This is my story of guitar history, which is undeniably intertwined with the history of Taylor Guitars as well. It’s the search for my acoustic Stradivarius or Holy Grail of acoustic guitars.
I had visited the small American Dream Guitar shop in Lemon Grove several times already between 1973 and 1974, as I was living in the back hills of La Mesa in San Diego, so I could literally walk to Lemon Grove in a few minutes over the rail road tracks. The next time I visited was in early 1975, just shortly after Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug had assumed ownership and was greeted cordially by Bob and Kurt as it was now called Taylor Guitars.
It Started with a Tapping SoundI told them what I was looking for in a custom guitar and without hesitation Bob went into the shop and brought out a beautiful spruce top maple jumbo guitar body. Even unfinished, this incredible flaming maple body with three piece back and center of Birdseye maple looked amazing. I recall Bob holding it to his ear and taped it several times and saying, “Listen to that, do you hear that? Now that’s sustain! This will really be an amazing guitar once it’s finished”. (This was before the film “This is Spinal Tap”, and before that became a guitar cliché). So, right then and there my fate was sealed.
Jumbo Body with Flaming and Birdseye Maple Back After a short discussion of what custom features I wanted, like electronics and inlays, Kurt provided me the price tag. Now, $650.00 was a good chunk of change back then and adjusted for inflation is almost $3,000.00 now in 2018 US dollars. We decided to add custom fret board inlays, which raised the initial price slightly. I remember my folks thought I was crazy spending that kind of money on a guitar, but supported my musical interest. Back then even the teller at my local bank wanted to know what I was doing with all that cash.
Why did I place my faith in Bob Taylor, who was a completely unknown guitar maker at the time? Truth is I liked both Bob and Kurt’s professionalism; they took this business very seriously. One could also tell Bob had a passion for wood, it talked to him and the several great demo guitars he showed me were a testament to his ability to produce quality instruments and qualified him as a certified guitar Luthier in my mind.
I put my trust in them and they in turn put their trust in me. You see I didn’t have that much available cash on hand, so they worked out a way I could pay for it over time. I would bring in a payment each week and Bob would put additional work into the guitar. With a handshake and an initial down payment, we sealed the deal for my future guitar. One I would have for the rest of my life.
A custom build guitar means it's not just a production guitar; but one built precisely to your personal specifications. Therefore, it wasn’t like Taylor Guitars could turn around and sell this one “off the shelf” to someone else, if I were to back out of the deal. Trust between two people is usually earned in advance. I can never thank Bob and Kurt enough for placing that trust in me, as it provided me a once in a lifetime experience for a guitarist. Taylor Guitars now takes Custom orders (BTO) and this was undoubtedly the pioneer of that experience. I highly recommend it, if you can afford it.
But l can also point out, as Bob or Kurt once told me, “Hey we were living off your payments back then, eating cheese sandwiches and sleeping in back of the shop.” I was happy to pay the power bills guys.
The Birth of a Taylor NeckEvery week I would come in with my payment and check on the additional progress of my guitar. I recall Bob and myself sitting down together in the shop and discussing neck shapes. Bob had half a dozen guitar necks with different shapes to them. We both leaned more to something with a slight-V at the top tapering out to a gentle round shape at the bottom. He used a hand rasp to file the neck, stopping to feel the fit together to my hand as we went, until I was happy with it. I doubt many guitarists get to experience this event in the life of their guitar.
As I’ve reviewed the history of Taylor Guitars, this or similar shape has become a signature trademark and this was undoubtedly one of the first prototype necks.
The Custom Fretboard InlaysWhen it was time, there was a discussion on what I wanted for the custom fret board inlays. There was no pressure, but I recall Kurt saying, “Hey this is a custom guitar, why not have some cool looking abalone or mother of pearl inlays”. The abalone sound hole rosette on the body was included in the price of the guitar, and I was ecstatic about just having that. The base price guitar came with pearl dot inlays only. I forget how much we finally agreed for custom inlays. Bob said it was up to me to choose a design, as long as it was within reason.
I wasn’t an artist and was not going draw a flower inlay design or something. So, I drew on what I knew, l asked Bob if he could produce a similar rectangle and diamond inlay, which was of course used primarily on the Guild© acoustics. I recall a little wincing in the room, but as you can see in the picture below, here is Bob Taylor’s handmade abalone diamond inlays and mother of pearl with a truly amazing and professional result. They are still holding up strong after more than 40 years!
The First Taylor Machine Routed Headstock InlayIt was also about that same time, when we were finishing up the inlays, when Kurt walked up and said “Hey look what we just got in! It’s a wood routing guide which produces a Taylor logo on the headstock.”
Now this was MY custom guitar, and there was no discussion up to now about putting any “Logo” on the headstock. I recall saying joking of course, “I don’t know. Why would I want to put someone else’s name on my guitar? I think Bob’s mouth dropped open about then. “But then again who knows Bob, maybe you’ll be some well-known guitar maker someday.” Kurt interjected “Just think of it this way Steve, its more mother of pearl inlay, and you get it for no additional cost.” Kurt was always taking care of the business side of things.
So there you have it then. This guitar actually has the 1st ever machine routed Taylor logo on the headstock. I’m not sure that is of any significance to anyone except for me. But this is my factual recollection of the time.
The Finishing TouchesAs we progressed with the “pay as you build it plan”, Bob began the process of laquering the body and neck. As I recall this was a slow and tedious process and nothing like what Taylor Guitars is using today with ultraviolet curing, this was “old school”. This was a labor intensive hand process and required days of drying times and hand rubbing between coats. Of course all done by Bob personally, as there were no employees back then.
By now I was so anxious to get my hands on this guitar, those several weeks seemed like an eternity. It was all I could do to stop myself from coming in every day and checking on it.
The Old Mustache BridgeBack then Bob had a template for what was called “the mushtache bridge”. I had seen it on one of the demo models and really liked it, so it became part of the charm and character of this Taylor. Once more, after over 40 years of stressing and destressing the string tension, there is no bulge behind the bridge or cracking along the bridge pin line. It’s in perfect condition; a true testamony to quality construction being used even back then.
The Final DeliveryEventually the neck got joined to the body and the bridge was glued, the tuning hardward and pickup installed. The guitar was finally strung for the first time with some light gauge bronze wound strings.
On the day I received the guitar, I recall Bob coming out of the shop with a big smile on his face, as he seemed very pleased at how the guitar turned out. This was an emotional time for me at least, when Bob handed me the guitar and said “It’s your guitar now.”
The guitar came with a Guild© manufactured jumbo hardshell case (sans logo). It didn’t fit just exacly to the this guitars custom jumbo body shape, but good enough. Taylor didn’t make their own cases back then of course. I've recently bought it a new Taylor made case, as with all the world traveling I've done with this guitar, the old case was fairly beat up and didn't do the guitar justice.
As for the guitar, other than a lot of wear and tear on the face of the guitar and some spider hair cracking (checking) it looks the same as it did that day in May 1975, in the small Taylor guitar shop in Lemon Grove.
Time for a Major Tune-upEventually, no matter how much care I had given it, the action faded and the guitar needed a refresh. As I had returned to California, I brought the guitar back with me to Los Angeles, and in 1997 drove it down to the Taylor Service Center, now in El Cajon.
The folks at Taylor arranged to have Bob Taylor meet me so he had an opportunity to see his old guitar work. We talked for awhile and then he gave me a personalized tour of his El Cajon factory. I was really quite honored. I’ve been an Aerospace engineer for some years, and was really quite impressed with the modernized NC machining and laser etching and aligned manufacturing techniques. Bob and his team have really got an inovative state of the art facility out in El Cajon.
Originally, we installed an old style Barcus Berry pickup under the bridge, which needed an external pre-amp to function. I had the Taylor shop removed this and install a more updated Fishman Acoustic Matrix Pickup system with onboard pre-amp. What an improvement and why electronics in a guitar needs to be as modern and efficient as possible, but also upgradeable. We also finally installed a pickguard (clear) as I originally didn't want one. This was needed to help stop the Willie Nelson effect, which had started around the sound hole from getting any worse. This guitar never spent any time under the bed I can assure you.
Lifetime Warranty - It was explained to me that my guitar had a Lifetime Warranty to the original owner. I really had not imagined that Taylor would bestow upon the product of our little joint venture together, their modern warranty. So Taylor Service Center carefully removed the neck and performed a laser neck alignment for the first time. This was done at no cost even after all these years. Taylor really does stand behind their products. When I got the guitar back it really did play better than when I received it in 1975. I think the Taylor Service Center manager, Terry was very pleased how it turned out.
Elixer© Strings - I was actually beta testing Elixer© strings at the time I brought my Taylor in for the 1997 tune-up. I discussed with Bob the advantages of these coated strings tone longevity solving the dead string issue when a guitar hangs on a store wall too long before purchase. Having owned a Taylor guitar longer than, well almost anyone, I knew those few hours or days before string oxidation sets in, was when my Taylor tone could blow peoples ears and minds. I actualy spoke with the folks at Gore© about my idea shortly after that. They helped me write my Pepperdine MBA marketing project around this joint venture concept. I believe by the 1998 NAMM show, this Taylor Guitar / Gore Elixer© String idea was a reality. I am not trying to take any credit for this move, just that like minds think alike.
First Serialized TaylorThere was never a question that this was one of Bob’s first guitars, as we talked about it in 1997 he seemed to remember making it for me back then. But I noticed the historical serial number information on the TaylorGuitar.com Website indicated that the first Serialized Taylor was SN# 10109. This appeared to be incorrect, as my guitar is SN# 00109. I had recently read that S/N XX101 thru XX108 were reserved, thus making this possibly the first serialized Taylor ever built, produced between April and May of 1975. Bob has communicated his thoughts on this matter and graciously decided to amend his Taylor website to now read as follows:
"The two oldest verified serial numbers are 00109 and 10109. Record keeping in the early days was spotty and it's uncertain which guitar is actually the first one, but these two were built within the first few months of Taylor Guitars production."
https://www.taylorguitars.com/support/general/decoding-taylor-guitars-serialFinally, I want to thank Bob and Kurt and all those at Taylor Guitars for their tremendous attention to quality and engineering innovation in the field of guitar manufacturing. If it weren’t for you, my early Taylor guitar probably wouldn’t have held up as long as it has and provided me so much pleasure over the years. It was worth every penny.
Happy Pickin',
Steve
