进度奖：泰勒吉他
一个古老的希腊谚语（也许是伪经）的谚语说，“一个社会在老人种植树木永远不会坐着的树木时就变得伟大了”。虽然我们永远不会指责泰勒’s founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug of being old men (as new CEO Andy Powers told us of the brand’s leadership trio, “We’re all present and accounted for!”) there’s little doubt that the pair, and the company they’ve built, has done more than any other major guitar brand in ensuring that people will be able to make inspiring musical instruments out of wonderful tonewoods long after they’re gone.
From the company’s trailblazing Ebony Project in Cameroon to its innovative cultivation and harvesting of koa in Hawaii, Taylor has been leading the way in how guitar brands think about the raw materials they consume and the ways in which they can reduce their environmental impact for many years now, but 2022 saw them take things to another level.
In 2022, Taylor launched the 700 Series Koa, a total overhaul of the brand’s flagship range that saw Powers reengineer the company’s hallmark body designs to make use of select-grade Hawaiian koa that both looks and sounds very different from a traditional spruce/rosewood affair, while their thin matt finishes also feel very different to a standard high-gloss acoustic.
It’s a risky move to present the ever-conservative world of acoustic guitar players with something so unconventional and say that this isn’t just a gimmick, but a core part of the top-of-the-line Taylor range, but it’s a statement worth making. Guitar building is changing, and will have to change even more as old-growth wood becomes increasingly scarce and expensive – and unlike in the electric world where a coat of paint can obscure the wood beneath, this change will be felt even more keenly.
这使700系列KOA以及来自意外地点的新音调材料（例如今年还推出了新的Urban Irban Bark 500系列仪器），这对整个行业的未来也更为重要。These initiatives aren’t just helping Taylor educate its own audience about the sonic excellence of alternative tonewoods – they’re laying the groundwork for a more diverse and sustainable future for the industry as a whole, even if that alienates some traditionalists in the short term. It’s no small thing, and in generations to come we may all be reaping the benefits.
年度颁发奖：Fender American Vintage II
正如小说最喜欢的广告天才唐·德雷珀（Don Draper）所说的那样：“除非您能够出售自己的创作，否则发挥创意是没有用的。”早在一天中，您需要通过船只转移产品所需的全部目录或杂志的巧妙广告，但是在2022年，我们生活在一种奇怪的二分法中 - 品牌从未有过更多的方法来达到他们的二分法audience, yet it’s never been harder to capture their attention.
这是一个奇怪的一年挡泥板。经过数十年在吉他界的前所未有的增长和主导地位后，2022年看到了公司范围的裁员- 最值得注意的是在该品牌的美国工厂 - 这让吉他公众曾经看过吉他巨人的好消息。
那时更令人印象深刻，仅仅几周后，Fender也可能在十年来推出它最重要的发射，并以一种风格和时尚来使所有人都使您想起了您如何使人们成为人们的方式想2022年的电吉他。
自2018年停产以来，美国原始的美国老式吉他进入了现代经典领土，因此对该系列第二次降临的热情总是很高。
但是，为了通过Patti Smith淘汰的启动视频加剧，不仅庆祝Avii系列精心重建的黄金时代乐器的持久力量和目的，而且在吉他本身中，还引起了吉他的诱因。跟进一场活动，从詹姆斯·贝（James Bay）到杰夫·贝克（Jeff Beck）到奥斯本兄弟（Osbourne）兄弟，您的发射不仅仅是试图向您出售吉他，而是一个向您出售吉他的活动。主意吉他是流行文化中永远存在的。
And that’s before we even get into the fact that the guitars themselves have broadly been hailed as a triumph, giving vintage obsessives guitars that truly do look, sound and feel almost exactly like the instruments that rolled off the production line decades ago – without the five or six-figure pricetag.
合作奖：MXR DUKE的语调
俗话说，两个人比一个主人要好 - 但是吉他行业一直处于协作设计的先锋状态，一直可以追溯到莱斯·保罗（Les Paul）和约翰·休伊（John Huis）合作制作固体吉他及以后的吉他行业。
近年来，踏板已成为合作的温床，品牌将其与艺术家或其他建筑商的头部融合在一起，以创建有趣而独特的产品，这些产品甚至可能没有被构想。
但是2022年最激动人心的合作确实完全不同的东西- 它带来了以前曾经是少数几个人的保存，并有效地将其民主化的声音，使每个人都有机会品尝最好的现代精品踏板建筑。
当然，该产品是MXR/Analogman Duke的语气。Analogman的语气之王是您在各地的专业委员会上看到的那些神话踏板之一，但是祝您好运 - 除非您准备支付令人垂涎的二手价格，否则新的Kot的当前等待名单是四年。
所有这些都使《语气公爵》的前景（实际上是在迷你壁炉围栏中有效的一半）都令人兴奋，甚至在我们玩了一个。But when we did, we couldn’t quite believe it – this wasn’t just a ‘quite close’ take on the original, it was remarkably close, with some tweaks and changes to the layout and functionality that some might even prefer to the real thing.
在200英镑不到200英镑的踏板上做所有这一切，并且不受任何限制，这是给普通吉他手的礼物，他们无法打算花700英镑在踏板上或等待四年。正如迈克·皮拉（Mike Piera）本人告诉我们的那样，他与MXR团队的目的是“将我们的踏板带给世界各地的更多人”。感谢Mike和他的踏板先驱Jeorge Tripps，我们都可以第一次享受他天才的果实。
