted by medblues
Can you specifiy this? Do you experience humm, hiss, is the PU noisy? I dont hear this on my guitar. Originally Posted by medblues
Couldnt agree more! Originally Posted by medblues
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The noise is something between a hum or a buzz that is apparent in higher volume situations. It could be anything: component, shielding, wire. Unlikely to be the pickup. Feedback happens but not worse than my laminate Godin. Originally Posted by lapideusvir
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Serial number PE3017333, guitar has arrived today. As it happened to Lapideus I don't know how to read that serial number.
Last edited by hagstrom; 01-09-2017 at 05:38 PM.
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This reply is much later than the original thread, but is still relevant, I hope. I just purchased a Peerless Martin Taylor Virtuoso with serial number PE3008462. The other two serial numbers mentioned in this thread are PE3009118 and PE 3017333. One suggestion for PE3009118 was that the "3" indicates 2013, the 9 indicates the month, and the 118 indicates the 118th guitar. The s.n. PE 3017333 suggests a further or different deciphering. From the partial picture of that guitar it looks like it might possibly have a natural finish. If so, would 300 indicate a burst finish, and 301 a natural finish (was a natural finish available?)?
Any other Virtuoso owners out there who can add their S.N.'s to the list to enable further deciphering?
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This will probably only confuse matters more, but here goes...
On reverb.com right now there is a sunburst Virtuoso that is said to be from 2019. Its serial number is PE3018284.
Peerless Martin Taylor Virtuoso 2019 Antique Sunburst High | Reverb
Maybe the guess about the 300 vs 301 part (natural vs sunburst) could be accurate, but I don't see a correlation with the year of manufacture.
I am interested in the Maestro version, but am not really in the market right now. So when Martin Taylor guitars are discussed, I tend to read the thread.
Tony
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Perhaps this will remain a mystery. We would have to produce a reasonable representative sample, say 30 guitars, to make much progress on deciphering the serial numbers. Originally Posted by tbeltrans
I too was hoping to find a Peerless Maestro, after waiting a while I started gearing up for a Fibonacci. I saw this Virtuoso on Reverb and decided to buy it and give it a whirl. Just came today, it's immaculate. I will make a few minor adjustments, re-string with flatwounds and enjoy it for a while. We'll see if I bond with it over the long haul. Its combination of 24.6 scale, compact body size and floating pup is rare enough with few available alternatives.
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