Martin Taylor reveals his new Fibonacci 'Joya' model

**stevus** · 10-03-2018, 10:28 AM

Nice guitars, though I notice that the line between sharing opinions/information and advertisement is rather thin...

**iim7V7IM7** · 10-03-2018, 12:49 PM

Yes, Roger's main shop is in NY (LI City in Queens) where guitars are assembled and set up. He may have established a local Japanese site for instruments going to Japan (vs. shipping them back to the US only to go back there), but I honestly do not know about that.

Originally Posted by stevus

Evidently for the travelling musician a (smaller) laminated guitar will be more convenient, ergonomically, weight, as well as less feedback prone in venues. It may not be coincidence that these days you see on stage the better younger players with smaller guitars.

Are you sure they do that in NY? You can get Sadowsky guitars in Tokyo fully assembled/set up as well.

**QAman** · 10-03-2018, 01:55 PM

For those wondering how the Joya compares to the Peerless Maestro here is an example from Guitars n Jazz.

**Jim Soloway** · 10-03-2018, 03:04 PM

A couple of thoughts about the number of guitars with which MT has been associated ...

Yes there have been a lot of them: the Yamaha; the Vanden; the Peerless; and now the Fibanocci. That being said, there are a lot of common elements of all these guitars and not a lot of choice about moving on from one to the next. From the Yamaha on, he has tried to get some added acoustic zing in all of these guitars, first with the added piezo in the Yamaha and then with solid woods in the others. From the Vanden on he was also trying to get some extra space for his left hand with a wider nut. My understanding of these guitars is that there's a pretty straight line from the Vanden, through the Peerless to the Fibanocci.

He's not George Benson so he never got the kind of long term relationship with a major manufactured that GB has been blessed with all these years. Yamaha discontinued his guitar. The Vanden (which may have been the best sounding archtop I've ever heard in concert) was just way too valuable and too hard to replace to take on the road. The Peerless/Fibonacci relationship in not something I have a really clear picture of but as I understand it, Fibonacci has grown out of the higher end of the Peerless archtop division and Taylor moving from one to another seemed like a natural consequence. Maybe I have that wrong. If so feel free to correct me.

As for the marketing aspect of it ... if he can pull it off then I say good for him. The music has never been kind and now it's brutal. Martin Taylor is, in my mind, one of the greatest guitarists of all time but he's never going to fill the Hollywood bowl or even a large casino show room. If this arrangement can't help him stay afloat in the mist of absurdly stormy waters, then I'm all for it and any benefit he can gain. We are all better off when player/artist of Taylor's caliber can succeed.

**blackcat** · 10-03-2018, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by Jim Soloway

A couple of thoughts about the number of guitars with which MT has been associated ...

Yes there have been a lot of them: the Yamaha; the Vanden; the Peerless; and now the Fibanocci. That being said, there are a lot of common elements of all these guitars and not a lot of choice about moving on from one to the next. From the Yamaha on, he has tried to get some added acoustic zing in all of these guitars, first with the added piezo in the Yamaha and then with solid woods in the others. From the Vanden on he was also trying to get some extra space for his left hand with a wider nut. My understanding of these guitars is that there's a pretty straight line from the Vanden, through the Peerless to the Fibanocci.

He's not George Benson so he never got the kind of long term relationship with a major manufactured that GB has been blessed with all these years. Yamaha discontinued his guitar. The Vanden (which may have been the best sounding archtop I've ever heard in concert) was just way too valuable and too hard to replace to take on the road. The Peerless/Fibonacci relationship in not something I have a really clear picture of but as I understand it, Fibonacci has grown out of the higher end of the Peerless archtop division and Taylor moving from one to another seemed like a natural consequence. Maybe I have that wrong. If so feel free to correct me.

As for the marketing aspect of it ... if he can pull it off then I say good for him. The music has never been kind and now it's brutal. Martin Taylor is, in my mind, one of the greatest guitarists of all time but he's never going to fill the Hollywood bowl or even a large casino show room. If this arrangement can't help him stay afloat in the mist of absurdly stormy waters, then I'm all for it and any benefit he can gain. We are all better off when player/artist of Taylor's caliber can succeed.

Well said indeed Jim - balanced as ever. Just one thing and that is that Peerless did not have anything to do with 'sprouting' Fibonacci other than for the fact that my friend Graham Esson who was formerly CEO of Peerless Guitars Europe ( his own company - introduced them for the first time and in maybe ten years really established Peerless as a brand there ) decided to leave the Peerless marque to it's own devices and establish his own independent label. The two MT models came about as a direct result of a collaberation between Graham and Martin and continue to be made and distributed under licence by Peerless. It is not surprising perhaps that this partnership should continue.

David