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Taylor Talk Guitar Lounge - Talk about anything to do with Taylor guitars, or …..

 

Paul Alemán (G, TH)
(Dillinger, Fetish)

Matt Backer (G,T)
(Julian Lennon)

Gary Baker (SW)

Brent Barcus (G,T)
(Shania Twain, Steven Curtis Chapman, DC Talk, Michael W. Smith)

Steve Bargonetti (G,TV)
(Sesame Street, Bryan Adams, BB King)

Dave Barry (G)
(Cher, Janet Jackson, Branford Marsalis)

Bryan Beller, bass (G,T)
(Steve Vai, Janet Robin)

Kent Blazy (SW)
(Garth Brooks)

Kevin Bowe (SW)
(Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jonny Lang)

Kenny Brescia
(G, T, F, TV, INS)

Dom Brown
(G, T, SW)
(Sugababes)

Tyrone Brown, bass (G,T,SW)
(Max Roach, Pat Martino, Odean Pope, John Blake)

Pat Buchanan (G,T, SW)

Gary Burr (SW)

Barry “Byrd” Burton (G,P)

Larry Byrom (G, SW)

Dennis Caplinger (G,T)

Steve Carnelli (TV)
(The Howie Mandel Show)

John Clausi (G)

Justin Clayton (G,T)
(Julian Lennon)

Bill Cooley (G,T)
(Kathy Mattea)

Tommy Coomes (G,T)
(Maranatha Praise Band)

Jimmy Crespo (G,T)
(Rod Stewart, Aerosmith)

Tom Cunningham (G,T,SW,TH,V,O)
(Buck Howdy)

Dave Curtis, bass (G,T)

Jeff Dayton (G,T)
(Glen Campbell)

Craig Dobbins (INS)
(Mel Bay)

Randy Dorman (G,T)
(Kenny Rogers)

Rich Eckhardt (G,T)
(Toby Keith)

Skip Ewing (SW)

Steve Ezzo (G,T)
(Tom Jones)

Chris Falson (G)

Keith Follese (SW)

A. Ray Fuller (G,T)
(Whitney Houston)

Tommy Gervin (G,T)
(Eddie Money)

Kenny Greenberg (G,T)
(Allison Moorer)

Jerome Harris, bass (G,T)

Camille Harrison (V)

Aubrey Haynie (G,T)
(Clint Black)

Hoot Hester (fiddler)

Brian Hinchliffe, bass (G,T)
(The Kinleys)

“Hutch” Hutchinson, bass (G,T)

Pete Hutlinger (G,T)

John Iafrate (G,T,TH,TV)
(Fosse, A Chorus Line, Annie, Chicago)

Jimmy Jackson (G,T,P,SW,F)
(Trailer Park Troubadours, Jo-El Sonnier, Ellis Hall)

Marc Jackson (G,T,P, SW, F, TV, TH, V, O)
(Roger Daltrey, Donny Osmond)

Greg Jennings (SW)

John Jennings (G,T)
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

David Jolley (G,T)

Mark Jordan (G,T)
(Bonnie Raitt)

Jeff King (G,T)
(Patty Loveless)

John Kirk (G,T)

Kevin Kuhn (TV)
(Spin City)

Scott Kuney (TH)
(The Civil War Broadway musical)

Will Lee (G,T,TV)
(Late Show with David Letterman)

Gerry Leonard (G,T)
(Paula Cole)

Chris Leuzinger (G,T)

Adam Levy (G,T)
(Tracy Chapman)

Mike Loudermilk (G,T)
(Crystal Gayle)

Neil MacColl (G,T)
(David Gilmour)

Steve Mandile (G,T)
(Randy Travis, Pam Tillis)

Tony Markellis, bass (G,T)

Kerry Marx (G,T)
(Johnny Cash)

Jerry Matheny (G,T)
(LeAnn Rimes)

Wendell Mobley (T, SW, V)
(Alabama)

Fred Mollin (P, F, TV)
(Disney)

Jim Monahan (G,T)
(Desert Rose Band, Chris Hillman)

Marc Muller (G,T)
(Shania Twain)

Brian Nakagawa (TH)
(Jesus Christ Superstar)

Paul Nelson
(G,T,P,SW, F, TV)
(Johnny Winter, Solo)

Hayden Nicholas (G,T)
(Clint Black)

Randy Pierce (G,T)
(Steven Curtis Chapman)

Brian Price (G,T)
(John Tesh)

Curtis Randall, bass (G,T)
(LeAnn Rimes)

John Raymond (G,T)
(Kenny G)

Michael Rhodes, bass (G,T)

Chris Rodriguez (G,T)
(Kenny Loggins)
Andrew Rollins
(G,T,P,F,TH)

Tom Rutledge (G,T)
(Alan Jackson, Faith Hill, Randy Travis)

Mark A. Sanders (SW)

Dan Schwartz, bass (G,T)
(Sheryl Crow, Linda Perry, Jon Hassell, Brian Eno)

Joel Shearer (G,T)
(Alanis Morrisette)

Ira Siegel (G,T,F,TV)
(Jewel, Marc Anthony, Celine Dion, “Later Today”)

Eric Silver (O, SW)

Ken Skaggs (G,T,O)
(Glen Campbell)

Fraser Smith (G,T)
(Craig David)

Gary Smith (G,T)
(Ray Stevens)

Richard Smith (G,T)
(Louise Mandrell, George Jones, Freddy Hart)

Shaye Smith (SW)
(Chely Wright, Collin Raye, Kenny Chesney)

Bob Somma (G,T)
(Maranatha Praise Band)

Michael Spriggs (G,T, SW, TV)
(Trisha Yearwood)

Roger Squitero (O)

Tammy Steffey (G,T)
(Patty Loveless)

Clint Strong (G,T)
(Merle Haggard)

Linda Taylor (G,TV)
(Kevyn Lettau, Whose Line Is It Anyway?)

Don Teschner (G,T)
(Rod Stewart)

Mark Thompson (G,T)
(Wynonna)

Rene Toledo (G,T)
(Tina Turner, Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion)

Lou Toomey (G,T)
(Faith Hill)

Kevin Turner (G,T)
(Kirk Whalum)

Steve Vaus (SW, P)

Jon Vezner (SW)
(Kathy Mattea)

W.G. Snuffy Walden (G,P,SW,F,TV)

Randy Waller (G,T)
(Shania Twain)

John Walmsley (G,T,TV)

Willie Weeks, bass (G,T)
(Wynonna)

Eric Weissberg (G,T,SW,O)
(Art Garfunkel, Nanci Griffith, Judy Collins)

Kent Wells (G,T)
(Reba McEntire)

Jake Willemain, bass (G,T)
(Clint Black)

Jeff Scott Young (G,T)
(Badi Assad Menagerie)

Martin Young (G,T)
(Clint Black)

Legend:
G = session player
T = tour musician
P = producer
SW = songwriter
F = film score musician
TV = television underscoring or live television
TH = music for live theater
INS = Instructional CDs/Videos
V = vocalist
O = instruments other than guitar

 

Taylor Guitars is an El Cajon California‐based luthier, widely regarded as one of the finest and most prestigious makers of acoustic guitars.

 History

In 1973, at age 18, Bob Taylor began working at American Dream, a small guitar-making shop owned by Sam Radding where Kurt Listug was already an employee. In 1974 Sam Radding decided to sell the business. Taylor and Listug became partners along with Steve Schemmer and bought American Dream which they renamed Westland Music Company hoping to conjure the image of a larger company in the minds of the public. Needing a more compact logo suitable for the guitars’ headstock, the founders decided to change the name to Taylor as it sounded more American than Listug and because as Kurt Listug put it, “Bob was the real guitar-maker.” Listug became the businessman of the partnership for which he was to prove well suited while Bob Taylor concentrated on design and production. Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug expanded their small shop into a major guitar manufacturing company while maintaining creative control and ownership. As of 2006 Taylor Guitars has more than 450 employees. The factory is located in El Cajon, California with worldwide distribution. A second plant has been opened 40 miles away in Mexico where the smallest guitars of the Taylor line, the Baby and Big Baby are made along with the Taylor guitar cases. All other Taylor guitars are made in El Cajon, California.

Taylor guitars are made with a patented bolt-on neck; the NT neck (new technology). It differs from other necks, whether bolt-on or glued, by supporting the fretboard all the way to the 19th fret with a continuous piece of wood. The standard practice is to support the fretboard up to the fourteenth fret with the unsupported portion being glued to the constantly moving soundboard. The NT neck fits into a pocket on the top of the guitar body with the desired angle being achieved by small, accurately milled neck spacers (shims). After time, some guitars require the neck angle to be realigned (referred to as a neck reset). This process is greatly simplified by allowing the replacement of different sized neck spacers to return the neck to the required angle.

Taylor’s proprietary pickup system, the Expression System consists of a patented humbucking induction pickup mounted in the neck and a pair of dynamic soundboard transducers wired to an on board preamplifier designed by Rupert Neve. The first generation system was powered by a pair of AA batteries. Starting in 2007 the electronics use a 9-volt battery.

Tonewood is the term generally used to designate wood with recognized and consistent acoustic qualities when used in the making of musical instruments. The type of wood used on stringed instruments, such as a guitar, is probably the single most influential factor contributing to its tone.

It is rare that a musicial instrument is made entirely of a single kind of wood. Since sound is generated through vibration, the instrument’s primary wood is selected for the particular characteristics of its vibration. In portions of the instrument not responsible for generating tone, woods are selected for other reasons: a hard wood for the fingerboard, an easily-worked wood for decoration, etc. No wood is inherently a “tonewood”–the distinction is of use. Hence ebony, a dense wood, is not a tonewood when used for fingerboards (a common use), but is a tonewood when crafted into the body of a guitar.

There are a variety of different tonewoods to choose from. Below are descriptions of the general tonal properties of some of the most widely used tonewoods for acoustic guitar making. While it is possible to construct an acoustic guitar with a single tonewood, it is common to employ two different tonewoods: one variety for the back and sides, and one for the sounding board, or “top”.

Product: Taylor Guitars 310-KLE
Price Paid: US $760

Features : 8
October 11, 2000 Model 310K-Limited Edition #11 of 350.
Standard Taylor Dreadnaught body style with Solid Sitka Spruce top finished in gloss and solid Koa back and sides finished in satin.
No electronics, No cutaway.
Mahogany neck, Ebony fretboard, and Rosewood headstock overlay.
Ebony bridge and bridge pins.
Chrome Grover tuners.
Came with SKB hard case.

Sound : 10
This guitar is perfect for moderate to heavy strumming. It would suit most any type of music, though. I have finger picked it and strummed it and it performed great through all the music I played.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 10
The Koa is absolutely beautiful and is on the endangered species list now, so any guitars made from this wood will continue to rise in value.
The gloss finsh on the top is soft and mirror-like in appearance. The satin finish on the back and sides gives the Koa an orangey glow. It has the New Tech Neck design and the fit of the neck and heel are incredible. It’s amazing the tolerances that Taylor can achieve with wood!

Reliability/Durability : 10
I wouldn’t be afraid to take this guitar to any gig, live or otherwise. It is solidly built, like all Taylors and the finish seems to be able to take some bumps without showing the effects.
The strap buttons are very sturdy and the guitar, overall, seems like a very dependable instrument.

Customer Support : 10
If you’ve never dealt with Taylor, for any reason, then you have no concept of how great a company they really are.
From the very beginning the service is outstanding.
They seem to be relentless in making sure that their customers are happy with their guitars.
The repair department is second to none and usually can have your guitar back to you in just a few days. The warranty is incredible. Limited lifetime!

Overall Rating : 10
This guitar is a fantastic instrument. Although I feel a little biased towards Taylor, I really would have no trouble recommending them to any body looking for a good hi-quality guitar.

They stand behind their products with unfailing fervency and have a very loyal customer base.

Product: Taylor Guitars 812-CE
Price Paid: 2800 (Canadian)

Features : 10
Features are pretty much the same as the other 800 series. Rosewood back and sides, sitka spruce top, ebony fingerboard etc. Has a Fishman Prefix onboard blender and a cutaway. Gold grovers and nice sound hole and fretmarker inlays. Deluxe Taylor hardshell case (excellent case).I can’t think of any features that I would want that this guitar doesn’t have.

Sound : 9
The guitar has excellent clarity and definition. I like bright guitar sounds. This guitar does sound bright, but not in an unbalanced way. Excellent volume, especially given that this is a smaller bodied guitar. The preamp is excellent but I won’t go into detail as there are stand-alone reviews for it. I bought this guitar primarily for playing live and recording. The smaller body is good for this because it is inherently less prone to feedback when playing with a loud band and is also easier to mic. The guitar already sounds very “open” and it is brand new so no complaints. The only fault I can find is that when strumming quite hard with a pick it is possible to “overdrive” the top. However, this is a smaller guitar and as such is not designed with townsend strumming in mind. This is more a design characteristic than a flaw.For lead the smaller body helps the upper registers to retain their clarity. It’s lead sounds are great.
I’ll give this guitar a 9 because there are some tones that one can’t get from this guitar (such as the cliched but beautiful pre-war Martin tones). Again I didn’t buy this guitar for those tones but I will detract a point anyways because I’m trying to be as critical as possible

Action, Fit, & Finish : 10
Beautiful light Taylor finish. Excellent satin finish on neck, although I’m sure this will wear to a gloss. Excellent action, very capable of agile lead playing.

Reliability/Durability : 10
It’s a little early to tell, but Taylor does give a lifetime warranty (which now extends to Canada, woo-hoo!) I would definitely use it on a gig without a backup because I always have at least one electic with me which I could use as a backup in a pinch.

Customer Support : 10
Haven’t had to deal with Taylor yet. I did order a catalog and their VHS on their new neck designs and they came within a week (and this is to Canada). They give a lifetime warranty.

Overall Rating : 9
I love this guitar. I really don’t wish it had anything else. I’ll be stingy and give the guitar a nine due to its top overdriving with hard strumming. However I also know that the lead sound on this guitar is excellent and would certainly suffer IMO with a larger body and/or a different bracing pattern. Taylor has the tone and features I want. Very satisfied.

An archtop guitar is a steel-stringed guitar with a distinctive “arched” belly and a sound particularly suited to blues and jazz. For this reason, archtops have a reputation as jazz boxes. The term archtop usually connotes a hollow-bodied instrument, although in specific reference to the solid-bodied Gibson Les Paul it may be used to distinguish the standard models from the flat-topped Special and Melody Maker.

The top (and often the back) of the archtop guitar is either carved out of a block of solid wood, or heat-pressed using laminations, and normally has f-holes. The arching of the top and the f-holes are similar to the violin family, on which they were originally based. Although any true archtop has a rich tone unamplified, most archtop guitars have some sort of pickup/microphone system, and many are intended primarily for this purpose and so are semi-acoustic electric guitars. Most pickups on modern archtops are humbuckers placed in bridge and/or neck positions.

The archtop guitar was invented in the 1890s by Orville Gibson, founder of the Gibson Guitar Corporation, who was primarily a mandolin builder and had previously built archtop mandolins. In 1922, Lloyd Loar was hired by the Gibson Company to redesign their instrument line in an effort to counter flagging sales. Although the new intrument models flopped commercially and Loar left Gibson after only a couple of years, Gibson instruments signed by Loar now are among the most prized and celebrated in stringed-instrument history. Perhaps the most revered instrument is the F5 mandolin, but probably the more broadly influential was the Gibson L5 guitar which since the 1930’s has been the standard against which all other archtop guitars are measured. For instance,the first archtop guitars made by John D’Angelico, the New York luthier regarded by some as the Stradivari of the guitar, were L-5 copies, and the Epiphone Emperor shown at the right is in essence a less-expensive copy of the electric version of the L-5, the L-5CES.

Archtop guitars were immediately adopted upon their release by both jazz and country musicians and have remained particularly popular in jazz music, usually using thicker strings (higher gauged round wound and flat wound) than conventional acoustic guitars. The electric hollow body archtop guitar has a distinct sound among electric guitars and is consequently appropriate for many styles of rock and roll. Many electric archtop guitars intended for use in rock and roll are equipped with a tremolo arm, most often of the Bigsby type.

The most famous archtop guitars were the factory-made instruments by Gibson, Epiphone, Gretsch and the highly prized handmade creations of luthiers such as D’Angelico, Stromberg, Wilkanowski, Enrico Piretti, and D’Aquisto. More recently, interest in archtops has been revived by luthiers such as Roger Borys and Bob Benedetto. Borys, the understudy of D’Aquisto, builds his guitars in a small shop in Vermont and authentically recreates the beautiful asthetics and tonal qualities of his mentor’s instruments. The Benedetto style of acoustic/electric archtop has been copied by luthiers such as Dale Unger, John R. Zeidler**, Dana Bourgeois and others. Most of the accessories (pickguard, bridge, tuner buttons, knobs, etc.) are made of wood (ebony or rosewood) instead of metal and have a clean acoustic look. Currently, many brands, such as Yamaha, Epiphone (owned by Gibson), Eagle, and Jay Turser produce affordable archtop guitars.

Some archtop guitars have Bigsby or other tremolo arm systems. Most tremolo systems cannot be fitted to an archtop owing to the need to cut large holes in the belly to accommodate the mechanism, but the Bigsby and the Gibson Vibrola can both be fitted.

The renewed interest in rockabilly music has led Guild to introduce a Rockabilly model electric archtop with humbucking pickups. Although factory production of acoustic archtops has died out, the L-7C acoustic archtop is still available from the Gibson custom shop. Archtop guitars are likely to remain in production in some form as long as interest in jazz guitar and early rock and roll music persists.

Product: Taylor Guitars W-65
Price Paid: US $3000

Features : 10
I don’t know the year of manufacture, I bought it in 2004 from a collector selling it on eBay. I won’t go into a description as this has already been done, except to agree that this instrument is a high end work of art. I bought it on the strength of my experience with previous Taylors, and the appearance. The contrast between the abalone binding and the claro walnut is gorgeous. Mine is a cutaway with Fishman pickup installed, no mixer built it. The finish may be a bit shiny for some tastes, but I think it makes the walnut look as rich as possible. It does not have a cheap looking hard gloss, but it is very reflective.

Sound : 8
I play a lot of original stuff that is similar to America, CSN, etc. I am not a hard beater, and I especially play my 12 strings with finesse. The comment about this guitar not having a lot of natural volume is right on, I noticed that first thing. BUT…look out when you plug it in! The sound is full, bright, and even. It is a perfect contrast to my Guild JF-65 jumbo blonde when I want a lighter sound. And of course, volume when plugged in isn’t a problem. My rating of 8 is based on amplified sound.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 10
Flawless. The guitar was advertised to me as “mint.” It was, not even a thumb print was on it. Action is typical Taylor: hard to improve on.

Reliability/Durability : 9
Taylor, what more needs to be said? I have no doubts about the long-term durability of this guitar. The finish seems very durable and less brittle than other high quality brands. Although I don’t plan on proving this, the lacquer gives an impression of being less prone to surface checking. My only observation is that the lacquer gets a little cloudy where my right forearm lays on the body, although polish cleans 98% of this off. The dark wood probably shows this more than lighter woods do. Because of the fabulous appearance of this guitar, it doesn’t leave my studio. But I wouldn’t hesitate to play live with it from a trust perspective.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 9
I’ve been playing for 30 years, more or less, but have begun to play more again as my kids have grown. I am doing some writing again and some home recording. This Taylor is sort of a long-awaited self-reward for years of hard work. I would not want it to be my only guitar, but it is a fabulous addition to my small group. It was a real head-rush to buy it. The only thing that keeps me from issuing a “10″ is the less-than-full acoustic volume.

Product: Taylor Guitars 110
Price Paid: #530 (GBP)

Features : 5
Don’t be put-off by my “5″ rating as there is a good reason for this. This guitar is simple. It has no electronics, no pointless pretty bits and no 9crt gold lining. But thats why I LOVE it. It is exactly what you want from a acoustic guitar. A good, solid simple guitar.

Sound : 10
Insane sound! I went to the biggest music store in my area, and literally tried every acoustic guitar up to #650 and I can definately say that this was by far the nicest sound produced by any of the countless guitars I tried. I had the money there and then to purchase a black, #650 takamine guitar, but after trying out the Taylor 110, I realised that it sound was superior to any other guitar in its price range.

It has a very clean, articulate sound. Every note is well defined and the sustain is endless. I couldn’t agree more with the other reviews saying the string-to-string balance is brilliant, because….well….IT IS! Although a loud guitar, it produces bright soft tones when you play gently and then has that typical taylor attack when strummed hard. Best strings for this are the Elixir’s in my opinion.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 8
Finish is flawless and natural - very nice curved back and smooth body. The neck is very natural with little lamination but feels great. Very basic, but flawless.
The action was exactly how I like it. The strings are quite taught and the shop-set-up action was very good.

Reliability/Durability : 9
Very solid guitar - can’t see any weak spots and has that typical Taylor durability

Customer Support : No Opinion
Presume Taylor would be good, but haven’t delt with them yet.

Overall Rating : 9
Overall an incredible guitar for the money. If your looking for an acoustic below #650 then this gets my vote. It is a simple, solid, flawless acoustic that has an amazing sound. EASILY the best sounding acoustic I have ever played on. I hate it when people say this, but I have to agree with this particular model, it does look, sound and feel A LOT more expensive - when I first played it, I thought it was a #1k Taylor.