T2 "Buckskin" | First Reactions

PHOTO: Al Shaffer with T2 "Buckskin" headless 6-string guitar. Maryanne Murillo, photographer.

Noted guitar collector Al Shaffer took ownership of T2 "Buckskin" late last week, adding this unique prototype to his archives. He is now curator of a piece of headless guitar evolution history.

Al owns and plays many (many) fine guitars: Koll, Canton, Cardinal, Steinberger, Klein, Grosh, etc. He is especially interested in headless technology. So his first reactions are quite valuable:

"I spent about 2 hours with it last night without an amp (I had a hard time putting it down).

"I was drawn to playing funk/James Brown type chord things. The continuity of the tone across and up and down the fret board was impressive...great chord sound.

"I did for a very short time on Thursday have it plugged into an AER Alpha acoustic guitar amp in the master bedroom and played it totally clean at low volume and thought it sang even under those limitations.

"The fret board itself was super comfortable and the fanned frets were perfect and I really did not even have to think about them.

"I totally agree about the weightlessness of the neck in this guitar, it reminds me of the feeling of a Klein in that respect.

"The tuners were so smooth and exact, it is more a scientific instrument than a guitar. Of course, so visually impressive.

"More later..."

I see this particular guitar as a seminal moment in my thought progression, a summary of what I have learned thus far. First guitar with Intersecting Plane Neck Profile™ (IPNP-UP). First guitar fully equipped with TOONE & TOWNSEND components.

I am really excited by Al's response to the headless hardware because designing that system has been an intensive labor of love for the past two years.

Comments

[alec]

Wow that looks like a great git... it's ultra classy. It'd be cool if it was a strat too. However, what is all this from Al about playing unplugged and "for a very short time" plugged in on low volume? I'm sure it sounds fantastic at low volume, but if it was mine, I would head outside with my biggest amp and turn that puppy up to 10!

[Rick Toone]

Alec — Who knows, by now. Those were Al's first impressions after a few hours. I'd imagine he's made some serious noise with it over this past week...

PS: Thank you.