About a month ago, I pulled the T5-12 off the wall of my office for a quick wipe down before going into its case for a weekend gig. As I turned the guitar over to give the backside a quick swipe of the rag, I notice a crack in the Sapele. On closer inspection, it looks to be at a glue joint between two of the three pieces that make up the body. Very odd. I had just played it out the week before and hadn't noticed anything wrong. I did a detailed inspection of the entire body for impact points (Three kids + 2 dogs = a world of possibilities), and find nothing. Odd. It was decided to leave the guitar at home and take the K65 instead for the 12 string set...
I checked on the crack a week or so later, and it's getting a bit longer. Time for action - A call to Taylor customer service. Mike Tobin answers. Now, Mike has been at Taylor as long as I can remember and has always been a top shelf representative of the company philosophy. That being said, I'm sure he's heard every story under the Sun about how guitars magically become damaged without any human intervention. "Honest - I played the guitar the night before and everything was perfect. I woke up the next morning and the top had caved in and the neck snapped! You'll fix it under warranty - Right?" So, when I explained to him that the crack in a thick piece of stable Sapele just appeared, he was understandably suspicious. "Dave, I heard of that happening a time or two, but it's pretty darned rare. Why don't you send it in and we'll take a look at it to determine what happened."
No problem. Mike issued an RMA number, I packed up the guitar, and on its way to El Cajon the T5 was sent.
A week or so later, I got a call from Chris (I think that was his name) in the repair department. They confirmed that the crack was caused by a glue failure. They had two options - Re-glue the pieces and refinish, or build a new body for the guitar. They were going to try the glue first and, if that didn't work, they'd go down the rebuild route. A couple days after that, another call. Re-gluing didn't work. A new body would have to be created. Timeframe - 6 weeks. Although it's a long time to be without the T5-12 (It gets played at every gig - I LOVE THIS GUITAR!), I can't help but be impressed with Taylor's commitment to quality repairs. I'm sure the glue would have been fine, but you probably would have been able to see the repair pretty easily and that's simply not acceptable to the gang in the service department.
Fast forward two weeks. Another call from Taylor. Guitar is finished and being shipped back. WOW! Instead of waiting a month and a half, they ripped out the fix in two weeks! Nice job guys!!!
The big brown truck dropped off the box on Monday afternoon. I have to tell you, It is like getting a brand new guitar! Not only did they completely replace the body (including a top that has more flame than the original), but they cleaned up the fretboard and frets on the original neck and polished everything to a glorious shine. Absolutely amazing. A great big HOO-YA to the crew in the Taylor service department - They outdid themselves once again!
Y'know, it comes down to this -- Taylor guitars are not inexpensive. Not by a longshot. However, when a company is as concerned with satisfaction and invests as heavily in the post sales customer experience as Taylor Guitars does, I consider their asking price quite a bargain and will pay it every time. It simply doesn't get any better.
