Gary’s Story
This guitar was designed and created by Bob Benedetto for noted jazz guitarist Martin Taylor in 1988. Martin used it as his personal guitar for performing and recording around the world for about seven years before entering an endorsement arrangement.
It was based on specifications similar to Bob’s 17-inch Manhattan model but built as a 16-inch archtop, with a European spruce top, European maple back and sides, and X-bracing. The pickguard and violin-style tailpiece are ebony, while the back of the headstock uses burled walnut.
The instrument also features the Mimesis pickup system pioneered by UK luthier Mike Vanden: a Benedetto S6 floating magnetic pickup made by Kent Armstrong, a DPA microphone under the pickguard and an external blend control.
Bob remembered discussing a blended transducer concept with Martin. The guitar originally used a Gibson BJB pickup; after Bob began having Kent Armstrong make the S6, he sent one to Martin, and Mike Vanden installed it with the DPA microphone. Martin preferred the clearer sound of the Mimesis system.
After I purchased the guitar, I emailed Martin. He sent me photographs of himself playing it over the years, adding another personal layer to the instrument’s provenance.
I enjoy playing this guitar a lot. The fingerboard profile is wide and the neck depth is medium, along the lines of the Gibson Johnny Smith profile Bob used in his earlier years. For a 16-inch instrument the acoustic projection is very good, and the bass response is solid with a nice woody character.
It is a very nice instrument — and a wonderful piece of modern jazz-guitar history.
