A while back I promised to make some better quality pictures of my Smoothtalker available. Well here we go.
Full length and full frontal...
The Smoothtalker is an easy guitar to carry around...
Note too how Mervyn's finish (not nitrocellulose or anything similar) has bought out the colours in the wood.
Then I find the Smoothtalker feels easy and comfortable to play, feels ergonomically superior. But why is that? Here I have the Morgan and the Smoothtalker laid out side by side with the bridges aligned. The waists are roughly in the same place relative to the bridge (which surprised me). If you lay the guitars on top of each other (which you do very gently) then the width across the lower bouts is about the same.
Maybe this is why. The body is shallower.
Certainly I find the right arm feels very comfortable over the Smoothtalker, and the right hand just seems to fall into a natural position.
The Smoothtalker aesthetic is a bit mould-breaking. But then I suppose when your guitar looks so different you might as well give it it's own style. This is the back. It's kiaat. Look how Mervyn has used a blemish in the wood as a feature.
Mervyn usually allows customers to choose their backs and tops (and sometimes side sets) from his stock. For some reason I got around to selecting a top, but not the back. Mervyn picked out this back but said to me that I could choose another. A lot of the backs he had had sapwood running through them like this one that was sold by
Guitar Gallery.
But I thought "soon every second schmuck is going to own a Smoothtalker with a stripe through the back" and so I told Mervyn that we would stick with his selection. I think it's worked well.
Mervyn makes his own strap buttons - so they fit in with the rest of the wood. Here you can also see the battery bag and volume control for the LR Baggs pickup.
Now I am not empowered to discuss pricing, but if you have lustful thoughts about a Smoothtalker then get in contact with Mervyn - you may be pleasantly surprised. He has recently taken delivery of some Tasmanian Blackwood which he is making available for back, sides and neck and which should look pretty cool.
