Taylor

[Nick Triesch]

I know this is not mandolins but most of us also play guitar I think. My son and I went on the Taylor guitar tour today and man! Was it cool! State of the art building and a first rate tour. The man giving the tour new every step in the guitar making process and showed us the guitar making from start fo finish. 22 CNC machines! We got to see them in action . But the coolest thing was watching the workers cut out the tops with a laser cuting tool. Every top, every neck is perfect. But even with the CNC machines all parts must be hand sanded before the finish goes on. Another cool thing was a huge device called BUFFY that holds a guitar in her arm and then buffs the guitar to a perfect shine. Really something. I know most all the big makers use CNC machines now but it was Taylor that was on the cutting edge. About 356 folks work at Taylor and they have 2 shifts. And in only 30 years their guitar output has matched Martin!! Not bad for our San Diego guitar co. Just a cool day. Nick

[WireBoy]

Nick,
#how does one get a tour of the taylor plant? #is it free? #I'm in LA and i go to SD occasinally.

[Nick Triesch]

Eric, #yes, #it's free! # Every day mon-friday at 1 o clock you gather in the Taylor lobby and then a nice man or woman will pass out cool little walkman things that you carry and put earphones an goggles on so you can hear him in the heavy noise areas. #You don't have to make reservations you just show up a little before 1.p.m. #If you go to the Taylor website it will tell you all about it. #I forget what page it's on but you can find it. #I think they are closed on sat and sun and they do not do the tours on holidays. #It takes about an hour and a half and it's free. #You get to see some cool stuff. #They even showed us a ton of their wood in a covered storage area. #You will be amazed at the tour. #The plant is huge in a very pretty part of San Diego called Santee. #Just east of San Diego. #Come to San Diego, #Go to the zoo, #take the tour , #dine in old town at the old town mexican cafe and have a blast. # Hey, #on your way down stop in oceanside and visit Buffalo Bros. #You will never see so many high end guitar in your life. #A lot of fine mandolins also. #Hey, #they have Webers!!! #I love this town!!! #Gibson should sell in this instrument rich city. # #Nick

[WireBoy]

My brother-in-law lives in La Jolla so i get down there occasionally. #only been to Buffalo Bros once. #wow ! #I only had time to oogle the mandos, didn't get to oogle the guitars but they sure had plenty. #I've also visited Acoustic Expressions. #very nice little shop with the best Weber selection i've ever seen outside of Bruce's NAMM display.

[levin4now]

i may be headed to SD this summer. I had not idea Taylor was there. I'll have to check it out.

[rhetoric]

And I went on the Martin tour yesterday. Drove from Rochester NY to Nazareth. The museum was closed for reconstruction but the tour (also free) was amazing. I was expecting to spend most of my time getting led around by PR intern looking at the factory behind glass and railings, but our tour guide was a regular employee, we walked right through the factory, chatted with luthiers, played instruments, saw prototypes (the latest is a cutaway with a slot built into the body for your Ipod/mp3 so you could just plug in and play along) and saw the whole thing. Oh, and at the end of the tour, they gave each of us a solid top guitar...

...soundhole cut out.

The amount of hand work that gets done on those guitars is amazing. To watch the folks doing inlay was a treat. 650 employees, 260 guitars a day. I asked one woman (who was clamping the sides with hundreds of clothespins if the clothespins were made in America. She say, "Hey, that's a goooooood question!"

The new museum will be enormous. We did get to see a few items, (including some of their mandolins), but it is astonishing to me how many people have played Martin guitars for so many years. Woody Guthrie to Johnny Cash to Paul McCartney to Shawn Colvin and etc. They've been doing this for 175 years or so (since 1833), built a million guitars or so, and they seem to know what they're doing. They do not sell factory seconds. Any guitar that does not pass the inspection process is cut up (you could buy pieces of cut up guitar in the gift shop).

We took Dick Blattenberger (friend and mentor of our Dobro player) who knows many of the Martin big wigs and has been consulted for the new Martin aluminum top dobro. Then we took Dick home, jammed with him for awhile, and went home.

I don't have a Martin (a Guild), but I'll think about it next time. Impressive tour.

Paul

[Dave Hicks]

I've been on both the Martin and Taylor factory tours. Big contrast in building methods! Taylor is as high-tech as possible, while Martin still does lots of hand work.

[Nick Triesch]

It is very interesting to note that after Taylor became a main competitor with Martin several years ago that Martin changed their necks to be thinner and faster like Taylor. And also the unthinkable happened ....Martin changed over to an adjustable truss rod! I remember the Martin care and feeding book was adament about their in- place steel hollow bar because Martin necks never moved. And that is why Martin would never use an adjustable truss rod. Don't get me wrong, I love Martin guitars. I just think they had to change with the times. Nick

[TeleMark]

The plant is huge in a very pretty part of San Diego called Santee. Just east of San Diego. Come to San Diego, Go to the zoo, take the tour , dine in old town at the old town mexican cafe and have a blast. Hey, on your way down stop in oceanside and visit Buffalo Bros. You will never see so many high end guitar in your life. A lot of fine mandolins also. Hey, they have Webers!!! I love this town!!! Gibson should sell in this instrument rich city. Nick

Now, now... even though BB moved, they're still in Carlsbad.


Nick, do you work for the SD chamber of commerce? If not, you should!

Mark, also in Carlsbad. Gotta get to Santee for the tour!

[Bob Kellett]

I have owned several Taylor guitars from the Baby Taylor all the way up to a gorgeous koa 12 string. IMHO there are no better guitars on planet earth! They all play like butter, from the bottom of the line to the top. I am a former moderator of the Taylor Guitar Forum, but do to the overpowering MAS I don't own any Taylor guitars anymore. In fact I have only one lowly 12 string Alvarez guitar left, and it never gets played now that I play mandolin! I only wish that Taylor would get into the mandolin building business!!

[J. Mark Lane]

It is very interesting to note that after Taylor became a main competitor with Martin several years ago that Martin changed their necks to be thinner and faster like Taylor. #And also the unthinkable happened ....Martin changed over to an adjustable truss rod! # I remember the Martin care and feeding book #was adament about their in- place steel hollow bar because Martin necks never moved. #And that is why Martin would never use an adjustable truss rod. #Don't get me wrong, #I love Martin guitars. #I just think they had to change with the times. #Nick

Wait a minute here. That didn't sound right to me, so I just checked. Martin started using truss rods (again) in the early 1980's. In 1980, Taylor only made 100 guitars. I hardly think that makes Taylor "a major competitor" with Martin at that time. In reality, it was still a start-up. Taylor didn't become a real competitor until the late 1980's and into the 1990's.

I don't think Martin's decision to start using adjustable truss rods (again) was in response to anything Taylor did. I think they were reacting to the market generally, and other builders had been using truss rods for some time.

That is not to say that Martin has not made changes to react to competition (including competition from Taylor). Surely they have. (For example, they started the 15 and 16 Series instruments to compete in a slightly lower market.) But let's not overstate it.

Mark

[Nick Triesch]

Mark, Martin started putting the truss rod in their guitars in 1985. Taylor was already well on it's way. Taylor is the other great American guitar. There is room for both! Nick

[J. Mark Lane]

I do not question for one minute that there is "room for both." And more.... I was just responding to the cause and effect claim....

Fine. In 1984, the year preceding Martin's reintroduction of truss rods (the latest time during which they must have been engineering it), Taylor made between 500-550 guitars (I guess they don't really know). I guess that constitutesd "well on their way," but I don't think it would be enough to make Martin change something so fundamental as its neck design.

Just a hunch...I doubt anyone will ever be able to conclusively prove it, either way.

BTW, I think the new Gibson guitars are absolutely top-notch, too.

Mark

[Nick Triesch]

I'm sure that Gibson guitars are fine but I don't think they will ever be in the same class as Martin or Taylor. I think this is due to the terrible Gibsons of the past. I remember in the 60's a friend showed me his Hummingbird with a screwed on pickguard. Gibson mando's are king but not their guitars. Kind of like Martin guitars are king but not their strange mandolins. IMHO. Nick

[ShaneJ]

I was seriously shopping guitars in the mid-80s, and I remember that all the buzz then was about the Taylors. They were these custom shop guitars that everybody said were better than Martins. I ended up buying the Alvarez Yairi that I still have, but Taylor definitely had the rep back then regardless of how many they built.

[Fretbear]

I'm interested in something that Taylor freaks may know about; my friend has a very old Taylor dreadnaught that really just does not "have it"... it looks good, plays good, is very even, but has no bite or volume...does anyone know if that is an isolated case or has anyone seen that before...I played a tiny Collings guitar a few years back (one of the smallest guitars that I had ever seen, actually) and it was simply the loudest damn guitar I had ever been in the same room with (size doesn't matter)......

[Bob Kellett]

Over the years Bob Taylor "revoiced" the dreadnaughts by changing the bracing, which was just done again about 2 years ago. The new ones have much more volume and more in the bass end of the scale. Real cannon now!

[dtb]

I also did the Martin tour, last Aug., on the way to HR.com jamfest in Conn. It was a great tour. some real nice folks there. I had talked with a PR lady there, and she fixed me up a real nice "PR package" of stuff to take to the jamfest, and gave me an employee discount for a shirt and hat, to auction off at the fest, for the host's expenses, which was way unexpected. I asked for some free samples, but she couldn't go there.