LimiTeDs

35
th
Anniversary
Limiteds
The Armrest,
Parlor, 9-String,
12-Fret & More
Fall Limiteds
Taylor Swift’s
Signature Baby
8-String
Baritone
Artist vs.
Airline:
Dave Carroll’s
Big Breaks
www.taylorguitars.com
2
Letters
Hampshire shop, I am without a
doubt “good to go!” Pat DiBurro is
truly an asset to your organization!
Robert Wuagneux
Castleton, VT
were, in fact, initially offered either
with or without cutaways. We only
offered the non-cutaway briefly,
though, before deciding to make
all NS models exclusively with a
cutaway in 2003. Nonetheless, our
oversight. Enjoy that NS74 “limited
edition!” — Ed.
The Art of Aging Gracefully
Remembering John
B Keeper
I was very interested in the
article on the NT neck in the recent
Wood&Steel. On page 18 there is
a picture of the neck. What is the
small metal insert on the neck paddle? It is not centered and is farther
up the neck than the inset nut for
the top neck bolt.
Byron Yoburn
New York
Great question, Byron. Our own
David Hosler explains: “What you’re
seeing is a magnet used to balance the B string on the Expression
System® pickup. One of the quirky
traits of a guitar is that the B string
tends to be much louder when
amplified than the other strings.
That magnet regulates the B string’s
interaction with the pickup. Every
Taylor with the ES pickup has one.”
— Ed.
New England Pat
I want to comment on the fine
article [on the NT neck] that appears
in the Summer 2009 Wood&Steel.
You feature information from Pat
DiBurro, who is the only person
to maintenance my 710ce-LTD
and K20c. I drive approximately
250 miles from my home any time
I need adjustments, in particular,
“neck tweaks,” and they are regular
since I play many outdoor venues
in disparate geographical areas.
Notwithstanding his guitar tech
wizardry, Pat is a truly great human
being. During my visits to his atelier,
I have met Taylor owners from far
and wide who also regard Pat as the
only “techie” to service their prized
properties. When I leave his New
Thanks for your remembrance of
my dear friend John Cephas (Volume
60). I am a professional blues harmonica player who also plays guitar.
Years ago, when I mentioned to John
in passing that I was playing some
guitar to help with my songwriting,
he immediately called Taylor to get
me a guitar at his endorsee cost (an
814ce). Besides being the extraordinary musician we all know him for,
John had a very giving heart, indeed.
He always took genuine interest in
my music and had warm encouragement for me. Some of his last
recordings were on my latest CD,
Many Shades of Blue, and some of
these songs were composed on that
same guitar. With John’s passing I
feel that the world has lost some of
its magic. Yet the generosity of the
music and friendship he shared live
on forever . . . and both were truly
magical.
Gary Allegretto
Los Angeles, CA
Cutaway Clarification
The latest Wood&Steel says
you are making non-cutaway nylonstring guitars for the first time. Not
so, unless the NS74 I purchased
from Jim’s Music in Irvine [California]
in 2002 is a forgery, which I know
it is not. I was previously informed
that some 31 of these were made.
It has 12 frets to the body rather
than the usual 14 and is more like a
classical guitar except for the usual
Taylor neck. It is the best sounding of the three NS Series Taylors I
own (another “usual” NS74 and an
NS54) and is easier to play than any
classical guitar I have tried. I also
own four other Taylor guitars, but
this “NS74” is special.
William Farone
When we expanded the NS line
to include our Grand Auditorium
shape in late 2002, the GA nylons
First of all, I love Wood&Steel.
More importantly, I love my 1999
414e. It has been a great guitar.
Last year I sent it in to your factory
to be reconditioned and to get a
partial re-fret. What an awesome job
the Taylor folks did!
In response to Greg Goodfellow
(letter to “Ask Bob,” Volume 60),
please don’t wait forever [to purchase a new Taylor]! My guitar
sounds better than most higherdollar guitars I have tested, and
it has the old neck design, the
old Fishman electronics, and who
knows what other things Taylor has
improved since mine was built. The
fact is that all the new enhancements are important, but I think age
outweighs them all. The tone of this
guitar has seemed to really improve
over the years. I wouldn’t trade it for
five new guitars!
Darren Keller
Mars, PA
Sounding Great in Britain
I play acoustic guitar in a Southern
Rock band (called MelonHeadMan)
from the Deep South . . . of England!
Being one of seven in the band, and
having to compete with two very
loud Les Pauls, keyboards, bass and
an energetic drummer, I needed a
way to sound great, and be heard
by the audience. All the acoustic
players I’ve heard in live rock bands
sound incredibly tinny — the search
for live tone seems to be purely
focused on their electric guitar,
lots of pedals and a boutique amp,
but stops when they pick up their
acoustic. I needed something very
special.
A trip to our local guitar store
found the answer. After trying the
usual suspects from other companies, I just knew the 414ce was my
solution. It was as easy to play as
the high-end “lawsuit” electric that
I also own. And the sound . . . the
Expression System just did it for me.
Direct through the PA, it still sound-
ed like a very good acoustic guitar!
After sorting out how to tune and
drop-D on stage with all that noise
around me (solution: the Taylor
Balanced Breakout Box with my
Boss TU-2 connected), it was ready
for the baptism of fire: Our band
had been asked to support Alabama
3 (the Sopranos theme tune) in
Brixton, London in front of hundreds.
What a night — the main band said
we sounded awesome! All I can say
is thanks for a great guitar and for
working out how to make a great
guitar actually sound great live!
Peter Dommett, UK
Never Be Late for a Funeral
In working for one of your major
distributors, I was approached by
a customer with a special request.
This young man had recently lost his
aunt, and as a provision in her will,
she set aside enough money to purchase any guitar on the planet. He
chose a custom 914ce. The planning of the build was very detailed,
and a few setbacks should have
delayed the arrival of the custom
instrument. The guitar showed up on
the exact day we needed it (in time
for the memorial service), perfect, in
tune, and exceeding the customer’s
expectations in every aspect. Thank
you all for your work and commitment to the musical community.
Chris Maddy
Flower Mound, TX
Signature Model
There is no doubt that Taylor
Guitars stands alone in the quality
and selection of woods they offer
guitar players. Falling in love with a
new guitar is as much about how
it looks as it is how it plays. Your
new BTO program not only suits the
guitarist who knows what he wants,
but also the guitarist who does not.
For years I searched for just the
right Taylor. All great guitars, but
nothing that spoke to me. Then one
night I attended a Taylor Road Show
at Cosmos Music in Richmond
Hill, Ontario. I had the pleasure of
meeting Bob Taylor and being introduced to the newest BTO guitars. I
immediately fell in love with a [BTO]
with a quilted maple back and koa
trim. I would never have known
what I wanted. Seeing the guitar at
the Road Show allowed me to find
exactly what I was looking for. Had
I wanted variations, the Road Show
and BTO would have produced the
perfect combination. In my case,
the only variation I wanted was the
autograph of Bob Taylor on the headstock. My dream guitar is a dream to
play. Thanks for my guitar, Bob.
Andrew Madden
Brampton, ON, Canada
Hope It’s Not
His First Re-String
I re-strung my 1986 Taylor K22
today, and I wanted you folks to
know that it sounds deeper, richer
and woodier than ever in its 23rd
year. While it has a few dents and
scratches, like we all do, it is still the
most beautiful small acoustic guitar
I have ever played. You probably get
a lot of endorsements from big name
singers and players, and complaints
from folks who like to complain, but I
just want you to know that you made
a fine instrument in 1986, and that
it has only gotten better since it left
your hands. One million thank-yous.
Martin R. Collin
Saint James, MD
Dream Guitar Matchmaker
Recently I was looking for a guitar that had a “smooth and mellow”
sound to go along with my fingerpicking. I called Taylor to discuss. My
call was forwarded to [inside sales
rep] Ben Benavente, who took the
time to suggest several Taylor guitars
that would meet my need, including
a 5 Series and a 7 Series. While
researching where I could get one,
I found a 714ce-LTD with a cedar
top and koa back/sides. I called Ben,
who said, “That’s even better....”
I received the guitar, and it’s a
guitar player’s dream. I can’t walk
by it without playing and admiring it!
Taylor not only makes great guitars,
but employs people who are helpful
and knowledgeable. Thank you, Ben!
Zack Kennedy
We’d like to
hear from you
Send your e-mails to:
[email protected]
3
Volume 61
Fall 2009
On the Cover
12The 35th Anniversary
Collection
BobSpeak
Designed, revealed, delivered,
they’re yours. From contoured
armrests to a modern day parlor
guitar, we bring you a sumptuous
spread of anniversary LTDs.
Features
A Season of Surprises
I’m inspired. In a year when the economic news has been bleak, we’re having perhaps more creative satisfaction than I can remember, and that’s not to say we’ve gone a long time without being creative. When I look
at the past five years, it blows my mind to consider the things that have been created here: the Expression
System, T5, T3, SolidBody, the GS, R. Taylor Guitars . . . . The list goes on, and it’s been so much fun to see it
all come to life. In the guitar world, it seems that nearly everyone wants to pick a moment in time, say 1959 or
the 1930s, and decide that those years need to be copied to death. Of course, we don’t have a 1959 in our
history, so we only look toward the future.
There are so many things I could write about in this issue. I want to focus on guitars rather than business,
but let me say that we’re surviving well here in El Cajon and Tecate. Sure, the current financial situation has
diminished the number and scale of buyers, but we’re selling anyway and have been able to work with our
employees to find creative ways to keep it all healthy, so as a business we are staying fit. Our production levels
are rising back to normal levels. We’ve found out we have very loyal customers who remain interested in what
we offer. I’m glad that making guitars was the destiny for my life.
On to guitars. You’re going to see some cool stuff coming out this fall, both in our Fall LTDs and in the 35th
anniversary models. It’s the anniversary stuff that has me especially excited. That’s because, due to the slower
year, we thought, why not take this year and make tooling in order to offer some of the many guitars our players
have been asking us for all these years? I don’t think there’s a week that goes by that someone doesn’t write
and ask when we’re going to make this or that, and we print a lot of those questions in our “Ask Bob” section. You’re also going to read the story of the baritone 8-string guitar in this issue. Now, nobody asked for an
8-string, but they did ask for a baritone. We did that, which is a big job to create all the tooling for the longer
neck a baritone requires. And people also asked for a 9-string, which was easy. But the two separate ideas
sparked the thought of making a baritone model with a couple octave strings. HELLO! Now that’s a cool guitar.
We had dealers visit the factory this summer for training, and they have all played this guitar. They totally get it.
I’m excited for you to be able to play one.
Then there are the guitars with built-in armrests. Don’t try this at home, because the woodworking is too
complicated, but we thought we’d offer players a chance to get a guitar with the coolest, most complex binding treatment you can get on an acoustic. The first time I ever saw such a thing on a guitar was from Canadian
luthier Grit Laskin. If you don’t know his work, Google him, and you’ll be blown away. If you want to get on his
five-year waiting list, I recommend it; you won’t be sorry. I consider him to be the inventor of this built-in armrest, and I asked for his blessing to put it on our guitars, which he seemed happy to grant. Check them out.
He’s inspired us to do some good work of our own.
Up until yesterday, the 8-string baritone was the surprise of the season for me. Then I played the 12-fret
Grand Concert. You’ve probably heard me say that sometimes you can’t anticipate what will happen when you
engage yourself in creative activity. Our customers have asked us to make a parlor guitar for years, and this
is the year. Larry Breedlove went to work and designed a body that is gorgeous. A parlor guitar has a 12-fret
neck, and to take advantage of the tooling effort we decided to make a Grand Concert with that same neck,
which makes sense. Larry’s parlor guitar is awesome, just what it’s supposed to be. But none of us had any
idea how good the GC would sound with a neck that joins the body at the 12th fret.
continued on page 5
6 Tunes for Tots
What attracts a songwriter to children’s music, and what’s the secret of
connecting with kids and their parents? We asked a few of the genre’s standouts.
17Taylor Swift’s Signature Baby
Taylor Swift’s songs have inspired a generation of young fans. Her new
signature Baby Taylor will inspire them to write their own.
18Playing Well With Others
Knowing the building blocks of song structure and melody will go a long
way toward setting up fun jam sessions with friends. Shawn Persinger
shares a few tips.
20The 2009 Fall Limiteds
We know why you look forward to fall. This year’s crop features quilted maple, cocobolo and Indian rosewood, crafted to perfection and topped
with spruce. Enjoy.
22The 8-String Baritone
It sounds weird — until you play one. Bob Taylor’s a big believer, and you should be, too. Part 6-string, part 12-string, part bass, this guitar’s range
stretches far and wide.
26The Song Heard ’Round the Web
An airline broke Dave Carroll’s guitar. YouTube broke his career.
In between, he made a funny, catchy music video. Maybe you’re one
of the millions who saw it.
Departments
2
3
4
5
Letters
BobSpeak
Kurt’s Corner
On the Web
Editor’s Note
10
16
24
28
Ask Bob
Mixed Media
Soundings
WorldView
29
30
31
32
Taylor Notes
Events
Calendar
TaylorWare
www.taylorguitars.com
4
Volume 61
Fall 2009
Publisher / Taylor-Listug, Inc.
Produced by the Taylor Guitars Marketing Department
Vice President of Sales & Marketing / Brian Swerdfeger
Director of Brand Marketing / Jonathan Forstot
Editor / Jim Kirlin
Senior Art Director / Cory Sheehan
Art Director / Rita Funk-Hoffman
Contributors
Bob Borbonus / Jonathan Forstot / David Hosler / David Kaye / Kurt Listug
Shawn Persinger / Shane Roeschlein / Bob Taylor / Corey Witt / Glen Wolff
Chalise Zolezzi
Technical Advisors
Ed Granero / David Hosler / Gerry Kowalski / Tim Luranc / Rob Magargal
Mike Mosley / Brian Swerdfeger / Bob Taylor / Chris Wellons / Glen Wolff
Kurt’s Corner
Photographers
Rita Funk-Hoffman / David Kaye / Steve Parr / Tim Whitehouse
Circulation
Katrina Horstman
Living the Dream, Past,
Present and Future
Taylor Guitars was founded on
October 15, 1974, when Bob and
I and Steve Schemmer bought the
American Dream, the guitar shop
where we all worked in Lemon
Grove, California. Considering how
young we were (19, 21 and 24,
respectively), and how long the
odds were, I think it’s pretty remarkable that we survived, and even
more amazing how we’ve grown to
become a market leader and influenced the guitar market the way we
have.
Our success, in all modesty,
comes from our people, and that
starts with Bob and me. Interestingly,
our partnership wasn’t by design.
We barely knew each other. But we
had the same goals and purposes
with regard to the company; we had
similar ethics and morals; and we
had talents and interests that complemented each other. Steve was
bought out in early 1983.
Over the years we’ve experienced
both easy times, when demand was
so strong we could barely keep
up with it, and tough times, when
demand waned due to changing
trends or economic or political
duress overweighing the guitar market. We’ve learned that nothing stays
the same forever, that both the good
times and bad times will run their
course, and that there’s a normalcy
somewhere in between.
From a business perspective,
some of our early key decisions were
to create a strong brand, stay out of
debt, and reinvest our profits. These
are all paying huge dividends now.
Our brand equity has us leading the
market in acoustic guitar sales. Our
low funded debt level gives us plenty
of flexibility and breathing room, even
in a recession. Also, our huge equity
and it feels great to do so. You then
wonder how you put it off so long.
That’s been the case this year, and
that’s why it’s been a very rewarding
year.
After 35 years, Bob and I each
still really enjoy our work, and enjoy
the people we work with, whether
employees, customers or vendors.
The guitar business is part of a great
music community, united by the love
of music. We have a great team of
We’ve learned that nothing stays
the same forever, that both the good
times and bad times will run their
course, and that there’s a normalcy
somewhere in between.
position and reserves buy us time to
focus on the right strategic initiatives,
rather than short-term emergencies.
This has been a fun and rewarding year. In a good economy, you
can be so busy with growth that you
don’t have time to focus on all the
issues. You can easily overlook areas
that need improvement because
you lack the attention and resources
needed to fix them. In a slower economy, you have time to, and in some
cases are forced to, deal with them,
people here at Taylor Guitars, and
we’ve built a great team of executives who care for the company. This
enables Bob and me to spend more
of our time on personal interests
outside the company, yet still remain
engaged as owners.
The past has been great, and
the future is bright. With 35 years of
success under our belts, we’re well
prepared for the future. Bring it on.
­­— Kurt Listug, CEO
Printing & Distribution
Woods Lithographics - Phoenix
©2009 Taylor Guitars. 300 SERIES, 400 SERIES, 500 SERIES, 600 SERIES, 700 SERIES, 800 SERIES,
900 SERIES, Baby Taylor, Big Baby, Bridge Design, Doyle Dykes Signature Model, Dynamic Body Sensor,
Expression System, GALLERY Series, K4, Liberty Tree, Peghead Design, Pickguard Design, PRESENTATION
Series, Quality Taylor Guitars, Guitars and Cases & Design, T5, T5 (Stylized), Taylor, Taylor (Stylized), Taylor
ES, Taylor Expression System, TAYLOR GUITARS Taylor Guitars K4, Taylor K4, TAYLOR QUALITY GUITARS
and Design, TAYLORWARE, and WOOD&STEEL are registered trademarks of the company. Balanced
Breakout, Dynamic String Sensor, ES Blue, Grand Symphony, GS, GS SERIES, T5 Thinline Fiveway, Taylor
Acoustic Electronics, ES-T, Thinline (T5) Fiveway, T3, T3/B, and T-Lock are trademarks of the company.
Patents pending.
2009 Taylor Factory Tours & Vacation Dates
If you plan to tour the Taylor Guitars factory in 2009, please note that we’ve
revised our tour schedule. A free, guided tour is given every Monday through
Thursday at 1 p.m. (excluding holidays). No advance reservations are necessary. Simply check-in at our reception desk in the lobby of our main building by
1 p.m. We ask that large groups (more than 10) and school-supervised groups
schedule special tours in advance by calling (619) 258-1207 and asking for the
Factory Tour Manager. We kindly request at least two weeks’ notice for all group
tours.
While not physically demanding, the tour does include a fair amount of walking. Due to the technical nature, the tour may not be suitable for small children.
The tour lasts approximately one hour and 15 minutes and departs from the main
building at 1980 Gillespie Way in El Cajon, California.
Please take note of the weekday exceptions below. For more information, including directions to the factory, please visit taylorguitars.com/contact/factorytour.
We look forward to seeing you!
Holiday closures:
Friday, October 16
(Taylor anniversary)
Thursday-Friday, November 26-27
(Thanksgiving holiday)
Monday, December 21 through
Friday, January 1
(Christmas, company vacation)
5
On the Web
What’s new at taylorguitars.com
Find us on Facebook.
Add us on MySpace.
Subscribe on YouTube.
Follow us on Twitter:
twitter.com/taylorguitarspr
Where the Limiteds Live
We’ve had a busy summer building an online addition for all the new models we’re rolling out this fall. The new
Limiteds wing of the website debuted with the launch of the Serj Tankian T5, and now our 35th anniversary models have
an official home there, as well. For each anniversary series, you’ll have access to specifications, a gallery of images, and
a list of dealers who ordered that particular model. The same goes for our Fall LTDs and the Taylor Swift Signature Baby.
Electrical Outlet
Our electric site is freshly stocked with photos of our vibrant new SolidBody colors, such as Lava Red, Purple Flake,
Viper Blue and Bubblegum Pink. You’ll also find photos of the SolidBody tremolo, now available at our premier electric
dealers. And don’t miss our demo of the semi-hollowbody T3, in which Andy Lund shows off its incredible range of tones.
BobSpeak
continued from page 3
When you move the neck up into the body a couple frets, the bridge naturally has to move back the same distance.
This, in turn, requires a modification of the bracing, and even with that, the bridge still sits in a different spot in relation
to the X brace. It also sits more in the middle of the lower bout. On this particular guitar it’s really magic. We can’t put
it down. It’s probably the warmest Taylor guitar I’ve ever heard. The mid-tones are just so beautiful, I’ve never heard this
voice from a Taylor, and it’s also loud. Volume isn’t tone, really, but in a way it is because people perceive it as tone. This
guitar has volume. The whole experience of playing it is mesmerizing. I love, love, love it!
There’s more, including some things we’re introducing later that I’m not ready to talk about now, but I will always
remember this summer as a very creative time. And I have to smile knowing it was accompanied by Dave Carroll’s hit
song, “United Breaks Guitars,” which was brilliant and will go down as one of the most fun moments in our history, even
though we had nothing to do with it. Thanks, Dave!
­­— Bob Taylor, President
Get in tune with the
coming holiday season.
Taylor clothing, gear, parts and
accessories make great gifts.
Starts on page 32.
TaylorWare
®
Editor’s Note
Crafting History
It was 1974, the year of Neil Young’s On the Beach and Joni
Mitchell’s Court and Spark. Stevie Wonder won five Grammys for
Innervisions. Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles opened. Garrison Keillor’s
“A Prairie Home Companion” made its debut, while “Monty Python’s
Flying Circus” came to an end. The Ramones played their first show
at CBGB. Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, and Ali/
Frazier’s historic “Rumble in the Jungle” fight took place in Zaire.
Apparently the bikini thong was also invented.
More specifically, it was October 15, 1974 when Bob Taylor and
Kurt Listug first flipped on the lights in their guitar shop, the Westland
Music Company, only to find the floor covered in a few inches of
water as a result of a storm drain next door that had overflowed. It
was an inauspicious start of what has turned out to be a resoundingly successful enterprise, but on that day the two young partners must
have wondered what exactly they were getting themselves into.
Despite the company’s growth and success in the decades that
have followed, both Bob and Kurt tend to be modest about their own
accomplishments, and on the occasion of key anniversaries, usually
avoid big celebratory hoopla. But when that anniversary is seen as an
occasion — perhaps a challenge — to make an extra special collection
of guitars, then it becomes an opportunity to not just celebrate Taylor
history, but to make some more.
As Bob enthusiastically details in his column, it was a busy,
creative summer, which you’ll see by the number of beautiful 35th
anniversary guitars we showcase in this issue. Not only did our development team embrace the formidable goal of designing nearly 10 different commemorative series — including first-time models like a parlor guitar, 12-fret, 9-string and a baritone — but along the way, their
experimentation led to another model entirely, an 8-string baritone.
It’s inspiring to know that after 35 years in business, Bob and
Kurt are still passionately engaged here at the factory, and that Bob
still gets excited by guitar discoveries like the 8-string and the 12-fret
GC. What’s impressive at the 35-year mark is the level of sophistication the company has reached as a manufacturer, without sacrificing any passion or vision or creativity. Sometimes after companies
grow to a certain point, it seems like they look to maintain rather
than move forward. The hard work of Bob, Kurt and others here has
laid a strong foundation for us to continue to develop new ideas in
dynamic ways. For so many of us here, it’s gratifying to be a part of
a company culture that has the talent, tools, and creative passion to
transform ideas into such a tangible, enjoyable form and share them
with the world.
These days, the possibilities around here seem endless. So, the
next time you write in to ask Bob if he plans to make an archtop or a
ukulele or a mandolin, don’t be surprised if he says yes.
— Jim Kirlin
Correction: In last issue’s “Signature Sounds” article, we neglected
to credit Harry Reese for his photo of Zach Myers.
Online
Read this and other back issues of Wood&Steel at
taylorguitars.com under “Resources.”
photo by Todd Owyoung
Child’s Play
From “kindie” rock to cable TV,
the children’s music market has
come of age. Thanks to a slew of
creative artists, there are more
choices than ever for kids — and
parents — to get their groove on.
By Chalise Zolezzi
If you, like me, are a parent who has endured hours upon hours of listening to your young child’s favorite
new song or movie, you know the experience can be comparable to a short stay in the Gulag. The lyrics
become painfully etched in your mind, and you find yourself sharing your personal angst with the mailman,
the grocery store clerk, and just about anyone who will listen. I plead guilty to having occasionally dangled
bribes of treats, toys or new CDs to my daughter in the desperate hope of bringing something new and palatable to the mix.
Thankfully, as the market (and marketing) of children’s music has blossomed in recent years, so have the
listening and viewing options that both children and parents can enjoy. With the advent of cable outlets like
PBS’s Sprout, Nickelodeon’s Noggin, and Discovery’s Kids, the musical nursery rhymes of yesteryear have
given way to a plethora of alternative options that range from “kindie” rock and cowboy hymns to punk rockinspired tunes. While Nielsen SoundScan does not track sales of children’s music, a trip to any music outlet
will reveal the rich array of musical choices now available.
More than a few of the genre’s standout talents, I’m happy to report, wield Taylors as tools of their trade,
so I decided to check in with several of them to find out how they got where they are, how they approach
their craft, and how they manage to keep kids happy and parents sane.
7
to ska and conga. One of the tunes,
“Going on a Hunt,” a song Berkner
made up with her daughter Lucy,
was recorded in five different musical
styles.
“I thought playing [a song] in a lot
of different ways gives kids a model
to take a song and play it any way
you want,” she explains. “It makes you
feel differently to hear it in different
ways and allows you to be creative.”
Rocketship Run isn’t the only
place Berkner has explored eclectic
Laurie Berkner
(712, 714ce, 914ce, 612ce, 614ce,
Baby Taylor)
Most parents or grandparents of
a preschooler know that Victor Vito
and Freddy Vasco ate a burrito with
Tabasco thanks to the Laurie Berkner
Band. Berkner, who was crowned
“the queen of children’s music” by
People magazine, never intended to
record songs for children, but that’s
exactly where she found herself.
Before her days as a children’s artist,
songwriter and author, Berkner spent
the early ’90s performing at night
with her all-female cover band, Lois
Lane, and by day at birthday parties
for $125 a pop. She says she picked
up on a difference between the two
audiences.
“I was thinking how fun it was
to play music for kids who are so
responsive immediately,” Berkner
recalls.
She never looked back. In 1997,
Berkner released her first children’s
album, Whaddaya Think of That?,
followed a year later by Buzz Buzz
on her own label, Two Tomatoes
Records. By 1999, when she
released Victor Vito, her profile as an
inventive, playful singer-songwriter
with creative lyrics had risen enough
to help secure national distribution
and a coveted spot on Nickelodeon’s
Noggin network as part of “Jack’s
Big Music Show.” The Laurie Berkner
Band soon took to the stage (and TV
screens), shaping a genre that has
been dubbed progressive “kindie”
rock: a less saccharine and more
rockin’ style of music for the preschool set.
“Kids really love the music, and
the parents go from thinking, ‘Please
be something I can tolerate’ to being
moved by it themselves,” she says.
In addition to her expansive discography, a DVD and two book-withCD sets, Berkner recently released
her fifth album, Rocketship Run.
The tracks run the gamut of musical
styles, from Irish jigs, blues and jazz
musical styles. She recently recorded
“Future Man, Future Lady” with reggae’s royal son, Ziggy Marley, on his
kid-friendly album Family Time, and
has covered “Happy Trails” with cowboy crooner Buck Howdy.
With all of her success, Berkner
has never forgotten the impact of
buying her first Taylor.
“The first great guitar I ever saved
up my money to buy was a Taylor
Grand Concert,” she reflects. “It was
my dream guitar, and when I bought
it, I realized I was finally respecting
myself as a musician by owning and
playing a fabulous instrument. It’s
about 20 years old now, with cracks
and chunks of wood missing, and
I still use it for all of my recording
because it sounds so good. In the
meantime, I have newer Taylors to
choose from when I play live!”
Laurieberkner.com
Buck Howdy
(PS15, T5S1 custom, 615 Custom)
Looking for toe-tapping, rootin’tootin’ hoedown fun? Called the
“next Roy Rogers” by XM/Sirius
Radio, Buck Howdy found his voice
in the realm of children’s music.
Howdy, whose album Chickens was
nominated for a 2008 Grammy in the
category of Best Musical Album for
Children, describes his musical style
as “part cowboy, part folk, but allAmerican original.”
continued next page
www.taylorguitars.com
8
Born “wearing a cowboy hat and
boots” and raised on his family’s
Oregon cattle ranch, Howdy’s bio
reads like a legend of the great frontier. Taking cues from the great cowboy personas of the past, his songs
evoke images of campfires, livestock
and hayrides for the littlest buckaroos,
and for adults, nostalgia for simpler
times.
Like Berkner, Howdy didn’t set out
to be a children’s artist, but in 2002,
he sensed a void in the genre.
“It was an epiphany realizing that
there wasn’t that much out there for
kids and families,” he says. “I grew up
listening to the likes of Burl Ives and
Roy Rogers and, meaning no disrespect to other artists, I just felt like
something new was needed.”
Howdy writes the majority of his
songs, including the grammar-schoolage favorite, “Baked Beans,” a tale
of the hazards of eating too many
legumes.
“When I write a song, I’m writing
for me first, because I’m really just a
kid in a grown-up body,” he admits,
noting that the key to connecting
with kids through music is not to
underestimate them. “I think there’s
a fair number of artists out there who
dumb down their music for kids and
underestimate their sophistication and
sense of humor,” he says. “I write stuff
that I like and kids happen to like it,
too!”
On one of his first albums,
Skidaddle! (2003), Howdy put this
theory to the test, recording the cowboy chestnut “Ghost Riders in the
Sky,” even though he initially was hesitant to include it.
“I honestly didn’t think kids would
connect with it at all,” he explains. “But
when I played it for my kids and did
live shows with it, kids were enthralled
with the imagery and the moral lesson
in all of it.”
Howdy has gone on to build a
national following and has added
three more albums to his credit,
including a 2009 Grammy-nominated
release in the category of Best
Spoken Word Album for Children.
He’s also won a half-dozen Emmys for
his videos, which appear on Noggin.
Currently, Howdy is in the planning
stages of two new records. You can
also hear him along with the likes of
Dan Zanes, Trout Fishing in America,
Justin Roberts and Lisa Loeb on Cow
Pie Radio, a syndicated show that
airs weekly on stations across the
nation and three times a week on
XM/Sirius Satellite Radio.
Buckhowdy.com
Zak Morgan
(812ce, 614ce, Baby Taylor, DDSM)
photo by Michael Wilson
Filled with an exuberant creativity, Zak Morgan can be described as
part standup comic, part performer,
and quite possibly the coolest
teacher a child ever had. Morgan
writes and performs whimsical, uplifting songs brimming with wordplay
and positive messages designed to
encourage children to read, imagine
and believe in themselves.
“I’ve always loved playing with
language, and I’m influenced by writers like Shel Silverstein and Roald
Dahl,” Morgan says. “I remember
loving them when I was a child and
appreciating that I wasn’t being
patronized.”
Morgan’s debut album, Bloom,
was released in 1999 to rave
reviews, and his second CD, When
Bullfrogs Croak, was nominated
for a 2004 Grammy, a rare feat for
an independent release. His DVD
Zakland, released in 2008, was
described by the Los Angeles Times
as “uplifting, kid-honoring [and] filled
with healthy ‘I Can Do It’ messages
about the power of imagination,
thinking things through and not giving up.”
“Many of my songs are about my
own childhood, whether it was losing
my thunder to a new sibling, getting
teased for being skinny, or my dad
stealing my Halloween candy while I
slept,” Morgan says. “My songs are
heartfelt; I think that’s why children
connect with my music. I write and
perform for kids because I genuinely
love them and they can tell.”
In his live performances, Morgan
plays his ruby red 614ce.
“The kids love it,” he says. “When
a child tells me her name is Taylor, I
say, ‘That’s my guitar’s name!’ They
love that.”
While Morgan is inspired by the
sound of his Taylor, what he values
even more in the context of performance is that it stays in tune.
“That’s critical when you’re
performing for children, because
they have short attention spans,” he
emphasizes. “I spent years fighting
to keep guitars in tune before I got
my first Taylor.”
Along with performing hundreds
of concerts each year, Morgan is
currently working on a host of new
projects, songs and a possible TV
show. Asked why he decided to
pursue children’s music as a full-time
occupation, Morgan, like his fellow
performers, says he considers himself a child at heart.
“I love working with children,”
he reflects. “They are genuine and
have a wide-eyed enthusiasm and
innocence, and incredible imaginations. We all had that once, and if we
listen, they remind us what’s really
important.” Zakmorgan.com
photo by Scott Preston
photo by Jim Newberry
Ralph Covert
(514ce, 614ce)
Singer-songwriter/guitarist Ralph
Covert, creator of Ralph’s World, is
no stranger to the music business.
After earning critical acclaim for his
Midwest-based rock ’n’ roll band,
The Bad Examples, and scoring several European chart hits, Ralph’s life
changed when he became a father.
Gone were the endless tour dates,
long nights and “bad example” living. At the time, Covert was teaching
“Wiggleworms” classes for children
aged three months to six years at
the Old Town School of Folk Music
in Chicago, where he was already a
songwriting teacher.
“Every day of teaching was an
‘ah-ha’ moment,” he shares. “Children
are so immediately responsive, and
I knew, based on the songs I was
singing, that I wanted to elevate the
craft of children’s music and make
music that was interesting to me
without sacrificing musical qualities.”
At the suggestion of a friend in
the music industry, Covert’s debut
album, Ralph’s World, was released
in 2001 to industry and parental
raves. Touching genres including surf,
jazz, rockabilly and swing, and paired
with sophisticated, creative lyrics, the
record prompted Billboard magazine
to call it “one of the finest kids’ audio
releases of this or any year.”
“One of the exciting things I found
out early on about children’s music
is that the creative possibilities are
as limitless as a child’s imagination,”
Covert says.
His third album, Happy Lemons,
was followed a few years and albums
later by the 2006 Grammy-nominated
Green Gorilla, Monster & Me. From
its Phish-on-steroids harmonies on
the track “Dance Around” to the
Ramones-inspired “I Don’t Wanna,”
it’s no wonder adults were tuning
in, Disney Sound came calling, and
his videos are regularly featured on
Playhouse Disney. The band’s 100plus shows per year are regularly sold
out well in advance and usually take
place in some very cool — and adult —
venues, such as the Fillmore East and
the Lollapalooza festival.
“I consider my Taylors one of my
9
secret advantages,” Covert says with
pride. “When I’m gearing up for a
show, it’s a great feeling to pull out
my guitar and know I’ll sound better
than most of the other performers.”
The latest release from Ralph’s
World, The Rhyming Circus, is an
endlessly entertaining album. As
Time magazine noted, “Ralph’s
World runs through genres like a kid
hitting every ride at an amusement
park.” Whether it’s the Beatlesque
bounce of “Edward the Tap Dancing
Elephant,” the Brian Setzer-like
guitar swing of “Bad Bug Ball,” or
the channeling of Johnny Cash in
“Folsom Daycare Blues,” there’s an
abundance of melodies and moods
that parents can not only easily relate
to but enjoy.
With eight Ralph’s World albums
to his credit, Covert’s creativity also
has found outlets in many other
areas. He’s an award-winning playwright, a composer for both theater
and stage, as well as a published
author. To this day, he still takes time
out to join his fellow Bad Examples
for adult rock ’n’ roll fun, but it won’t
slow him down from pursuing his
passion for sophisticated children’s
music.
“Any time a child or parent comes
up to tell us how much our music
means to them, it’s moving,” he
says. “We’ve never measured success by [the sale of] records. I’ve
always measured it by if it’s the type
of album people play when they’re
doing their dishes — if it’s part of their
day-to-day lives, that’s what matters.”
Ralphsworld.com
ducer, Liam Davis (who now plays
rhythm guitar with the band), Roberts
recorded the songs professionally for
what became his first album, Great
Big Sun.
In a musical style with the peppiness and melodies of Elvis Costello
meets the Fountains of Wayne,
Roberts has taken his folksy lyrics
and sunny pop into the realm of children’s music.
“I can’t say I know exactly what
kids will respond to, but I think
somewhere in there, kids and I share
an affinity for really simple but great
punk rock and folk music,” he reflects.
“Both styles of music typically have
melody that’s memorable and lyrics
which are fun to sing along to.”
In 2003, Roberts released
his second album, Not Naptime,
with his band, the Not Ready for
Naptime Players. It won a Parents’
Choice Gold Award (he now has
five) and was called one of the “25
Best Children’s CDs for the Past
25 Years” by the Parents’ Choice
Foundation. His third CD, Way Out,
released in 2004, ranked as one of
Amazon.com’s top 10 children’s CDs
of the year and received the National
Parenting Publications Gold award
for Children’s Recordings.
Roberts now has eight albums
to his credit. In true form, his most
recent album, Pop Fly, is a genre-
swirling grand slam of creativity and
fun for adults and kids. Featuring
songs that encourage children to
explore the world in unruly hair,
yellow reflectors and backyard
superhero antics, the album has
been called the “Sgt. Pepper’s of
children’s albums.” From the Beatlesvibed “Giant-Sized Butterflies” to the
surfer tune “Kickboard, Baby Yeah,”
Roberts’ lyrics and melodies are
catchy, memorable and fun.
“The really cool thing is that when
I’m writing a song, I have to write it
for me because just as much as anyone else, I want a good melody stuck
in my head, or lyrics with some emotional resonance. It’s not uncommon
to find dads in the back of a theater
mouthing all the words to songs.”
In between their 150 to 200-plus
tour dates per year, Roberts and the
Not Ready for Naptime Players are
heading back to the studio to finish
recording their ninth album. Parents
and children everywhere can anticipate more grooviness in 2010.
Justinroberts.com
Chalise Zolezzi is the Public
Relations Manager at Taylor
Guitars and mom to 8-year-old Ava
Antoinette. You can reach her at
[email protected]
Justin Roberts
(514, 410)
Almost by accident, Justin
Roberts made the transition from
indie rocker to Montessori teacher to
children’s artist. The late ’90s found
Roberts introducing music into his
classroom, and sending his students
home with CDs of his all-original
songs.
“At the time, I was performing
in a band [Pimentos for Gus],” he
remembers. “We’d written this song,
a fable about a giraffe and a nightingale. We’d played this song in bars
for adults, but with the kids, the first
time I played it for them, they asked
me to play it again. I was shocked
— it was four verses with no chorus.
From there, I thought, children’s
music could be so cool, given their
sophistication and responsiveness
to great melodies and lyrics.” At the
encouragement of a friend and pro-
photo by Todd Rosenberg
www.taylorguitars.com
10
Ask Bob
Bass protos, a Brazilian blur, sponge logic
and finish myths
In Volume 60 of Wood&Steel
[Summer 2009], there is a picture
of Ed Granero (page 16) holding
a 9-string prototype. Behind him
is what appears to be a black T5
bass. Another prototype?
John Wilson (555 owner)
John, I guess Ed needs to work
harder on grabbing the center of
attention! Our shop is filled with
prototypes. That bass, in particular,
is yet another iteration of our bass
ideas. As you might recall from past
discussion, the T5 guitar was actually born out of prototyping some
bass ideas. By the way, the one
you saw is a little more like the T3
than the T5. I can’t say when a bass
might get to market, but we’re chipping away at it.
I live in Hawaii, play slack key, and
was curious what you think a guitar with a koa top and a more traditional body wood like rosewood
or mahogany would sound like (as
opposed to all koa). Right now I
have a Taylor cedar/rosewood GA
and a Martin Sitka spruce/mahogany D. I don’t think I’ve ever seen
a guitar with the combination of
woods I asked about. Just curious
if that’s even a possibility.
Zack Onaga
Yes, it is a possibility, and a person
could do that through the BTO
program. Cosmetically, matching
the koa top to rosewood might be a
challenge. It could look good sitting
on mahogany, though. Sound-wise,
I’d say the koa top will make a bigger difference in tone than the type
of body wood you attach it to. In
other words, the top itself is a big
departure from spruce, and changing the back and sides from koa to
mahogany would season it a bit. I
think mahogany would be the best
choice to implement your idea. The
softer mahogany would ring out
against the harder koa, which is less
brilliant than spruce. Imagine the
sound of an all-mahogany guitar.
That’s been done a zillion times.
Swapping that mahogany top for a
koa top would probably just darken it
a bit. It might be great for slack key,
and certainly the right look! Bind it in
rosewood to tie it all together.
My 1978 Taylor is made with
Brazilian rosewood. I have been
told that if I try to bring a Brazilian
rosewood guitar into the country (I
live in the U.S.) it will be confiscated and destroyed, even if I could
show ownership before leaving
the country. That doesn’t sound
right to me. Do you know anything
about the Brazilian rosewood
issue? I was told it was an import
issue by a friend with a ’52 Martin
D-28, also in Brazilian rosewood.
We were talking about Europe,
recalling a trip we had made in
1978, so I guess we would wonder about [traveling to] Europe.
Ivan Mann
Ivan, you touch on a subject with no
clear answer. That’s because the
laws are vague, yet at the same time
more people are becoming aware
of them. There was a time when a
customs agent or passport control
wouldn’t even know the law existed.
Now we have a lot of knowledge
of the existence of the law, but
people don’t know how to interpret
it. Therefore, some zealous agents
will rake you over the coals, while
others will just let you pass. It’s risky
because you are subject to what the
agent feels they want to do. That
said, if you just travel with your guitar as personal property and don’t
bother “claiming” anything about it,
there’s a 99.9 percent chance you’ll
just move through every border.
Agents are certainly not experts in
wood identification. If you are forced
to talk about it, just say, “It’s my
guitar,” and don’t start talking about
Brazilian rosewood. You are not
breaking any law by traveling with
your guitar. Staying quiet about it
doesn’t cause you to break a law;
it just helps prevent an agent from
imposing their own interpretation on
you. We know many professional
musicians who travel all over the
world with their old Brazilian rosewood guitars, and they employ this
strategy. It keeps everyone happy.
Last issue, you responded to a
question regarding humidification
by suggesting that one should not
re-wet a humidifier while it is still
wet. Can you please explain the
reasoning? We live in an area that
is extremely cold and dry in winter, and keep our guitars in cases
with soundhole humidifiers damp
at all times. We have also been
advised by a local guitar technician that leaving a dry, spongetype humidifier in a guitar actually
can cause additional drying by
virtue of the sponge absorbing
humidity/moisture from the guitar.
Andy Spindler
Calgary, AB
You bet I can explain. A dry sponge
indicates that the guitar has taken
all the water and wants more. A wet
sponge indicates the guitar is still
absorbing water. If you re-wet when
it is already wet, you may just raise
the relative humidity higher than is
good for the guitar and begin to
force feed it too much water. The
simple cycle of letting the sponge
go dry will always tell you that
you’re not giving it too much. If the
sponge goes dry often, simply keep
re-wetting it. A supple sponge that
isn’t really wet but also isn’t really
dry indicates nearly the perfect relative humidity, so don’t re-wet that
sponge until it’s dry. And remember,
this whole exercise should take
place inside a closed guitar case.
Are you guys going to stick to the
single cutaway body shape as
the Taylor SolidBody shape, or do
you plan to do other shapes in
the future, like a double cutaway
design?
Jay Smith
Nashville, TN
Jay, we don’t know if we will ever
make a double cutaway. Currently
we don’t have it as a plan, but I’ll
wager that eventually we do make
one. Kinda seems inevitable, doesn’t
it? At least to me.
I am primarily a rhythm guitar player with a
heavy hand. I grew up with the Beatles and the
songs of the late ’60s to early ’70s. I am in the
process of putting together my dream BTO Taylor.
I can’t decide whether to buy a Jumbo or Grand
Symphony, and for my woods, master grade koa
or custom grafted walnut. I chose premium Sitka
spruce for the soundboard. Any suggestions?
Jack Cardinale
Mentor, OH
Jack, I’m a bigger fan of the GS than the Jumbo.
It’s our latest development, and it has sugary-sweet
tone, yet still is very bold. I’ll say again that I’m
a fan of Indian rosewood and Sitka spruce. I’m a
rhythm player too, but with a medium hand. If I
were to leap from rosewood back and sides to another
wood for your or my application, I would choose the
koa over the walnut. I think it’s a bit more solidsounding and would perform more to your liking.
11
Can you elaborate on why some
woods do not make good tonewood? I live in Oak Forest, which is
surrounded by oaks. (Surprised?)
Why doesn’t oak make a good
tonewood? Is its grain too tight,
or not tight enough? If a wood is
not well-suited for tops, could its
reflective properties make it suitable for backs or sides?
Also, what is the main reason
for book-matching a top or back?
Does the use of two (or three)
pieces glued together add structural strength, or is the method
done for aesthetics? Perhaps it is
too difficult to find suitable pieces
to make backs or tops of just one
piece?
Bob Sullivan
Oak Forest, IL
Bob, to tell you the truth, oak would
make a fine guitar. In fact, most
woods will make a fine guitar. Our
famous “pallet” guitar sounds incredible, and it’s made from an oak pallet
and an econo-stud 2x4 from Home
Depot, glued together six pieces
wide for the top. But the guitar market is used to certain woods and a
certain aesthetic look. We usually
think of nice guitar woods as having
focused, tight, closed-pore grain. So,
yes, an oak guitar would be good;
it just would have low overall sales
appeal.
Tops and backs are made of two
bookmatched pieces, which accomplishes many things. One, the wood
can be narrower since there aren’t
really trees that can supply one-piece
tops. Two, the grain pattern visually
is symmetrical, which is beautiful.
And three, the flexibility of the wood
becomes symmetrical, which helps
the builder regulate the sound. It’s
just a good idea to use bookmatched
pieces, not that you couldn’t make a
guitar with one piece or ten pieces.
While trying to decide on a guitar, I
had narrowed it down to the 810ce
and the 910ce. It’s probably difficult to tell the difference in tone
under the best circumstances. I
have never seen both in stock at
the same time at any music stores
in our area. Even if I had, the difference in string age and other variables could confuse my untrained
ear. Could you explain the main
difference (in woods) between
these guitars? Is there a tonal and/
or visual difference in the woods
selected? (I know there are other
differences like tuning machines,
fretboard inlays, binding, nut/
saddle that can affect pricing.)
Jim Mabe
Fullerton, CA
Jim, if tone is your only criteria, buy
the 810ce and save some money.
The 910ce has more select wood,
fancier inlays, etc. Truthfully, although
the wood on a 910 is a higher grade,
it’s splitting hairs if tone is the main
goal. Players like to upgrade all components of their guitars sometimes,
thus the 900 Series, which also carries higher-quality, more expensive
tuning gear. They both are legitimate
choices, and I won’t try to fool you
into thinking the 910 will sound better, but we do reserve the best materials for it.
I’m a younger player who picked
up the guitar after graduating
college in 2007. After landing my
first job, I celebrated by buying
a 210e from Jim at Guitar Rodeo
and never looked back. I’ve since
been working hard, staying home
on the weekends, and saving up to
fund my beloved Taylor collection.
In less than one year I’m now the
proud owner of a DN4e, GA6 and
a 414-LTD. I’m currently gunning
for an 814ce, and hopefully with a
little more luck and hard work I’ll
be able to own the quintessential
Taylor guitar.
I take very good care of my
Taylors, but one thing that has
always stumped me is [proper]
conditioning of the fingerboard.
I’ve heard of using lemon oil, bore
oil and other fancy brand-named
stuff on the market. At the suggestion of a friend, I recently started
using boiled linseed oil but have
since read mixed things about it.
Mainly that over time it will produce buildup and gunk as the
ebony “sweats” it out, leaving an
oily board. Is this true? And if so,
which oil(s) does Taylor recommend?
Joe
Berkeley, CA
Gosh, Joe, leave some guitars for
someone else! What a collection
you’re amassing. Here’s what I like
on fretboards: linseed oil. But only
do it once or twice and then forget
about it for a couple years. Then do
it again and forget about it for ten
years. This offers the best protection, and you won’t experience
buildup. It’s better than bore oils or
mineral oils that don’t actually add a
finish that stays in the pores.
I have a 512, an 814c, and just
purchased my third [Taylor], a
GA7 with the Expression System,
six weeks ago and have played
it every day. It has the sweetest
sound when played fingerstyle. I
can’t stop playing it, and already
it has made me a better player.
Question: The GA7 has the NT
neck, and to me it feels like the
back of the neck is a bit beefier
than my other Taylors. Is that the
case, or am I just imagining this?
Gary J. Iovine
Gary, if your 512 and 814c are
pre-NT (prior to 2001), then you’re
probably not imagining it. They both
use the exact same digital carving
programs. However, before the NT
neck there was a lot more tolerance in
the process, meaning that very slightly
mismatched parts required a bit of
hand work after CNC carving in order
to smooth all the pieces together. This
procedure yielded necks that varied
slightly in shape, and the only way
to smooth things out is to remove
wood. So, in the end, your NT neck
is the proper design, executed more
accurately, and the other two are a bit
smaller due to hand detailing of the
CNC part.
I have a 1992 LKSM that I love.
I was looking at some Taylor
6-strings at a [store] in Portland
Oregon, where I live. One of the
salesmen said that Taylors won’t
age well because they don’t use a
breathable varnish like nitrocellulose. I think the guy was full of it.
I said, “Well, I might buy that line
of thinking if they varnished the
inside of the guitar as well, but
they don’t.” Maybe you can clear
up this finish myth for me. My guitar sounds as good as or better
than it did 17 years ago.
Mark Harris
Yep, your intuition is correct.
Nitrocellulose isn’t more “breathable” than the finish we use. And
I’m not sure how breathability plays
into aging anyway. The whole guitar
ages, not just the finish, but the
wood also, and it all opens up with
time and playing. Your old LKSM is
probably proof enough, and there
are plenty of old Taylors around that
offer more proof. But what would
our guitar hobby be without myths
and legends?
Recently I’ve seen advertised
an armrest for acoustic guitars
that is supposed to increase volume compared to having an arm
draped across the front of the
guitar. Has Taylor tested these?
Theoretically, it seems to make
some sense. Whether there is
enough difference to be noticeable is another issue. I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
Skip Berquam
Spokane, WA
Skip, the theory is correct, in that if
you dampen the body with your arm,
you’re going to lose some volume. I
wish I could tell you that the difference with the armrest is undeniable,
but I can’t. You may or may not perceive a noticeable difference, but if
you do, don’t let anyone tell you that
you don’t. I think this is something
you’ll just have to try for yourself. By
the way, my parents and sisters live
in Spokane.
I recently purchased a 114ce as a
backup to my Taylor collection. I
enjoy it very much and was wondering if the sound will open up
over time with its sapele laminate
back and sides, or if the laminate
doesn’t allow this. Also, does the
laminate give the guitar a little
more resistance toward humidity
changes? I watch the humidity with my other Taylors like a
hawk and was wondering if the
laminate makes the guitar a little
more road-tough.
Joe Nicola
Minneapolis, MN
Yes, Joe, the guitar will open up.
Maybe less than an all-solid-wood
guitar, but certainly the top will age
and open. Since the top is solid,
you also have to watch the humidity. Unfortunately, the top and the
fretboard are the two main reasons
we give our guitars humidity care,
because they move more than the
neck itself or the hardwood back
and sides. By making backs and
sides with veneers, we don’t really
improve the guitar’s humidity stability.
I have been playing guitar since
the mid-1980s and am considering purchasing another guitar.
I currently play a 1959 Ramirez
flamenco guitar, which I obtained
third-hand. I prefer the light
weight and tone of this instrument when compared to several
high-end classical guitars I’ve
tested. I have begun testing steelstring acoustics for fingerpicking
and would welcome your recommendations on what to look for. I
use a drop-D tuning at times, and
may also experiment with open
tunings as used for Hawaiian
slack key guitar. I was wondering
how the various tonewoods compare with Spanish cypress.
Grayson Motomura
Hilo, HI
Grayson, I think you might prefer
a mahogany guitar, which has the
lightest weight of the woods we
use. Certainly you won’t find a steelstring that is in the weight category
of your Ramirez, but by choosing
mahogany, the leap will not be as
much. Cypress is a great wood for
flamenco guitars since it lends itself
to the percussive style of playing.
I think you’d like a mahogany with
a cedar top, and probably a GA
or GS body. Each of those guitars
will give you the lighter weight, the
open, breathy tone, and will work
well with drop tunings. Give one a
go and see what you think.
Got a
question for
Bob Taylor?
Shoot him an e-mail:
[email protected].
If you have a specific
repair or service
concern, please call
our Customer Service
department at
(800) 943-6782,
and we’ll take
care of you.
35
YEARS
bold
From rare woods
to new designs,
we celebrate Taylor’s
35th anniversary
with an exquisite
collection of
limited editions.
By Jim Kirlin
The XXXV-GS-C
Cocobolo / Sitka / Ebony Armrest
L
ast issue we
teased you with a behind-thescenes preview of our 35th
anniversary guitars, many of
which were still in the incubation phase of development. This
time around, we proudly unveil
the finished products (most of
them, anyway). With this commemorative collection, we reveal
a wildly eclectic array of models
that respond to the requests of
customers from over the years.
Despite the breadth of designs
represented, each embodies signature Taylor attributes: creative
thinking, aesthetic beauty and
refined craftsmanship. Some
guitars are first-time offerings, including a deep-toned
baritone GS, an intimate parlor guitar, a “modern vintage”
12-fret GC, a 9-string GS, and an
exotic assortment of GS models
crafted with a beveled armrest.
Our electric line delivers some
showstoppers of its own, including T3 and SolidBody models
featuring premium-grade woods
like feathered koa, quilted
maple, and cocobolo. Alas, we
can’t show you our grand finale
quite yet. At press time, Bob
Taylor was still working on the
design nuances for an ultra-rare
series of Brazilian rosewood
guitars that promise to be spectacular. Each of the 35 made
will be unique, and the series
will include a variety of different body styles. Look for the full
story on the Taylor website in
late October.
Our 35th anniversary models feature a commemorative
“35” fretboard inlay, come with
a custom label, and most will
be crafted in select batches, in
some cases as few as 35. Each
model will include a certificate
of authenticity personally signed
by Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug.
Some series have already
shipped to Taylor dealers, with
more scheduled to arrive in
mid-October. For specs, photos,
quantities and a current list of
dealers carrying these models,
visit taylorguitars.com.
The XXXV-SB-K
Feathered Koa Top
The Armrest Series
XXXV-GS-C
XXXV-GS-M
XXXV-GS-W
XXXV-GS-MP
An edge bevel on the bass
side of a guitar’s lower bout
blends a practical design function — a comfortable armrest for
one’s picking arm — with elegant
contouring that offers unique aesthetic appeal. Inspired in part by
the work of renowned luthier Grit
Laskin, our armrest is crafted of
either ebony or Indian rosewood
and will be featured on four different anniversary GS models, each
showcasing a different wood for
the back and sides, with a matching backstrap: cocobolo, AA-grade
Macassar ebony, feathered walnut
and quilted maple. Each wood
was available in extremely limited
quantities.
“Rather than wait to match
these unique wood sets one-byone with a Build to Order customer, we’re going to include them
in this special series,” Bob Taylor
explains.
All feature Sitka spruce tops
with our tone-enhancing CV bracing, ebony binding, an abalone
rosette, Gotoh tuners, a bone nut
and saddle, and the Expression
System® pickup. The quilted
maple body will have a sunset
honeyburst top, Indian rosewood
armrest and Venetian cutaway,
while the other models will each
have an ebony armrest and
Florentine cutaway.
The Electrics
XXXV-T3B-C
XXXV-T3B-K
XXXV-T3-C
XXXV-T3-K
XXXV-SB-QM
XXXV-SB-K
From the beginning, the aesthetic identity of Taylor’s electric
guitar line has drawn deeply from
our passion for beautiful woods.
For our 35th anniversary, we
chose to make several batches
of T3 and SolidBody models that,
due to our ultra-limited production run, enabled us to choose
premium grades of exotic tops,
such as feathered koa, quilted
maple, and bold-hued cocobolo.
The T3s are available in either koa
or cocobolo, with a choice of a
Bigsby vibrato or a stop tailpiece.
The SolidBody limiteds showcase
two series: one featuring tops of
awe-inspiring feathered koa, the
other with tops of quilted maple
and a tobacco sunburst finish.
continued next page
The Parlor
XXXV-P
Though parlor-style guitars
are sometimes defined by certain
size specifications, the term is
often simply used to describe a
small or “sub-compact” body (usually smaller than a concert-size).
Boasting a historical lineage that
threads through the 19th and
early 20th centuries, a parlor guitar was designed to be comfortable to hold and was traditionally
played in people’s homes, hence
the lack of need for a big-bodied
instrument to project in larger performance halls (the dreadnought
shape would later fulfill this role).
Taylor’s first-ever parlor guitar debuts a shape created by
Larry Breedlove and is based on
some parlor designs he worked
out some years ago with longtime Taylor design engineer Mike
Mosley from our product development group. Mosley has actually
built five personal parlor guitars
on his own over the past decade,
each one with different wood pairings. He shared a few observations that speak to the identity of
the parlor-style design.
“My friend performs with one
and likes it because it’s small, so
when she’s on a crowded stage
she’s less apt to bump into things,”
Mosley says. “Plus, it has a nice
high ‘jangle,’ which cuts nicely
though a mix.”
Having worked with different woods on his parlor models,
Mosley found that due to the compact body size, the materials tend
to have a greater impact on the
overall tone. He’s also found parlor
guitars to produce tones that wonderfully complement other guitars.
“I normally play with a guy who
has a GA and a Dreadnought, and
when I use the parlor guitar they
sound so good together,” he says.
“It’s almost like having a different
instrument.”
Taylor training manager Rob
Magargal strung up and played the
first of the 35th anniversary parlor
models and was impressed with
the tonal output.
“I wasn’t expecting something
so light to have so much sound,”
Magargal says. “It’s a very comfortable guitar for me to play, from
the sleek body to the neck being
joined at the 12th fret. I can see
this being a great recording guitar
or just a nice addition to anyone’s
arsenal.”
The Parlor
The 9-String
The Baritone
The T3B Cocobolo
Taylor’s 35th anniversary parlor model features Madagascar
rosewood back/sides (milled thinner than Indian rosewood due to
Madagascar’s denser properties),
a Sitka spruce top with Adirondack
CV bracing, a slotted peghead, ivoroid binding, abalone rosette, a bone
nut and saddle, and the ES pickup.
The Sitka selected for the top is a
special wide-grain selection, which
adds warmth to the tone. The
bridge design evolved from Taylor’s
nylon-string bridge. The ends were
shortened to better suit the smaller
proportions of the parlor shape,
and feature scalloped contouring
over a cylindrical profile — essentially a more refined version of a
traditional “pyramid” style bridge
used on other parlor guitars. The
bridge was designed to have extra
flexibility, says Larry Breedlove,
which serves to enhance top movement and tone.
The Baritone
XXXV-B
The beauty of a baritone guitar
compared to simply tuning down
is that a baritone’s longer scale
The 12-Fret (koa back and sides)
length (in our case, 27 inches compared to our standard 25.5 or shortscale 24 7/8) allows one to play in
a lower register, yet maintain normal string tension. Baritones have
been used by artists from Dave
Matthews to Duane Eddy to Ani
DiFranco. A baritone will appeal to
anyone looking for a deeper guitar
tone, including singer-songwriters
who find the upper register of
certain songs to be a stretch for
their vocals. Our 35th anniversary
baritone is tuned to B (B E A D F#
B). To help achieve a low, robust
sound, we chose the GS shape and
a wood pairing of Indian rosewood,
known for its strong bass response,
and Sitka spruce. Strummers who
favor a potent, girthy sound and
like to detune will love them. The
baritone also features a tobacco
sunburst top, Indian rosewood
binding, abalone rosette, Taylor
gold tuners, Venetian cutaway and
the ES pickup.
The 9-String
XXXV-9
A 9-string guitar is one of
those requests we’ve occasionally
received from Nashville players. For
years, Nashville session cats have
relied on high-strung guitars — guitars strung with the octave strings
from a 12-string set — to add extra
jangle to a mix. Sometimes they
would just take some of the fundamental strings off a 12-string guitar.
The 9-string is a hybrid of sorts
between a 6 and a 12, with the treble-side strung as a double course.
(The D and G string pairs are an
octave apart, while the unwound B
strings are in unison.) The design
gives players a lush voice with
richly ringing treble notes, without
the whole 12-string experience.
“The 9-string is for the player
who wants some of the 12-string
sound but for whom a full 12 is too
much,” says Taylor’s David Hosler.
“The way we designed ours fills
everything out. It’s great for adding another part, another flavor to
a song, and it’s a great guitar to
sing to.”
Our 35th Anniversary 9-string
is a GS with a Tropical mahogany
back and sides, a Sitka spruce top,
Indian rosewood binding, abalone
rosette, bone nut and saddle, Taylor
gold tuners, Venetian cutaway and
the ES pickup.
The 12-Fret
XXXV-TF
For those unfamiliar with a
12-fret guitar, the “12” doesn’t refer
to the total number of frets; it’s the
number of frets from the nut to the
edge of the guitar body. The design
traces back to the period that preceded steel-string acoustics. As
steel-string players craved access
to higher notes on the fretboard,
the 12-fret design gave way to the
14-fret, although classical guitars
have in many cases carried on the
12-fret tradition (our nylon-string
Grand Concerts feature a 12-fret
design). The vintage 12-fret design
also enjoyed a renaissance among
steel-string players as acoustic
fingerstyle enjoyed a resurgence in
the 1980s.
Although our 12-fret model
incorporates a Grand Concert body
and standard GC bracing, it sounds
dramatically different from our GC.
One reason is the reorientation of
the neck, body and bridge in relation to each other (the bridge, for
one, is shifted farther back on the
lower bout). The change in body
geometry translates into a unique,
The 12-Fret
modern-vintage tonal flavor.
“I’ve never heard a Taylor sound
like this,” Bob Taylor raved after
playing a prototype. “It’s warm like
a vintage Martin. It’s a tone that
differs from our regular GC with its
distinctive snap and brilliance. It’s
soft, easy, warm, folky, bassy and
loud. Call Joan Baez so she can
sing us a folk song.”
Koa
backstrap
Our 35th anniversary 12-fret features beautiful AA-grade Hawaiian
koa for the back and sides, an
Engelmann spruce top, a slotted
peghead with a koa backstrap, a
green heart abalone rosette and
trim on the top and back, a bone
nut and saddle, and the ES pickup.
To see more photos of our 35th anniversary models, visit taylorguitars.com.
16
Mixed Media
T3/B: Future Classic
Guitar World
September 2009
The T3 lovefest continues
in Guitar World’s September
Soundcheck feature, in which writer
Chris Gill praises the semi-hollowbody T3/B as one Taylor that is “destined to be a classic in its own right.”
Quick to admire Taylor’s expert
craftsmanship, Gill notes that the
“immaculate construction and nearperfect attention to detail is as
evident on the T3/B as it is on the
company’s esteemed acoustic models. The neck has Taylor’s signature
comfortable C-shaped profile . . . and
the fretwork is simply as good as it
gets. The T3/B’s thin body and light
weight actually make it . . . comfortable
to play.”
While visually dazzled by the quilt
maple and chrome appointments,
Gill found the versatile tonal qualities
even more impressive. “The bridge
humbucker produces a nice percussive snap, and the neck pickup delivers shimmering, chimey jangle, which
is emphasized when the coils are
split,” he writes. “As a result the T3/B
is a surprisingly versatile instrument
that’s able to go from chicken-pickin’
country to fat jazz-box tones in an
instant.”
On the Bigsby’s performance,
Gill tells readers to set their past
concerns aside. “If you’ve previously
avoided Bigsby-equipped guitars
because of their tendency to make
the strings go out of tune, your worries are over. The T3/B’s roller bridge
does an excellent job of maintaining
tuning, and unlike other roller designs
it provides enhanced sustain and
makes height and intonation adjustments easy.”
Gill concludes that the T3/B
offers guitarists a “bold new voice”
and produces “a broad palette of
tones that bridge the gap between
traditional semi-hollow and solidbody
guitars.” While plenty of semi-hollow
models are on the market, he says,
“the T3 distinguishes itself from the
pack with a unique personality and
a semi-hollow voice that’s likely to
appeal to a wide variety of players . . . .”
The guitar was also given a Guitar
World Platinum Award for Quality &
Design.
Look for the complete review
online at guitarworld.com.
814ce: Balanced,
All-Around Great
Premier Guitar
July 2009
In his July review, Premier Guitar
magazine editor Chris Burgess shares
his appreciation for the 814ce and
its superbly crafted balancing act. He
writes that the “design and construction balances past and present, with
a combination of new technology and
old-fashioned craftsmanship.”
Impressed with the visual aesthetics of the Indian rosewood/Sitka
spruce pairing of this Taylor classic,
Burgess found even more to admire
once he began playing. “If the selection of wood achieves a great look,
it also gives the guitar a perfectly
even and wonderfully full voice,” he
observes. “Right from the first strum,
it captured me with its balance. The
lows display a striking depth and clarity; the attack is clear, full and deep
with no boominess or muddiness. The
midrange is warm and round with no
discernable scoop. The bright, crisp
highs ring out without dominating.
The overall effect is a full-bodied,
resonant sustain with a clear, vibrant
‘zing’ across its tonal range.”
After making his way through
each aspect of the guitar, Burgess
declared the 814ce an “all around
great” guitar. “What I didn’t expect
to become so obvious as I played
and got to know this guitar was how
much awareness and consideration
had been put into creating a balanced
whole,” he writes. “Every aspect of
the 814ce is meant to exist in precise
harmony with every other — from
Taylor’s production method, which
balances art and tradition with science and innovation, to their choice
of woods, construction and electronic
features, and of course great looks
and outstanding tone. For instruments
in this class, it may often seem like a
slight knock to be called ‘all around’
great, but in this case, it’s the highest
compliment I can think to pay.”
You can read the full review online
at premierguitar.com.
Journo BTO
The Taylor Factory
Summer 2009
It was a great week at the Taylor
Guitars factory this summer when
an international group of guitar
magazine reporters invaded the
factory floor, soaking up every drop
of Taylor knowledge they could.
Writers from Guitarist (UK), Guitar
(Germany), MusikkPraksis (Norway),
and Acoustic Guitarist (France), as
well as U.S.-based Guitar Player
and Guitar World magazines spent
time touring the factory with Bob
Taylor to learn our inner workings
for a “Taylorized” education in guitar
building.
During their three-day stay, the
journalists had the opportunity to
experience Taylor’s Build to Order
process firsthand by spec’ing out
their own BTO models for a promotion with their respective publications. With Bob at the helm of
the wood selection process, BTO
program directors Joe Bina and
Chris Wellons walked each writer
through the vast array of options
available. From the neck profile and
scale length down to the purfling
and binding, each writer was visually
and audibly in awe of the variety of
options and combinations available.
As of press time, our production floor was busy fulfilling each
detail and appointment, so we
can’t tempt you with any pictures
just yet. However, readers of these
magazines, take note: Once the
custom guitars are completed, each
magazine will be reviewing and
then rewarding one lucky winner
with their BTO guitar. (As one editor noted, “I don’t know how I’ll be
able to give this guitar away. It’s like
giving away my first born!”) Be sure
to check the coming issues of each
magazine for your chance to win one
of these uniquely beautiful creations.
The T3’s Luxe Life
Robb Report
August 2009
What do you get the millionaire
who has or could have everything?
Might we suggest a T3? In May,
Robb Report associate editor Bailey
Barnard jetted from his office in
Malibu, California to spend the
day at the Taylor factory with Bob.
From a tour and the chance to
pick up and plug in a T3, Barnard
could clearly declare that the guitar
offered “shocking amplification.”
While sticking with the basic facts in
his article, we hear that behind the
scenes, the T3 has quickly become the
favorite axe of several players in the
Robb Report offices. robbreport.com
Taylor Atwitter
For the latest happenings at
Taylor, be sure to check out our
Twitter posts. This micro-blog site
will keep you updated on Taylor
news, thoughts and, well, just about
anything you want to talk about.
Be sure to check our posts, often
several per day, and drop us a line if
you feel so inclined. Just remember
to keep it to 140 characters or less.
twitter.com/taylorguitarspr
Bob Taylor with guitar magazine
writers at the Taylor factory
Taylor Swift’s
Fearless Baby
The country-pop princess unveils a signature guitar that’s
perfect for the tunesmiths of tomorrow
The past year has been a whirlwind for country-pop superstar Taylor
Swift (PSGA, GS8, 615ce, PS-LTD, T5-S, K65ce, SolidBody Classic).
The 19-year-old singer-songwriter, who has shared a close relationship
with Taylor Guitars since she was just a precocious, aspiring preteen
with very big dreams, has blossomed into one of music’s most
successful acts. Her sophomore album Fearless (whose release Swift
celebrated at the Taylor Guitars factory last November) debuted on the
Billboard Hot 200 at the top spot and has since gone on to sell over 4
million copies. Recently, she surpassed the 10 million mark for total
albums sold and over 20 million paid downloads — more than any artist
in country music history. Her headline tour this year included a recent
sold-out show at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where each
song was accompanied by legions of singing and screaming fans, who
at one point gave Swift a four-minute standing ovation.
These days, it’s hard to turn on the TV, pick up a magazine, or surf
the web without encountering Swift’s blond tresses as she continues
to add to her repertoire as a singer, songwriter, actress and now, a
guitar designer, with her very own signature model, the Taylor Swift
Baby Taylor (TSBT).
At three-quarters the size of our standard Dreadnought, and with
a slim 1 11/16-inch neck and a comfortable, compact shape, the
guitar is just right for both the littlest player’s hands and anyone who
likes to pick up and play on the go. Like the original Baby Taylor, the
TSBT is crafted from sapele laminate back and sides and a solid Sitka
spruce top. The custom design is all Swift’s, featuring her well-known
expression “Love, Love, Love” among delicate vines that encircle the
soundhole. To commemorate the songwriting spirit of her album,
the guitar features the word “Fearless” along with Swift’s signature
inscribed above the bridge.
“I wanted to share my passion for playing guitar with my fans,” she
says. “For a beginner, finding the right guitar can be intimidating, but
this guitar, it’s the perfect size. Even if you’ve been playing for years,
it’s a great size to travel with. I used to sit in the back seat of the rental
car while I was on my radio tour at 16, writing songs on my Baby Taylor.
I love the sound, and I love those memories.”
The Taylor Swift Baby Taylor will be available in late fall.
Playing Well
With Others
All too often I encounter guitarists who don’t know any songs. This
is true for both students and fellow
performers, though in the case of the
latter, they do know their own original
material, but nothing else. Many guitarists tend to focus their attention on
scales and chords, sequences and
patterns, soloing and more soloing,
but not enough on songcraft.
Solos, patterns, technique, etc. are
important, but more often than not, my
favorite solos exist within the structure
of a vocal tune or an instrumental tune
with a “lyrical” melody. For example,
Jimi Hendrix gives us no fewer than six
solos in his version of “All Along the
Watchtower,” but they reside between
three vocal verses. And all bluegrass
flatpicking solos and improvisations
are based around the short, catchy
melody that distinguishes the tune.
While it might seem obvious to
most listeners that the song is of
highest importance, I find that players often make the worst listeners!
The importance of song structure
and a defining melody cannot be
overstated. Let’s talk about songs
and their invaluable use to us as
guitarists.
The Blues
The most common jam for any
group of guitarists is usually the
blues, and I highly recommend it as a
place to start, but calling out “Blues
in E” and playing with a pentatonic
solo (Ex. 1) can get old quickly. Try
learning as many variations and/or
parts of the blues as possible. This
is very helpful when you have four
or more guitarists, as each player
can emulate a different instrument.
Consider the bass part (Ex. 2), the
horn section (Ex. 3), and keyboard
chord comping (Ex. 4). Spreading
these parts among four guitarists
gets you an orchestrated song that
is far more interesting than Example
1 and a solo. If traditional blues isn’t
your thing, you can always try a jazzier version (Ex. 5), with similar parts.
One final note regarding the
blues: Please, please, please learn
the words to a couple of blues tunes.
They are usually not that difficult to
remember, and the verses are often
interchangeable. A 12-bar blues
is just that, twelve bars of “blues,”
but the lyrics turn the 12 bars into
a song. Of course, when it comes
to actually belting out the lyrics, we
can’t all sound like B.B. King, but
give singing the blues it a shot. It’s
fun to try.
Scales and chords are key building
blocks for guitar players, but understanding song structure offers an
even sweeter payoff — the ability to
jam with friends.
Pop Music
Pop music can be difficult to
define, except to say that is derived
from the word “popular.” The Beatles
are pop music, but so is Patsy Cline.
Coldplay, Frank Sinatra, the Rolling
Stones, Beyonce: all pop. Depending
on your point of view, it can be very
easy to dislike pop music, but as
Irving Berlin said, “Never hate a song
that has sold half a million copies.”
So, learn a pop song.
If you think of music as a language (and you should), having a
diverse selection of pop songs in
your repertoire provides you with
specific conversation topics you
can explore with other musicians.
Perhaps you’ll discuss international
politics (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”),
fashion (“Blue Suede Shoes”) or
space travel (“Fly Me to the Moon”).
By Shawn Persinger
Whichever topic you choose, you can
use the basic premise as a jump-off
point for conveying your personal
opinion on the subject — through
your own solo, improvisation or other
interpretation of the original song.
Learn Parts
As I suggested in the Blues section, learning several parts to a tune
will help add color to an otherwise
straight-ahead idiom. Almost every
style of music lends itself to this
sort of orchestration, yet not all of
them are obvious, especially if you’re
dealing with a room full of guitars.
Examples 6a and 6b show the basic
“A” section of the bluegrass standard “Sally Goodin.” This is pretty
good and it gets the job done, but
here are a few more ideas you might
try. Example 7 emulates the rhythm
19
chops of a mandolin. Example 8
demonstrates a walking bass line.
Example 9 provides a harmony to
the original melody, something fiddle
players often do. All of these minor
additions to the basic structure add a
little more punch and provide considerable texture to any musical style.
Start a Jam
This last subject has recently
become a bit of a mission for me. I
strongly urge you to start your own
local jam wherever you are. I want to
stress that this is specifically a jam
at someone’s home and not a public
performance with all the trappings
that can entail. Just play music for
music’s sake. Whether you meet
once a week or can only manage
once a month, a regular jam session
will give you a reason to practice new
material, give you an outlet for your
material, and, well, it’s just fun!
Keep in mind that while a jam
session can be inspiring, it can also
be quite humbling, and I’ve found
both emotions equally beneficial.
In fact, I leave every session feeling one way or another; they both
encourage me to practice more. Ego
aside, I’m a good player, and I can
play many different styles, but if you
put me in a room full of Irish fiddle
players, I become “adequate.” I can
hang comfortably as an accompanist,
but eventually I’m going to run out
of Celtic melodies, and my acoustic
guitar volume is no match for a violin.
I go to Irish jams to learn something
new, something I won’t find at home,
on my iPod, or on television. If the
experience pushes me out of my
comfort zone, I try to remember that
sometimes it’s good to be humbled,
especially if you think you know it all.
Here are a few guidelines that will
help you start your own jam and keep
it fun and vital.
Start with people you know personally. Then let your friends bring
friends. Eventually, if you feel comfortable with the idea, invite players who
have posted ads at the local music
store, craigslist, etc. to your jam. The
jam should be no pressure, since
your intention is to play music, not to
start a new band and conquer the
world.
Know your idiom. If you want to
start a blues jam, don’t expect guests
to show up and play jazz standards
or heavy metal. That said, if you crave
a jam that includes all of those styles,
by all means proceed; just make sure
everyone invited is on the same page.
Keep at least 50 percent of the repertoire easy. I’ve been to a lot of jazz
jams, and no one plays Coltrane’s
“Giant Steps” — it’s too hard and too
fast for most people. I’m not saying
dumb it down to the lowest common denominator, but a balance of
easy and more challenging tunes is
preferable at any jam. If you plan to
play a song with a plethora of chords
or challenge your local flatpickers to
the fastest banjo tunes in the canon,
then make the next song a simple,
melodic folk tune or a three-chord
rock song.
Make a song list. There is nothing
worse than getting together to jam
and hearing, “What do you want to
play?” “I don’t know? How about
you?” “Uh, I don’t know.” Make a list.
Six to 12 songs should keep you
busy for a little while, and encourage
guests to bring their own lists.
Playing Well With Others
The examples below demonstrate ways to add melodic texture to songs,
making jam sessions with other players more fun.
Ex.1
Ex. 3
Ex. 2
Ex. 4
Ex. 5
Invite some different instrumentalists. Though it seems like everyone plays the guitar nowadays, there
are other instruments. Don’t be afraid
to invite your local accordionist — he
might turn out to be the next Astor
Piazzolla!
Have some music stands and
charts ready. Not everybody can
read charts, but if you don’t have
them you certainly can’t read them,
and if you don’t need them just set
them aside.
Ex. 6a
Share the floor. You’ve invited your
musical guests because you like the
way they play, not because you want
to show off. Make sure everyone
gets a turn, either picking the tune,
taking a solo, or singing the lead. A
jam with a leader is great; a jam with
a dictator is no fun.
Ex. 7
So, learn a variety of songs, practice improvising on familiar tunes,
invite some friends over, and play,
play, play. Once upon a time, before
the Internet, before TV, before radio,
jamming is what musicians did all the
time, whether amateur or professional. It’s time this tradition is rekindled
and expanded upon.
Shawn Persinger, a.k.a. Prester John,
is a self-proclaimed “Modern/Primitive”
guitarist who owns Taylor 410s and
310s. PersingerMusic.com
Ex. 9
Ex. 6b
Ex. 8
T he 2 0 0 9 F all L imited E ditions
Power
Trio
Quilted maple, cocobolo and Indian
rosewood, plus some turbo-charged
tops, color this year’s fall collection
T h e 2 0 0 9 Fa l l LT D m o d e l s
Cocobolo
Quilted Maple
GAce-LTD-M / GSce-LTD-M
Indian Rosewood
410ce-LTD-R / 412ce-LTD-R
414ce-LTD-R / 416ce-LTD-R
GAce-LTD-C / GSce-LTD-C
Even with this year’s 35th anniversary guitar bonanza, there’s no way
we’d forgo Taylor’s annual tradition of Fall Limiteds. For 2009, we’re tapping
our reserves of quilted maple and cocobolo, and we’re releasing a special
run of all-gloss Indian rosewood 400 Series guitars. Our quilted maple and
cocobolo models are available in our popular GA and GS body shapes, and
feature beautiful three-piece backs with a re-proportioned center wedge
to complement the elegant GA and GS contours. We also gave the Sitka
spruce tops for these a tonal upgrade by coupling Adirondack spruce
braces (which generate more elasticity) with our new CV bracing pattern.
Together they enhance the top movement to produce a fuller, richer and
louder tone with increased dynamic range.
The cocobolo LTDs are bound in contrasting curly maple with a matching
maple heel cap, and are adorned with a glossy cocobolo backstrap.
The quilted maple models feature a glossy figured koa backstrap and
shimmering koa binding with a matching heel cap. Additional premium
appointments include Gotoh tuners and a bone nut and saddle. Inlay-free
fretboards support an aesthetic of clean lines that underscore the natural
beauty of the woods and binding treatments. Each comes with an abalone
rosette, Venetian cutaway and the Taylor Expression System® pickup.
Our all-gloss Indian rosewood/Sitka spruce 400s honor one of the world’s
most popular tonewoods at a special price point. This selection of rosewood
sports rich chocolate-and-caramel variegation, and the four available Taylor
body styles — GA, GS, GC and Dreadnought — are each highlighted with
crisp white binding. Additional appointments include pearl dot fretboard
inlays and a 3-ring rosette. A Venetian cutaway and the Taylor ES® pickup
are also featured.
Our Fall Limiteds began shipping in early October. Quantities are limited,
so be sure to check with your local dealer for availability. For more photos
and full specifications, visit taylorguitars.com.
L-R: GSce-LTD-M, 414ce-LTD-R, GSce-LTD-C
Range
Rover
Get ready — an amazing new
8-string baritone is about to
broaden your tonal horizons
By Jim Kirlin
Bob Taylor has a new favorite guitar. He doesn’t come right out and
say this, but you can tell by the way he’s talking about it — not as a guitar
maker but as a freshly inspired player. It’s personal. One can sense that
he’s discovered something genuinely new and different; something that’s
allowed him to express himself in a way other guitars can’t.
This shouldn’t be surprising, given that Bob and his development
group have been immersed in one of the most creative spurts of guitar
design in the company’s history, in celebration of the company’s 35th
year. A parade of beautiful anniversary limiteds is on the way, including
breakthrough models like a 12-fret, a parlor, a baritone, a 9-string, and an
offering of sublime Brazilian rosewood models. So, which one is it?
Actually, none of the above. But it is a spin-off — an acoustic love child,
if you will — that blends elements from two anniversary models. It’s a new
8-string baritone GS, and it’s inspiring enough that Bob fast-tracked its
development to offer it as a dedicated model in the Taylor line this fall.
Intrigued? You should be.
A Whole New Ballgame
However one cares to depict this guitar’s development — another
chocolate-meets-peanut-butter stroke of serendipity, perhaps — what matters is that this 8-string baritone delivers another truly unique acoustic
voice because our design team knows better than to get boxed in by the
rules. The creative juices were already flowing earlier this summer as the
team was cooking up prototype designs for the 35th anniversary models. A baritone GS (tuned from B to B) was developed to offer players
a lower, deeper tonal range at normal string tension. Meanwhile, another
GS, a 9-string, had been designed to embellish the sound of a six-string
by giving it some of the upper-octave flavor of a 12-string without going
all the way there. The two guitars weren’t developed in tandem, yet as it
turned out, each seemed to uniquely complement the other, especially in
terms of the expanded tonal range they covered together.
“We loved the baritone but missed having some of that upper register,” Bob recalls. “We thought, what if we turned it into a 9-string? So,
we made one, but after deciding it was a little too jangly, we pulled off
the [doubled second string], leaving the third and fourth octave strings. It
sounded awesome.”
The lower tonal range of the 6-string baritone anniversary model
already had won over Bob.
“There are a lot of songs that I’ve played over the years but couldn’t
sing because I could barely reach those notes,” he explains. “Then, as you
get older and your voice gets lower, you end up taking those songs out
of your repertoire altogether because it doesn’t sound right to sing them
with different chords. You can’t really change the key on them; the chord
spelling really needs to be that original key. But with the baritone you can
drop down, and the guitar part sounds right; it just sounds low. It’s fun to
sing again.”
23
Adding the two octave strings,
Bob says, transformed the baritone.
“It’s a whole new ballgame. It’s
really, really cool, because you can
either accentuate those octaves or
stay away from them. The beauty
of this guitar is that it goes low and
those two strings brighten it up, but
they don’t sound too ‘octave-y.’ It
doesn’t give you that 12-string effect
as much as it really just extends the
range because, as a baritone, the
octaves aren’t really high; they’re not
out of the range of a normal sound.
So it just fills the guitar out; it gives it
a nicer spread.”
Taylor’s David Hosler, part of the
product development team, likens the
sound of the 8-string baritone to a
blend of three guitars.
“It makes me feel like I’m hearing a 6-string, a bass, and a bit of a
12-string all in one guitar,” he says. “It
also feels like standard and alternate
tunings at the same time.”
Both agree that it’s a guitar with
a sound that’s hard to describe, and
that it really needs to be played to
fully appreciate it. They also insist
that this isn’t some specialty instrument just because it’s not a regular
member of the guitar family. It’s a
guitar they feel will appeal to all
types of players, from cowboy chord
strummers to fleet fingerpickers. It
does have a different sound, Hosler
says, and there is a slight learning
curve involved as one acclimates to
the sound and the feel of the string
gauges. But that learning curve, he
assures people, will likely last all of
about five minutes.
“I tell people to start by just playing simple C, D and G chords to get
used to the sound because the voicing is almost alternate-tuning type
voicing,” he says. “A lot of people try
to pick something up and equate it
to something else, but if they can just
let go for a second and go through
this experience, they’ll probably be
inspired to start writing original music
almost right away. I know I have.”
Bob says that players who normally play a drop D tuning to get that
lower note will love this guitar.
“This is getting lower than that,
and it’s got way more oomph,” he
says. “And the chord spellings are
just really nice. You capo down and
the whole guitar sounds cool. So,
just for singing, it’s wonderful. I also
think that if you were to compose
original music with that, it would be
awesome. And if you’re a Kottke
fan, you know Leo always plays his
12-strings tuned way low to get that
deep, throaty sound. But the best
way to go low is to make a longer
string, not to just tune down.” (The
baritone has a 27-inch scale length
compared to our standard 25.5.)
Bob says he feels like this is the
right time for this kind of guitar in
part because it introduces something
legitimately new to the guitar community, which is always good for sparking fresh musical sounds.
“I think about the way music has
progressed since I started playing
guitar when I was a kid,” he says.
“Back then, there weren’t a lot of guitar players around, and if you were
playing with people, there were a lot
of horn players. Now everybody and
their brother plays guitar. A group
may get together a lot, they’re playing their stuff and writing some new
songs, but it’s all guitar-centric, and
it’s getting to where you need something a little bit new. You could write
original music, even vocal music with
this 8-string as the main instrument,
with piano, bass, regular guitars,
electric guitars being sprinkled
around it, and it would be awesome.
It’s bold enough to be the main driving instrument in a song. It’s not too
low; you get too low on a regular guitar and sometimes it gets quiet and
there’s not enough power. This guitar
has power down there.
“If you were playing this with a
regularly tuned guitar and someone
else had a ukulele in there, it would
be like an orchestra,” Bob says. “It
would be like the low of a piano all
the way to high with these instruments.”
Outside Reaction:
“I Want One!”
The early response among players who’ve gotten their hands on the
guitar has been instant infatuation.
One of the first prototypes floating
around the Taylor sales department
quickly hooked people.
“It enhances your favorite chords
and riffs and makes you approach
the fretboard from a different perspective,” says Taylor district sales
manager JR Robison. “This guitar
has a completely unique voice. After
just a few minutes of playing it, I had
several new ideas stemming from
familiar chord positioning on the
neck. The octave strings complement
the fat low B, which allows you to
run bass and melody lines simultaneously, with bass that you can really
feel. I want one!”
Fingerstylist Pat Kirtley had a
chance to sample it during a factory
visit and loved it.
“It’s different from any other guitar
that anybody’s ever made that I’ve
seen,” he says. “It’s 12-string-ish, but
without the [extra] notes on the 5th
and 6th strings to get in your way.
“You can play your regular bottom
Baritone 8-string
Body
Shape:
GS
Woods: Indian rosewood
back/sides,
Sitka spruce top
Scale
length: 27 inches
Number
of Frets: 19
Tuning: B E A D F# B
(additional octave strings on the A & D)
Strings:
Elixir Baritone
Acoustic, .016 - .070,
available through
TaylorWare
end and then have that 12-string
sound coming out of it. I wouldn’t
have thought of making just those
two strings 12-string pairs, so the
fact that it even crossed anyone’s
mind is amazing.”
Evan Carmen, a sales staffer
from Morgan Music, a Taylor dealer
in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, had a
chance to play a prototype during a
dealer event at the factory in July. A
singer-songwriter who’s a big fan of
the acoustic playing style of the late
Elliott Smith, Carmen picked up on
its potential for melodic embellishments and walking basslines.
“Anyone who’s ever wanted
something more from an acoustic guitar on the low end will be
impressed with how easy it is to
innovate and be creative with the
bassier ranges the baritone 8-string
has to offer,” he said afterward in an
e-mail. “Not only does it give you a
completely different sound to explore,
it does so without a ridiculous learning curve. In fact, after only 15 minutes with it, I was already thinking of
what it could do for a couple of my
originals.
“It would make a wonderful addition to any string player’s collection,
be it guitarist, bassist, or otherwise,”
he added. “There is a practical application for this instrument in nearly
every style and genre I can think
of. It’s only a matter of time before
it starts changing music forever. I
can’t wait to see how people react
to it right out of the gate. No doubt
we’ll be hearing it used frequently
after people catch wind of what it’s
capable of. I can’t wait to have one to
call my own!”
Other dealers visiting the factory
for a training event had a chance to
test-drive it, and it was a unanimous
winner. Some saw it as an incredible
songwriting guitar. Many commented
on the rich, full sound of open chords.
One dealer said it would really suit
experimenting with partial capos.
Singer-songwriter Dave Carroll, of
“United Breaks Guitars” fame (p. 26),
also happened to be visiting the factory while a prototype was making the
rounds and had a chance to play it.
We pretty much had to pry it out of
his hands before he left.
We have a feeling this guitar won’t
just be Bob Taylor’s favorite.
The 8-string baritone — along
with a 6-string version — are currently in production and will be arriving at Taylor dealerships starting in
late October. We encourage you to
check them out for yourself, and we’ll
also be bringing them to Taylor Road
Shows this fall. For full specifications,
visit taylorguitars.com.
Another Lowdown Option:
The 6-String Baritone
The 8-string isn’t the only
GS baritone to be adopted into
the standard Taylor line this fall.
A 6-string version, which was
first designed as a 35th anniversary model and eventually led to
the 8-string, is itself a uniquely
voiced instrument that Bob felt
would appeal to many types
of players. Like the 8-string,
the 6-string model also has a
27-inch scale length and comes
with Elixir baritone strings (.016 .070) tuned from B to B.
From a purely instrumental
point of view, the nature of the
baritone allows a player to create a different sonic texture
that blends well with, yet adds
a different acoustic flavor to,
other instruments. Together they
have the ability to create a rich
ensemble sound.
“On a standard-tuned acoustic guitar capoed at the second
fret, playing an A chord will be
in tune with the first position E
chord of the 6-string baritone,”
explains Taylor’s Andy Lund, an
in-house product specialist. “The
result is a giant, wide chord. The
two instruments playing those
chords together cover two and a
half octaves — it’s like a tall and
lush sonic cocktail!”
A cool stringing option that
gives the baritone an alternative
timbre is to use medium gauge
acoustic strings (.013 - .056)
and tune from D to D (D G C
F A D) instead of B to B. This
concept actually traces back to
a special long neck version of
the Taylor Dan Crary Signature
Model (DCSM) that was made
years ago for Dan. The guitar’s
longer neck had two additional
frets at the headstock end of
the neck, allowing the guitar to
be tuned a full note lower than
standard, yet maintain normal
string tension. Placing a capo
at the second fret brings the
strings to standard tuning. The
baritone’s D tuning allows players who don’t need to tune all
the way down to B to still have
a lower starting point and play
songs in a lower register. From
there, using a capo gives them
the flexibility to work their way
incrementally up.
www.taylorguitars.com
24
Soundings
Chairman of the Board
Acoustic groovesmith Jason
Mraz (714ce, 612ce, NS52ce,
NS72ce) made Billboard history the
third week in August when his hit
single, “I’m Yours,” set a new record
by notching its 70th consecutive
week on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart,
passing previous record holder
LeAnn Rimes and her breakout hit
“How Do I Live.” Mraz’s chill, Islandvibed tune was the first single from
his third studio album, We Sing.
We Dance. We Steal Things. (It
also earned a Grammy nomination
in 2009 for Song of the Year.) Mraz
has actually been playing the tune
live for several years, which he says
allowed him and his band to “own it”
when they went into the studio. The
song debuted on the Hot 100 charts
on May 3, 2008 and as of our press
deadline was still in the Top 40. You
can see a clip of Mraz playing his
hit tune, accompanying himself on a
Liberty Tree T5, at taylorguitars.com.
And the Nominees Are ...
The nominees for the 43rd
Country Music Academy Awards
were announced on September 9,
and Several Taylor artists earned
multiple nods. Leading the pack is
songwriting dynamo Taylor Swift
(PSGA, GS8, 615ce, PS-LTD, T5-S,
K65ce, SolidBody Classic), who is
up for awards in four categories:
Female Vocalist of the Year, Album
of the Year (Fearless), Music Video
of the Year (“Love Story”), and
Entertainer of the Year. At age 19,
Swift is the youngest nominee ever
for Entertainer of the Year — widely
considered country music’s most
prestigious award — and this year’s
lone female contender in that
category. It also marks the first time
in nine years that a solo female artist
has vied for the award.
Legendary country crooner
George Strait (cocobolo 910) also
has his hat in the ring for Entertainer
of the Year, along with Male Vocalist
of the Year and Music Video of the
Year (“Troubadour”). Strait’s duet
with Lee Ann Womack, “Everything
But Quits,” is in the running for
Musical Event of the Year.
Breakthrough act the Zac Brown
Band (NS74ce, 910, 614ce, 612ce,
Baby Taylor, SolidBody Classic,
SolidBody Custom, T3) scooped up
four nominations: Best New Artist
and Vocal Group, as well as Single
of the Year and Song of the Year for
their country radio hit “Chicken Fried”
from their album The Foundation.
Rascal Flatts (GSMS, 614ce,
810, GSRS, 615ce, 810ce, 714ce,
NS74ce, 855) are also contenders
for Best Vocal Group.
The CMA Awards show is set
to air Wednesday, November 11 at
8:00 p.m. on ABC from the Sommet
Center in Nashville.
The Strummin’ Sportsman
Country artist Daniel Lee Martin
(710ce, 716ce, SB-C2) never
thought he’d be able to combine
his two passions, music and the
outdoors, into a fulltime pursuit. A
successful advertising executive by
trade, Martin dropped everything
in 1997 and moved to Nashville to
pursue his love of singing and playing
guitar. He now has two albums to
his credit, All That I Am (2004) and
On My Way to You (reviewed in our
summer 2007 issue). Named one of
the most talked about independent
artists in 2004 (Country Music Today
magazine), Martin saw an opportunity
to take his entertaining skills to
another level: a TV show.
Now in its fourth season,
“Backstage & Backroads” airs four
times a week on the Sportsman
Channel, and follows Martin as he
and his wife Kristina travel the globe
hunting, fishing and performing his
songs. Martin takes viewers (and
a Taylor or two) on a variety of
sportsman fantasies, from hunting
New Zealand red stag to fishing off
the Florida Keys or musky fishing
in Ontario, but always makes time
to share a song or two. When we
caught up with Martin, he had just
returned from a bonefishing trip off
the coast of Ambergris Caye, Belize.
Season 5 of “Backstage &
Backroads” will begin airing in 2010.
In addition to more hunting and
fishing, Martin says he’s thinking of
spotlighting his guitar collection (he
owns about 25).
“I’d love to do a segment in my
home studio and tell the story behind
each of my Taylors,” he says. “Where
they’ve been and where they’re going.”
backstageandbackroads.com
Discovering How We
Make Our Stuff
In late July, a camera man and field
producer from the Discovery Channel
show How Stuff’s Made (formerly
called How It’s Made) visited the
Taylor factory for a full day of filming.
The team went through the entire
factory, documenting each process of
guitar construction and asking many
technical questions about machinery,
temperatures and materials along the
way. After a full 12 hours of examining
and videotaping the factory’s
processes, the camera man had
captured more than 10 hours of film,
all for a five- to six-minute segment.
The episode of How Stuff’s Made is
expected to air this winter.
Upshifting
L.A.-based modern country act
BrokeDown Cadillac has been
revving their engine for national
success. Fronted by Corri English
and Randy Dunham (814ce, 612ce,
T5), the two met by chance in 2006
in Burbank, California when Dunham
was performing at an open mic night
and English joined him on stage for
an impromptu performance.
Each comes to the band with an
accomplished background. English
grew up in Atlanta and spent much of
her life on the road (her father was a
gigging musician, and she often sang
in his band). After graduating with
honors with a degree in journalism
from the University of Georgia, she
did regular voiceover work and landed
guest-starring roles on shows such
as Dawson’s Creek and One Tree
Hill. She studied with famed vocal
producer Jan Smith and co-wrote
“Fly Away” for Sugarland’s tripleplatinum album Twice the Speed
of Life. Dunham was an academic
stud at UCLA who studied pre-med
and screenwriting before graduating
summa cum laude, and is an
accomplished screenplay writer, an
award-winning novelist, and a prolific
songwriter.
With an upbeat sound that
conjures a blend of Miranda Lambert
and Keith Urban, the duo (along with
bandmates Danny Reuland on drums,
Don Ian on lead guitar, and Jeff
LeGore on bass) released their first
CD, Somewhere in America, earlier
this year. Their songs cover everything
from broken hearts to, yes, a broken
down Cadillac, and the tracks have
been called “energetic, instantly
likable” by Country Weekly magazine.
We’ll second that in a big way.
English and Dunham also lent their
voices and songwriting chops to two
tracks and a cameo appearance in
the 2009 Disney remake of Race to
Witch Mountain.
brokedowncadillac.com
The Atkins Diet
Versatile fingerpicker Mike
McAdoo (314ce, NS34ce, Baby
Taylor) touched base in August from
Branson, Missouri, where he’s been
performing a mix of new and old
country tunes as part of the “County
Tonite” show at the Oak Ridge Boys
Theater.
“Right now we’re finishing up a
five-week run with T.G. Sheppard,” he
says. “We’ll do a total of 11 weeks
this year with TG and 10 weeks with
Collin Raye.”
McAdoo has played professionally
since 1977, has taught for years,
and has performed more than 4,000
shows in Branson, where he’s been
voted Best Lead Guitarist at the
Branson Music Awards three times.
His studio fretwork has graced more
than 130 albums for artists from
the Osmonds to Johnny Lee to Jim
Stafford. A talented exponent of Chet
Atkins-style picking, McAdoo recalls
taking lessons years ago from an
18-year-old longhair named Doyle
Dykes.
“Doyle was playing guitar at the
time for the Stamps Quartet,” McAdoo
says. “He had a yellow Big Chief
tablet and a #2 pencil and wrote out
two different patterns showing the
alternating muted bass notes and how
to add the treble strings in to produce
a melody. The very first fingerstyle
song he showed me was ‘I’ll Fly
Away,’ a gospel song.”
McAdoo plays his 314ce in the
“Country Tonight” show, and also has
an NS34ce, which he used a lot on
his most recent CD, A Tribute to Chet
Atkins.
Earlier this year, McAdoo had an
opportunity to travel to Baghdad, Iraq
in conjunction with Operation Iraqi
Children, a humanitarian program
started by actor Gary Sinese to
provide kids with school supplies and
other items. McAdoo performed a
series of shows for the troops there
and says he wouldn’t have missed it
for the world.
Taylorspotting
Damon Albarn, frontman of the
hallowed Britpop band Blur and
the virtual group the Gorillaz, was
seen performing with his well-worn
Baby Taylor on stage during Blur’s
recent reunion concerts this summer,
including the Glastonbury festival . . .
Gregg Allman has been playing his
blonde DDSM on tour this year with
his band. He’s also been performing
with the Allman Brothers, who are
celebrating their 40th anniversary
this year . . . Richard Marx (custom
K65ce, T5C2, Brazilian 814ce) has
been checking out our SolidBody
models, incorporating them into his
shows, where he’s been debuting
material from his new record,
Emotional Remains. Marx e-mailed
Taylor artist relations dude Bob
Borbonus after a gig outside Seattle
this summer: “The old koa . . . and
the new electric . . . all add up to fun.
The electric kicked ass . . .” Jack
Blades has been on tour with Night
Ranger and playing one of his trusty
Taylors, an 814ce, on stage during
the show’s acoustic tunes . . . Blues
Traveler guitarist Chan Kinchla
(815ce, NS72ce) has been rocking
his Florentine-cutaway 815ce with the
band on their recent tour dates . . .
Singer-songwriter Kelly Joe Phelps
was interviewed in a recent Japanese
edition of Acoustic Guitar magazine
and talked about his 10-year-old
LKSM6, which he’s been playing a
lot lately. Phelps says he likes the
tonal range and balanced sound
of the mahogany . . . Bass/guitar
player Johnny Colt, a founding
and longtime member of the Black
Crowes who also played with the
band Train, had a Baby Taylor in
tow for the premiere episode of
his new show, “Johnny Colt: At Full
Volume,” which airs on the Travel
Channel. The first episode took him
to Thailand, and after jamming with
some local villagers, he left the guitar
with them . . . Metallica guitarist
Kirk Hammett reportedly has been
enjoying his 12-string 855ce and
keeps it accessible for poolside
jamming at his home in Hawaii.
Clockwise from top left:
Night Ranger’s Jack Blades
on stage in Atlanta; Daniel Lee
Martin; Gregg Allman at the
Ventura Theater in Ventura,
California in July (photo by
Marty Temme); Mike McAdoo;
Richard Marx rocks a Classic;
(L-R) BrokeDown Cadillac’s
Randy Dunham and Corri English
(photo by Inda Reid)
www.taylorguitars.com
26
Dave Carroll’s Songwriting
Frustrated after an airline broke
his guitar and wouldn’t compensate
him, Dave Carroll responded with
a YouTube ditty that became a viral
smash and recharged his career.
Chalk one up for the little guy.
By Jim Kirlin
Call it what you like. A fluke success. A stroke of brilliance. An
underdog victory. One thing’s for sure: Dave Carroll scored his 15
minutes of fame and then some.
In case you missed it, the story is the viral sensation caused
in July by a music video posted on YouTube.com by Carroll, a
seasoned, award-winning singer-songwriter from Halifax, Nova
Scotia. The video chronicled the unfortunate plight of Carroll’s
main stage guitar, his 10-year-old 710ce, which was seriously
damaged by United Airlines baggage handlers. Part of the
video’s mass appeal was the clever, melodic and funny nature of
his rebuke to the airline for failing to resolve the problem.
The incident occurred in the spring of 2008, as Carroll and his
bandmates from the Sons of Maxwell were flying from Halifax
to Nebraska for a gig. They had checked their instruments,
including Carroll’s Taylor (which he had successfully checked
on many other occasions without any problems). The flight had
landed for a connection at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport when Carroll
was alerted by fellow passengers that the baggage handlers
were tossing guitar cases around outside. Carroll’s heart sank.
His immediate complaints to the flight attendants proved futile,
and upon his arrival in Nebraska, Carroll’s worst fears were
confirmed: His Taylor had been severely damaged, particularly at
the bottom of the lower bout.
“It was smashed along the base, where you plug it in, so the
pin was actually pushed into the guitar and the whole face was
lifted off,” Carroll says.
Carroll pursued the matter with United over a period of nine
months, but the airline would offer no compensation. Along the
way, Carroll spent $1,200 to get the guitar repaired in Canada,
but despite the repair tech’s best efforts, the guitar never
sounded the same.
“Cosmetically it looks good, but some of the sparkle is gone,”
he says. “Fingerpicking it still sounds pretty good, but [for]
strumming, it’s not resonating the same.”
Revenge
27
Frustrated that the airline had
denied his claim and offered nothing
in return — not even travel vouchers —
Carroll vowed to use his songwriting
chops to address the corporate
smackdown. He informed the airline
that he would write three songs in
protest, including music videos that
he would post on the Web, with the
ambitious goal of getting a million
views. Little did he know that his first
video, for the catchy, country-flavored
tune “United Breaks Guitars,” would
go viral literally overnight and become
a YouTube hit that in two days would
prompt coverage from major media
outlets around the world, including
CNN, NPR and the BBC.
Carroll says the video’s campy
antics, which feature quirky mariachi
characters, were visually inspired in
part by his memories of Marty Robbins
and the Elvis Presley movie Fun in
Acapulco. Thanks to the volunteers
Carroll enlisted, the whole video was
made for $150.
“It would’ve been cheaper, but the
fake mustaches cost more than we
were expecting,” Carroll laughs.
Carroll says he had no idea the
video would catch on the way it did,
but, luck aside, thinks he understands
the basic elements of its appeal.
“Good musicians played on it, and
the quality of the video was really high,
so I think people didn’t mind telling
their friends to check it out because
it wasn’t crap,” Carroll says. “Also,
the humor was key. To not get bitter
and sound like [I’m] carrying a grudge
on the world. People will always be
drawn to laughter. And, of course,
the topic. If I’d have written about
a broken toaster, no one would’ve
cared, but everyone’s been burned by
the airlines.”
The corporate David-versus-Goliath
subtext clearly resonated with the
public. Within five days of the video’s
posting on July 6, it had already
surpassed one million views and was
climbing strong.
“I got 4,000 e-mails in one week,
and I’d say 3,500 were saying thanks
and congratulations, and that they
couldn’t wait for song 2,” Carroll says.
The band’s CD sales and iTunes
downloads also enjoyed a healthy
spike as the wave of mainstream
exposure spread. “People were saying
things like, ‘I didn’t know your music
before, but I love it and I’m buying
everything,’ or ‘I’m not a country fan,
but I’m buying the record because I
support [what you’ve done].’”
As the major media outlets
picked up the story, the feeding
frenzy continued to fuel the video’s
popularity. When United realized
they had a major PR fire on their
hands, they reached out to Carroll.
But by that point, he says, he wasn’t
interested in compensation. Instead,
he instructed them to take any
settlement money they were willing to
offer and use it to take care of some
other musician the next time United
damaged an instrument. He also
politely informed them that he was still
planning to make two more videos, as
originally promised.
As of mid-September, Carroll’s first
video had been viewed more than 5.5
million times.
Carroll posted the video for his
second song in late August. Once
again, he employs lighthearted humor
as he serenades the female United
customer service agent who stymied
his appeals, singing that the two could
have been pals if only things had
been handled differently. This time
around, the video shoot was even
more ambitious, incorporating nearly
100 friends and family as extras,
including Carroll’s father, his 88-yearold grandmother, his wife Jill and their
four-month-old son Flynn.
Having been incorrectly labeled
a “country” artist by the media after
his first video, Carroll was intent on
recording the second in a different
style. With the instruments used —
including a tuba and a clarinet — the
tune has a bouncy, old-timey, Dixieland
jazz feel to it.
“I thought, this’ll be the one song
I’ll write in my life that you could do
jazz hands to if you were dancing, and
have a tuba in it at the same time,”
Carroll says.
The tuba inspired the visual
idea of a German Oompah band,
so the mariachis of the first video
were replaced by lederhosen-clad
musicians in a canoe who make
periodic cameos as they float by in
the background while Carroll sings
to the United agent — who plays the
tuba throughout the song. The video
culminates with a festive outdoor
singalong featuring Carroll and the
entire cast.
While the second video hasn’t had
nearly the impact of the first — as of
mid-September it’s been viewed about
380,000 times — Carroll says he
didn’t expect it to. Besides, exposure
from the initial video has already
garnered plenty of interest in Carroll’s
music, even beyond the spike in CD
sales.
“We’re getting a lot more offers
for corporate work,” Carroll says.
“There’s more interest in the band’s
theater show. There are really cool
opportunities for my stuff as a solo
singer-songwriter, and for a duo, trio,
and full band stuff.”
The exposure has also led to other
unexpected gigs for Carroll, like the
lecture circuit.
“I’ve taken bookings where I’m
asked to come in and talk about
social networking and customer
service,” he says. “My scenario is
one of the first of its kind, I guess,
and depending on who you talk
to, it’s been called one of the most
successful ‘pissed-off customer
songs’ of all time.”
Carroll has been intrigued by the
way the corporate and academic
sectors have responded, seizing his
experience as an important case
study on the impact of viral marketing
and social networking activity on
businesses. He says at least a dozen
university professors from around the
world have asked to include his story
in their lectures.
“I think it’s going to be in three
or four text books as a case study,”
Carroll elaborates. “Dozens of grad
students have also asked to use it in
references. My name has become a
brand for customer service. I received
e-mails from people who were at a
GM meeting in Europe, and others
with Cisco Systems, and apparently
my name came up in their meetings,
where they basically said the same
thing: ‘OK, social networking is
something we have to take seriously;
how do we avoid another Dave
Carroll situation from happening to
us?’”
Carroll even heard about a
passenger who had encountered
problems on an airline after trying to
carry on a guitar, and who reportedly
said, “Don’t make me go Dave Carroll
on you!”
Amid the cloud of media attention
and booking opportunities, Carroll
comes across as humble, thoughtful
and remarkably well grounded. He
appears genuinely fascinated by
the chain of events he set in motion,
and appreciative of the benefits to
his career. He seems like someone
who’s shrewdly trying to make the
most of his improbable break, yet
without compromising his integrity. In
the end, his tone is philosophical as
he ponders the flukiness of it all and
reflects on what he’s learned.
“I understand that I don’t
understand how everything works,
and that it’s all about continuing to
try,” he says. “I had a 20-year music
career under my belt with a solid fan
base that I’d been building, but by no
means any big market penetration.
This whole thing happened by
chance, and it’s because I tried for
over 19 years another way. If I’d have
given up in the first year, this wouldn’t
have happened.
“Your breaks come in the weirdest
places,” he adds. “Some of my best
gigs have come playing in a pub
where hardly anyone has been. It’s
just about being in the right place
at the right time, doing your best,
appreciating your fans, and taking
care of your relationships, like any
other business.”
Carroll admits that he’s gained
a new appreciation for the power
of social networking through his
experience.
“I definitely value e-mail addresses
now way more than I did before,” he
says. “They’re a great communication
tool, and I now have about 10,000
people signed up to my newsletter,
so anytime I have anything interesting
to say, that’s a direct link.”
For the record, we knew of Carroll
it, there was no tasteful use of the
whammy bar. Every song was getting
some. I was having a great time. It
got to the point where the audience
was having a great time, too, because
I would start the song with a power
chord and hit the whammy bar a
couple of times.”
As for the prospect of any airline
policy changes as a result of his
circumstances, Carroll was planning
to tell his story in Washington in the
hope of encouraging legislation that
will protect other musicians who fly
with instruments. On September
22, he was scheduled to meet with
sympathetic House representatives
and other passenger rights advocates
at a stakeholder hearing. Carroll was
invited by Kate Hanni, a musician and
former real estate agent who founded
the Coalition for Airline Passengers
Bill of Rights and who serves as the
executive director of flyersrights.org.
Input from the hearing will be used to
consider new legislation to protect
airline passengers. The American
Federation of Musicians (AFM) has
also been in touch with Carroll and
“If I’d have written about a broken
toaster, no one would’ve cared,
but everyone’s been burned by
the airlines.”
— Dave Carroll
and the Sons of Maxwell well before
YouTube introduced him to the rest of
the world. (We reviewed the band’s
record Sunday Morning back in the
fall 2006 issue of Wood&Steel).
After hearing about the fate of his
710ce and seeing the video, we
reached out, and in mid-July, he and
Sons of Maxwell drummer Julian
Marentette made the trip to the Taylor
factory. While in Southern California,
Carroll was interviewed by Weekend
Today (NBC), MSNBC, local San
Diego Fox and CBS affiliates, CNN
Entertainment, AOL Music, and
numerous print publications. The
duo also had the chance to tour the
complex and meet many of our staff.
Carroll left with a new 810ce and a
T3/B, both of which he confessed
to being “equally in love with.” The
810ce has become his main stage
guitar, and the T3/B (featured in the
second video) offers an alternative to
the T5 he’s being playing for several
years.
“I find the T3 to be really versatile,”
he says. “The first gig I played with
is promoting a new provision for
transporting musical instruments,
as part of the Federal Aviation
Administration’s Air Transportation
Modernization and Safety Act. We’ll
let you know if there are any new
developments.
Meanwhile, Carroll still owes the
world a third song and video. He
hadn’t yet written the tune when we
spoke with him last, so he had no
plot teasers to share, but by the time
you’re reading this, the video may
well be finished.
“To be fair, I told United that if
I had anything good to say about
changes they were making, I would
mention it in the third song,” Carroll
says. “The third song has to talk
about how this has changed my life
a little bit. I’ve already thought about
angles like, not only did United break
my guitar, but they broke my career.”
You can watch Dave
Carroll’s videos at his website,
davecarrollmusic.com.
www.taylorguitars.com
28
WorldView
The Guitar Healer of Havana
By William Gerald Hamby
In a country that demands resourcefulness, Cuban luthier Orlando
Pirez keeps Havana’s guitarists wired for sound, helping to preserve
the music of his culture. His new Baby Taylor is in good hands.
Orlando Pirez makes guitars and
repairs all manner of “sick” stringed
instruments in a cluttered workshop
in his walk-up apartment on narrow
Calle Acosta near the train station in
Old Havana, Cuba. At 78 and retired,
he is famous from touring nationally
and from his weekly appearances
on Cuban television in the ’70s and
’80s with his band, Los Montunos.
These days, the Matanzas native no
longer performs música campesina
(country music) professionally,
but instead works hard to get by,
scrapping for the basics needed for
his craft. Most days he can be found
in his front room workshop, which
is strewn with homemade tools and
guitars in various stages of repair and
disrepair and whose general state is
the same as the apartment: solid and
full of character but much in need of
reconditioning and renovation. It’s
a description that captures most of
today’s Havana.
On a work table dominating the
middle of the room is a double bass
that’s devoid of strings, sanded down,
and ready for a finish. Two different
pairs of glasses are strung around
Orlando’s neck to combat glaucoma
and a cataract surgery gone bad.
Wearing a frayed sailor’s hat, T-shirt,
baggy shorts and running shoes,
he orbits the shop, occasionally
glancing from his small, open
balcony down Calle Acosta, where
on this hot afternoon three boys are
shooting marbles, while a few doors
down a noisy game of dominoes is
in progress. Across a short alley,
someone is singing along with the
radio, but one can still hear the domino
tiles being banged and the shouts
over the music.
With the same resourcefulness
and ingenuity that many Cubans have
relied upon to maintain their ’50s-era
Top: The view from Pirez’s
balcony, down Calle Acosta
Left: Pirez singing and
playing his Baby in his
apartment
American automobiles, Orlando has
continued to contribute to Havana’s
music scene, not just with repair work,
but notably a table contraption to
wind guitar strings. Its creation was
necessitated by what he describes
as “the Russian recession” of the
early ’90s, following the collapse
of the Soviet Union. Unable to buy
metal strings, he cobbled together
the machine using small motors and
a coil of copper wire and now sells
them daily to other Havana musicians
who buzz his door from the street.
To a younger Cuban generation that
listens to Reggaeton, Orlando may
be old news, but to the guitarists of
the countless groups that perform in
the bars, clubs, restaurants and the
streets of Havana, Orlando is a go-to,
priceless asset.
This past spring, with Americans
and Cubans alike anticipating
a relaxation in travel restrictions
between the countries, I sat with
Orlando, a few friends and family, and
an American music professor friend
of mine at Orlando’s kitchen table, set
modestly with a bottle of rum, strong
coffee and fresh fried sweet potato. I
was eager to learn a little more about
him, his life as a musician and his
work as a master craftsman. As a gift,
I had brought from Virginia a neverplayed Baby Taylor that belonged to a
beloved late son, Patrick, given to him
by his godfather and uncle, my brother
Larry, then and now a record executive
who did the A&R for three music
projects with Taylor in the ’90s, better
known as The Sounds of Wood&Steel
(Vol. 1-3). Orlando apologizes for the
stiffness in his fingers as he unpacks
the guitar, pauses, then plays and
sings for 20 minutes, accompanied
by an inefficient plastic table fan
moving cigar smoke around, finishing
with “Dulce Embeleso” by Santiago
musician Miguel Matamoras. Through
a translator, his cheek against the
guitar, Orlando smiles sweetly and
says, “This guitar will have a good
home here.”
With our translator, Peter Loman,
a Finn, Cuban resident, renowned
jazz trumpet player and protégé of
Orlando’s, we drank café carajillo
(coffee with rum) together and talked.
WGH: Why did you decide to make
guitars?
OP: In the early ’60s I bought a bad
guitar with a bad sound, so I went to a
guitar maker in Matanzas with lots of
knowledge and listened to his guitars.
They were too expensive for me to
buy, but I could tell the difference, and
I wanted to know how to create that
sound.
What was your process?
I had worked for a time in a paper
factory in Cardenas in 1959 and
had a basic knowledge of machine
drawings, so that helped. But
I also became a student of the
characteristics of wood types and how
that affects guitar resonance. And I
took many guitars apart and even put
a light bulb inside so I could study that
construction.
Is there anyone you look up to
with regard to guitar making?
Delfonso Acosta is a magnificent
classical player and guitar maker.
You seem to have such a hard
time finding materials to do your
job. Ideally, what wood would you
prefer to make a guitar?
I would prefer Canadian pine for the
top, cypress for the body, cedar for
the back and black ebony for the neck.
But I can rarely, if ever, get that.
Where do you get your materials
then?
I have to use recycled material from
old guitars, and I also find very dry, old
beams and boards in the buildings in
Havana that are being torn down that
I use.
Everyone here seems to be
hoping the U.S. and the Cuban
government will agree to relax
travel restrictions soon. What do
you think?
I’m optimistic about Obama, and I
think he has good intentions. Most
Cubans are hopeful, but we know
the history of our government and we
know Obama cannot wave a wand
and change everything overnight. It
would be good for us all. Good for the
music.
Let’s say one day the President
asked you to play at the White
House. What song would you
play?
Play at the White House? Two
songs: “Cuba que Linda es Cuba”
and “Guantanamera.” And the guitar,
by the way, I feel, is the mother
instrument of Cuba.
Here’s a loaded question. What
guitar would you play those songs
on?
(Smiling broadly) This Taylor.
My baby.
William Gerald Hamby is a writer
and public relations consultant from
Richmond, Virginia. He is heading
back to Cuba soon for more
music and stories. Contact him at
[email protected]
29
Taylor Notes
New Factory Service Center Now Servicing All Brands
For several months now, our customer service and repair team has
been working together in expanded
digs that comprise our new Factory
Service Center here on the Taylor
campus in El Cajon. As part of our
expansion, this summer we broadened the scope of our services
to include repairs of all brands of
acoustic and electric guitars.
“Our repair techs have a lot of
experience not just with Taylors but
with other brands,” says Customer
Service Manager Glen Wolff. “Our
service support team includes builders and repairmen who have worked
for other manufacturers and have run
their own repair shops servicing all
varieties of stringed instruments. The
wealth of knowledge here is unparalleled in the industry, and it’s great
to be able to offer our services to all
guitar owners.”
Wolff reports that Taylor’s repair
techs have already serviced a fair
amount of other brands of electric
and acoustic guitars — and even a
few mandolins.
Among the services offered for
any guitar brand is an Expression
System® installation ($500). Our
four comprehensive guitar maintenance packages — Refresh, Revive,
Renew and Rejuvenate — also can be
applied to other brands of guitars to
restore them to optimum health.
Wolff says the service department is poised to evolve forward and
has a lot of ideas on the board to
help Taylor owners enjoy a long and
fruitful relationship with their guitars.
Among the ideas is a workshop
series, open to the public, which
would cover topics like basic guitar
set-ups and maintenance.
Open Monday through Friday
from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the
Factory Service Center is located at
1900 Gillespie Way, two buildings
away from the factory building that
houses our Visitor Center. Guests
will be personally greeted in a storefront that stocks a variety of Taylor
guitar parts and accessories, including our “plug and play” pickups for
the SolidBody Classic electric guitar,
Elixir strings, and other gear. For service inquiries or to schedule service,
please call us at 1-800-943-6782.
The Humidipak Is Back
It may as well be laser-etched
onto our guitars that we are major
proponents of humidity control for
guitars. So, we’re pleased to report
that the Planet Waves Humidipak®
is back on the market after correcting a leakage issue. The problem
was detected after the initial product
launch in 2007, prompting a recall of
their moisture-filled packets, which
were designed to regulate the relative humidity of a guitar within its
case.
To recap, the Humidipak employs
packets that have a breathable membrane, allowing for two-way humidity
control. The packets are engineered
to maintain a pre-determined percentage of relative humidity (originally
45 percent). In other words, the
packets can either release or absorb
moisture to maintain the 45 percent
RH. The full Humidipak kit includes
three packets and two pouches. A
soundhole pouch houses two packets and is draped over the strings,
saddlebag style, allowing both compartments to drop into the soundhole
to maintain the RH within the guitar
body. The headstock pouch, which
holds the third packet, is intended to
be placed beneath the headstock to
accomplish what other humidification
products have had a tougher time
controlling: the moisture content of
the neck and fretboard.
The Humidipak’s brilliance lay in
its ease of use for owners: All that’s
required is to check it periodically to
determine when the packets need to
be replaced. There is no manual refilling, like other sponge-based humidifiers, and the units are self-regulating
as long as there is moisture in the
packets.
The product’s flaw, discovered
only sporadically after becoming
established in the market, was that,
in some cases, the PH factor of
the saline solution used, coupled
with certain production processes,
caused deterioration of the film used
in the vapor release liner over time,
according to the Planet Waves website. As a result, some of the packets
were compromised and leaked the
salt solution, which, in some cases,
led to spotting on the insides of
guitars. (If you still own any of these
packets, we recommend that you
discard them.)
Humidipak engineers spent
roughly 18 months developing a new
formula and testing it extensively in
extreme conditions to ensure that the
problem would never occur again.
This time around, the gum base used
in the solution thickens the consistency, ensuring that the contents
won’t leak out. The new formula
maintains an RH level of 48 percent.
“With new packets, you will
notice that you can still move the
contents of the packet around with
your fingers,” Planet Waves explains
on its website. “This indicates that
moisture is present. When the packets are dispensed, they will become
solid, and you will no longer be able
to do this. At this time, you will need
to purchase replacement packets to
maintain the humidity of your instrument.”
We support the new version of
the Humidipak, and are now offering
it through TaylorWare. To read more
about the product and its redevelopment, we recommend visiting planetwaves.com/PWHumidipakFAQs.
Page.
Taylor Concierge,
At Your Service
Are you pining for a long-gone
limited edition Taylor? How about a
production model your local dealer
doesn’t have in stock? Or maybe a
lefty, or perhaps some other one-off
beauty from a Road Show that you
regrettably didn’t bring home? If
you want it but can’t find it, give our
Inside Sales & Customer Relations
representative Ben Benavente a call.
Since January, Ben has been working
as our equivalent of a one-man guitar
concierge, helping customers locate
elusive Taylor models and answering
questions that help people hone in on
the right Taylor for their needs. Ben
also works closely with our dealers
and is able to track their inventories,
so he’ll be happy to direct you to a
store that carries the Taylor you’re
looking for. He’s also been helping
customers design the Build to Order
guitar of their dreams. Whatever
information you need, Ben is here to
help, without any sales pressure. Just
call 1-888-2TAYLOR.
Pat Kirtley Joins the
Road Show Crew
Award-winning fingerstylist and
former Taylor clinician Pat Kirtley is
officially back in the fold as one of
Taylor’s product specialists for some
of our fall Road Shows. Pat was out
at the Taylor factory this July to get
the lowdown on our latest developments, and arrived just in time to see
the new 8-string baritone, some early
edition 35th anniversary models, plus
our new design center.
“No matter how often I visit the
factory, I always learn something
new,” he said during his visit, in
between playing an ovangkol-top
T5 spring LTD that he found himself
enamored with.
Pat has always had a healthy
appreciation for the different flavors
of the Taylor line. A longtime 514
player, he also embraced our Nylon
Series; he used an NS72 to explore
samba and bossa nova rhythms and
melodies on his album Brazilian
Guitar, and over the last several
years has heartily embraced the T5.
“It’s become my favorite guitar,”
he says. “Even when I’m at home sitting on the couch playing, more often
than not, that’s what I like to play.”
Pat had the pleasure of showing
off what his T5 can do plugged-in
on a recent instructional doubleDVD Pickin’ Like Chet: Chet Atkins’
Vintage Classics, in which he deconstructs Atkins’ picking techniques,
phrases and arrangements from his
“golden era,” including such tunes as
“Mystery Train,” “You’d Be So Nice
to Come Home To,” “Down Home,”
and “Somebody’s Knockin’.”A split
screen presentation allows viewers
to study both the left and right hands
in detail.
The DVDs are available through
Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop
(guitarvideos.com).
Elixir Strings Now Available
Through TaylorWare
Taylor owners now have the
option of purchasing Elixir® Strings
through TaylorWare. We’ve been
installing Elixirs on our guitars for
years because great tone is part of
our livelihood, and because we love
the way Elixir’s coated strings prevent string corrosion from finger oils,
perspiration and other residue that
can deaden string tone. Used on our
steel-string acoustics and electrics,
Elixirs help maintain a lively tone
and extend the life of your strings
well beyond the lifespan of ordinary strings. All Elixir sets available
through TaylorWare feature Elixir’s
ultra-thin NANOWEB™ coating.
Among the sets we’re selling are the
hard-to-find LKSM 12-string sets, as
well as baritone acoustic sets for our
new 8-string and 6-string baritone
models (see page 22).
30
Events
Canmore Folk Music Festival
August 1-3, 2009
Canmore, Alberta, Canada
Take a small town in the picturesque Canadian Rockies, add a mix
of sunshine and driving rain, then stir
in 10,000 music fans, and you get
the Canmore Folk Music Festival.
This year’s event played host not only
to folk musicians, but blues, country,
rock, reggae and soul artists, as well.
Taylor staffers Steve Parr and
Andy Lund were on hand, as Taylor
Guitars was a first-time sponsor of
the festival. A steady stream of visitors packed the Taylor booth, which
was filled with guitars courtesy of
Tom Thompson, owner of Harvest
Moon Acoustics, the local Taylor
dealer in Canmore. A number of custom Build to Order guitars brought
by Taylor helped sweeten the showcase. As an added bonus, performers and festival attendees with guitars were treated to complimentary
restringing at the booth.
Plenty of musicians had Taylors
in their hands, including longtime
Taylor player Wendy Waldman, who
took to the stage with Cindy Bullens
and Deborah Holland as the popular
acoustic trio the Refugees. Waldman
had her trusty 910, while Holland
was armed with her 914ce, and the
harmonies flowed freely. Several
other performers sampled our wares
at the booth and ended up asking
the Taylor team to borrow a guitar for
their sets.
On the third day the rains came,
and they came with a vengeance.
Up in the mountains, though, people
come prepared, and ponchos and
tarps were the order of the day, as
die-hard music fans had no intention
of leaving because of a little rain.
Taylor had donated a 2009 Spring
Limited 716ce to the event, which
was raffled off to raise money for
the festival. More than 600 tickets
were sold, raising more than $5,000.
By the time Parr, Lund, Thompson
and CKUA radio personality Tom
Coxworth took to the stage to award
the guitar on Monday evening, the
rain was coming down in sheets,
yet the crowd was undeterred. The
lucky winner, a rain-soaked Steve
Reichenbacher from Calgary, was on
hand to claim the guitar as his name
was drawn. Reichenbacher almost
didn’t attend the event. He’d spent
part of the day rock climbing with a
friend and was physically spent, but
the friend rallied him to go, despite
the ominous forecast. His fortitude
clearly paid off.
“I couldn’t wait to play the thing,”
Reichenbacher relayed shortly after
the event. “When I did, I wished
I hadn’t! My hands were gnarled
from climbing and the cold, and
there were a number of people who
had mentioned with searing envy
that I had better be a guitar player!
I choked out a pathetic D major
[chord] and put the Taylor away
before I got killed. When I did finally
recover that night, I did get to play —
and play, and play! My fingerpicking
has never sounded this good . . .
ever!”
Tokyo Guitar Show
Tokyo, Japan
June 27-28, 2009
By David Kaye
Trade Show Manager
Clockwise from top: Lawn chair listeners in Canmore (photo by Steve Parr); (L-R) Kenny Ashburn and Neil
Shimabukuro from Island Guitars, with Taylor’s Steve Bernstein; a Tokyo Guitar Show attendee samples our wares
(photos by David Kaye)
At the Tokyo Guitar Show, the
Taylor exhibition “wing” provided
plenty of space, and we needed it
with over 70 guitars on display. It’s
no secret that the Japanese love
guitars, and to satisfy their lust we
displayed some mind-blowing BTOs
and R. Taylors, and 50-plus guitars
that represent the diversity of our
lineup. To say that our exhibition area
was busy wouldn’t do it justice. We
also had a small stage area, where
several Japanese artists played their
Taylors to an appreciative audience.
Taylor Vice President of Sales and
Marketing Brian Swerdfeger also presented several product demonstrations on the stage, and the audience
was extremely interested to hear
him explain our methods and guitarbuilding philosophy.
Prior to the show, Brian and I
met Kazuhiko Onozuka, who works
for our distributor, Yamano Music,
and manages the Taylor account.
Onozuka walked us over to Yamano’s
flagship retail store, located in the
middle of Tokyo’s upscale Ginza dis-
trict, which is famous for shopping,
dining and entertainment. Boasting
six floors of every musical instrument imaginable, each floor offers
an amazing consumer experience,
and one can tell that every detail
has been obsessed over. From the
beautiful fixtures and displays to the
wood flooring, everything about the
presentation conveys that this is one
of the top music stores in the world.
Their acoustic guitar floor showcases
a vast array of Taylors and R. Taylors.
After touring the store, Onozuka took
us to visit several more music shops
that carry Taylors in the area. A big
Taylor “arigato” goes out to everyone
at Yamano for all their hard work and
to Mark Kasulen for his translating
help on the trip.
Hawaiian Slack Key Festival
“Oahu Style”
Honolulu, Hawaii
August 16, 2009
This marked Taylor’s fifth year
as a proud sponsor of the Hawaiian
Slack Key Festival series. Throughout
the year, organizer Milton Lau presents festivals that take place on
each of the four major islands. For
the Oahu event, our friends at Island
Guitars, Neil Shimabukuro and Kenny
Ashburn, brought guitars from their
store, and Taylor sales rep Steve
Bernstein and I helped man the
booth. It’s immensely rewarding for
us at Taylor to be a part of traditional
Hawaiian music, as more than half of
the dozen featured performers used
their Taylors on stage.
In the days before the festival,
Steve and I presented Taylor Road
Shows on three different islands. At
Maui’s Bounty Music, store owner
Paul Weinstein sold a T3/B to a customer within two minutes of the start
of the event. Next it was off to the
Big Island and Hilo Guitars. A couple
of years ago, owner Ken Cameron
moved the store to a new location,
which features an amazing layout,
beautiful displays, and Taylor enthusiasm galore. A lucky customer took
home a T5-LTD that night. Our third
Road Show was at Island Guitars,
which drew over 80 people. We sold
a 12-string 354 that night, and Neil
Shimabukuro called us a couple of
days later to report that one attendee
had returned and bought all three of
the stunning BTOs we had brought
over specifically for the event.
— David Kaye
31
Calendar
For the latest event listings, including Road Shows, Doyle Dykes workshops, festivals and other Taylor events,
visit the Taylor online calendar at taylorguitars.com/calendar.
Aurora, Missouri
Aurora Music
Wednesday, November 4, 6 p.m.
(417) 678-5447
Rochester, New York
House of Guitars
Monday, November 16, 6 p.m.
(585) 544-3500
Jefferson City, Missouri
Will West Music & Sound
Thursday, November 5, 6 p.m.
(573) 635-7777
Clifton Park, New York
Parkway Music
Tuesday, November 17, 6 p.m.
(518) 383-0300
Ellisville, Missouri
Fazio’s Frets & Friends
Friday, November 6, 6 p.m.
(636) 227-3573
Lexington, Massachusetts
The Music Emporium
Wednesday, November 18, 7 p.m.
(781) 860-0049
Bentonville, Arkansas
Ben Jack’s Arkansas Music
Monday, November 9, 7 p.m.
(479) 464-4847
Dover, New Hampshire
Ear Craft Music
Thursday, November 19, 6:30 p.m.
(603) 749-3138
Houston, Texas
Southpaw Guitars
Tuesday, October 13, 7 p.m.
(713) 667-5791
Conway, Arkansas
Jack’s Music
Tuesday, November 10, 7 p.m.
(501) 327-8129
DOYLE DYKES WORKSHOPS
Hawkins, Texas
Action Sound
Wednesday, October 14, 6 p.m.
(903) 769-5262
Greenwood, South Carolina
Newell’s Music
Tuesday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.
(864) 223-5757
Irving, Texas
Murphy’s Music
Thursday, October 15, 7 p.m.
(972) 554-6030
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Picker’s Supply
Tuesday, November 10, 6 p.m.
(540) 371-4669
TAYLOR ROAD SHOWS
We’re excited to be back out on
the road in the U.S. this fall for a
fresh season of Road Shows. As
usual, our teams will bring you the
latest and greatest from the Taylor
factory, from our acoustics to our
electrics, with plenty of spectacular
one-offs and other custom beauties
on-hand to play. Be sure to check
taylorguitars.com/roadshow for the
latest dates. If we haven’t scheduled
a Road Show for your area, you can
“demand” a Road Show for your
town and encourage your friends and
fellow Taylor owners to do the same
at eventful.com/taylorguitars.
Kokomo, Indiana
Sound of Music
Wednesday, October 14, 7 p.m.
(765) 457-8821
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg Music Center
Friday, November 6, 7 p.m.
(434) 237-0073
Weatherford, Texas
Craig’s Music
Saturday, November 28, 7 p.m.
(817) 599-8021
Weatherford, Texas
Craig’s Music
Friday, October 16, 7 p.m.
(817) 599-8021
Galesburg, Illinois
Music Makers
Thursday, October 22, 6:30 p.m.
(309) 342-0176
Tracy, California
Main Street Music
Wednesday, October 28, 7 p.m.
(209) 835-1125
Charleston, South Carolina
Ye Olde Music Shop
Wednesday, November 11, 7 p.m.
(843) 747-0014
Evansville, Indiana
Opus 1 Music
Tuesday, October 20, 7 p.m.
(812) 479-6787
Santa Fe, New Mexico
The Candyman
Thursday, October 22, 7 p.m.
(505) 983-5906
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Empire Music
Thursday, October 29, 7 p.m.
(412) 343-5299
Potomac Falls, Virginia
Melodee Music
Wednesday, November 11, 8 p.m.
(703) 450-4667
Music China
Shanghai, China
October 17-20, 2009
musicchina-expo.com
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Grandma’s Music & Sound
Tuesday, October 20, 7 p.m.
(505) 292-0341
Roanoke, Virginia
Fret Mill Music Co.
Tuesday, October 27, 6 p.m.
(540) 982-6686
Clovis, California
Gottschalk Music Center
Thursday, October 29, 7 p.m.
(559) 298-4400
Westminster, Maryland
Coffey Music
Thursday, November 12, 7 p.m.
(410) 876-1045
Musical Instruments Fair Japan
Yokohama, Japan
November 5-8, 2009
musicfair.jp/foroversea.php
Durango, Colorado
Canyon Music Woodworks
Wednesday, October 21, 6 p.m.
(970) 259-1622
Sacramento, California
Skip’s Music
Tuesday, October 27, 6 p.m.
(916) 484-7575
Fairview, Pennsylvania
Lynch Music
Friday, October 30, 6:30 p.m.
(814) 474-2970
Jonesboro, Arkansas
Back Beat Music
Thursday, November 12, 7 p.m.
(870) 932-7529
Winter NAMM
Anaheim, California
January 14-17, 2010
namm.org
Greenwood, Indiana
Guitarworks
Wednesday, October 21, 7 p.m.
(317) 885-1510
Barboursville, West Virginia
Route 60 Music
Wednesday, October 28, 7 p.m.
(304) 736-7466
Lees Summit, Missouri
Legacy Music
Tuesday, November 3, 6 p.m.
(816) 554-7350
Memphis, Tennessee
Martin Music
Friday, November 13, 5:30 p.m.
(901) 729-2466
FESTIVALS/TRADE SHOWS
TaylorWare
®
Gift Guide ’09
The holiday season is fast approaching.
We’ve got you covered with plenty of
great gift items for that special guitar
lover in your life.
CLOTHING / GEAR / PARTS / GIFTS
New
Elixir® Strings
We’ve been factory-installing Elixir® Strings on Taylor guitars for years. We
love the way Elixir’s coated strings prevent string corrosion from finger oils,
perspiration and other residue that can deaden string tone. All Elixir sets
available through TaylorWare feature Elixir’s ultra-thin NANOWEB™ coating.
Suede Taylor Guitar Straps
(Black Suede #62001, Honey Suede #62000, Chocolate
Suede #62003, $35.00)
Acoustic Custom Light 6-String (.011-.052) #89600 $14.00
Acoustic Light 6-String (.012-.053) #89601 $14.00
Acoustic Medium 6-String (.013-.056) #89602 $14.00
Acoustic Light 12-String (.010-.047) #89603 $23.00
Acoustic Heavy 12-String (.013-.056) #89604 $23.00
Electric Super Light 6-String (.009-.042) #89700 $11.00
Electric Light 6-String (.010-.046) #89701 $11.00
Electric Medium 6-String (.011-.049) #89702 $11.00
Electric Light 12-String (.010-.046, .010-.026) #89703 $20.00
Makes A Great Gift!
Special Bundle Price — Save $14
Loaded Musician’s Gear Bag. Solidly constructed, with over 25
internal pockets, nine removable section dividers, three large side
pockets, and outside access to those deep interior compartments.
Also stocked with four key accessories: our new digital tuner, a Taylor
Chocolate web guitar strap, our ultra-soft microfiber polishing cloth, and
a 10-pack of medium picks in assorted solid colors (no substitutions).
Bag measures 14” high x 17” wide x 11” deep and features reinforced
backpack straps and a strong luggage handle. (#61166, $120.00)
(Bag sold separately, #61160, $70; all items sold separately, $134.00)
New
Our Ladies Long Sleeve Floral Guitar V-Neck T is incredibly
soft and stylish, thanks to lightweight 100% Pima cotton and a
floral guitar print on chocolate brown that flares down one side.
Extra length makes for a contemporary fit. (#4530, S-L, $28.00)
Andrea from our finish department runs Buffy, our robotic
buffing unit. Our Floral Guitar V-Neck T polishes her look
with a playful burst of guitar fun.
32
New
Our vintage Throwback T commemorates Taylor’s 35th anniversary by
going old school, showing off the company’s original logo in yellow with
a distressed treatment on dark brown. The soft, 100% preshrunk cotton,
featuring double needle stitching, blends vintage comfort with durability.
(#1459, M-XL, $20.00, XXL, $22.00)
Guitar Stand. Beautifully
crafted in Sapele/Mahogany,
this stand features a laseretched Taylor logo, a rich satin
finish, and rubber pads to protect
your guitar’s finish. (Sapele/
Mahogany #70100, $70.00;
assembly required)
New Colors
New
On our Ladies Black Signature T, a cursive Taylor Guitars inscription
is emblazoned across the front in a choice of pink or light blue.100%
preshrunk cotton with a generous, relaxed fit that’s comfortable for all
body types. (Pink script #4270, Blue script #4280, S-XL, $20.00)
The Taylor Neck Ballpoint Pen is back, this time with two additional
color options, gray and burgundy, in addition to black. The retractable
twist pen features a pocket clip fashioned as a Taylor neck, and comes
in a matte finish with a silver etched “Taylor Guitars” script. Whether
you’re jotting down song lyrics or grocery lists, the sleek design will
look and feel great. (Black #71040, Gray #71041, Burgundy #71042,
$15.00)
The children’s Let’s Play T celebrates the little groovers and shakers of
the world with a Taylor-strumming boy on baby blue and a girl on pink.
100% cotton jersey knit with ribbed neck, double stitching on the hem
and sleeves. Available in Infant and Toddler sizes.
(Infant Pink #1404, Infant Blue #1406; Sizes: 6, 12, 18 months;
Toddler Pink #1407, Toddler Blue #1408; Sizes: 2T, 3T, 4T; $15.00)
New Color
Antique Logo T-shirt
Pre-washed, super-soft 100% cotton, featuring our distressed logo
and cut as a Slim Fit. Sizes S-XXL. (Short Sleeve; Green/Tan #1438,
Brown/Tan #1439 (new), Navy/Gold #1437, S-XL $20.00;
XXL $22.00)
Taylor Pub Glasses
Hoist your favorite beverage for a toast with a touch of Taylor style. Four
different designs, in black and gold, put a unique stamp on each 20-oz
glass in this set of four. (#70011; $25.00)
New
Our Vintage Electric T rocks out with a winged SolidBody
design in gray on lightly marbled black. 100% cotton, mineral
washed and distressed for a soft, worn-in feel. (Vintage Black
#1453, M-XL $25.00; XXL $27.00)
The Men’s Gothic Vine
Long-Sleeve T was
inspired by one of our
popular custom fretboard
inlays. The gothic vine
motif, in red on black or
gray on white, runs down
the left sleeve and across
the chest, framing the
Taylor Guitars text treatment. Fashion fit, 100%
preshrunk, ringspun
cotton, sideseamed and
double needle-stitched for
comfort and durability.
(Black #2094, White
#2095, S-XL, $25.00,
XXL, $27.00)
Steve is a longtime Taylor staffer and our district sales manager
for California and Hawaii. (Someone has to do it.) He’s ready to
rock in our Gothic Vine T.
33
Order online: taylorguitars.com/taylorware | Order by phone: 800.494.9600
New
Taylor Guitars Digital Headstock Tuner
Clip-on chromatic guitar tuner picks up vibration and
comes with a built-in mic. Back-lit LCD changes color
to show correct tuning. Swivel design for easy viewing.
Automatic power-off after 5 minutes. Quadra flat tuning for tuning with
capo on. “A” calibration: 433-447 Hz with 1 Hz steps. Accuracy: ± 0.5
Cent. One coin cell battery included. (#80920, $29.00)
Taylor Bar Stool
30” high, black matte, vinyl finish. Easy assembly. (#70200, $99.00.
Additional $5.00 shipping charge for each bar stool ordered.)
The Black Flex Fit Cap features a red Quality Guitars logo on
comfortable six-panel brushed twill with a matching red guitar
embroidered on the back. One size fits all. (#00370, $20.00)
Our Navy Garment Washed
Flex Fit Cap features the Taylor
logo in silver. One size fits all.
(#00380, $24.00)
Our Taylor Surf Club T, inspired by Southern California beach culture,
crosses two different types of ’boards that each make for major fun in the
sun. Distressed graphic treatment on soft-washed, pigment-dyed fabric.
Preshrunk 100% ringspun cotton with a generous fit. Ribbed collar with
double needle stitching on the neckline, sleeves and bottom hem. Includes
the Taylor logo on the sleeve. (Brick #1446, Denim #1447, M-XL, $20.00;
XXL, $22.00)
Our SolidBody Trucker Cap
sports the Taylor SolidBody logo
patch on orange, featuring side
and back panels of tan trucker
mesh to keep your head well
vented, with Taylor Guitars ’74
screen printed on the left side.
An adjustable polysnap closure
ensures a comfortable fit.
(#00160, $20.00)
34
New
Our black Guitar Hoody Sweatshirt features a partial guitar
in cool gray and white across a Taylor Guitars horizon. The comfy
50/50 cotton/polyester blend boasts a double lined drawstring hood
and a front pouch pocket to keep those guitar-playing hands warm.
(#2898, S-XL, $39.00, XXL, $42.00)
Christian, a 14-year veteran and production supervisor in our
finish department, knows the value of a quality outer layer.
Our Weathered Peghead T has a lived-in look and feel that you’ll
love. Distressed treatment of the iconic Taylor peghead and lettering
applies a vintage touch to the soft, pigment dyed, ringspun cotton.
100% preshrunk, generously cut for comfort, with double needle
stitching for extra durability. (Mocha #1440, M-XL $20; XXL, $22.00)
Order online: taylorguitars.com/taylorware | Order by phone: 800.494.9600
New Colors
Taylor Guitar Picks.
Marble: copper, blue, brown, purple,
abalone. Solid: turquoise, red, green,
yellow, black; Ten picks per pack by
gauge; two of each color per pack.
Available in thin, medium or heavy
gauge. ($5.00)
Taylor Logo T
Sizes: S-XXXL. (Short Sleeve; White #1435, Blue Dusk #1434;
S-XL $15.00, XXL-XXXL $17.00)
Our K4 Preamp and Equalizer lets you control the tone of your
Taylor acoustic/electric guitar whenever you’re recording or plugged
into a PA system. Designed for the specific frequencies of the acoustic
guitar, the K4 EQ uses pure analog tone shaping for isolating and
adjusting individual notes and tones. It features transformer-coupled
input and output, and can even run on two C batteries, in case you
forget your power supply. (#80845, $498.00)
Our Universal A/B/Both Box lets you run your Taylor T5,®
Taylor acoustic, or any brand of electric guitar, acoustic guitar,
or bass to two separate outputs. It’s perfect for running a T5 into
an electric amp and an acoustic amp. And, the A or B indicator
stays lit when BOTH is activated, which means you’ll always know
where your signal is. Want to connect a tuner between you and
the PA and maintain your Expression System’s® balanced signal?
Plug into the Balanced Breakout , connect your tuner, and you’ll
stay balanced into the rig. Thanks to its high-quality transformer,
your signal always stays pure. (Universal A/B/Both Box, #80820,
$89.00; ES Balanced Breakout,™ #80821, $89.00)
Taylor Loaded Pickguards let you swap
out the pickup/pickguard unit for your
SolidBody Classic in minutes, without the need
for soldering. Choose from seven different pickup configurations,
including HD and HG mini and full-size humbuckers, single coils,
or a mix of both. Available in four different pickguard colors. Each
loaded pickguard gives you a unique pickup personality, allowing
you to dial-in your preferred tone with incredible ease. For a complete
list of ordering options, go to taylorguitars.com/taylorware.
Special introductory price: $195* (reg. $248)
*Single HG Humbucker: $148 (reg. $198)
Visit our website for more information
about the TaylorWare Gift Card.
New
Guitar Parts. Choose from an assortment of replacement parts like
chrome or gold tuners, nuts and saddles, guitar cables, pickguards
and bridge pins­­— with or without abalone dots.
Visit taylorguitars.com/taylorware to see the full line.
The Planet Waves Humidipak® makes it easy to maintain proper
humidification for your guitar in its case. Using patented technology,
the Humidipak’s disposable, moisture-filled packets have a breathable
membrane that provides two-way humidity control, allowing it to either
release or absorb moisture to consistently maintain a predetermined
relative humidity (RH) level of 48 percent. The complete kit includes
three packets and two pouches. The soundhole pouch houses two
packets and maintains the RH of the guitar body. The headstock
pouch/packet is placed beneath the headstock in the case to maintain
the neck and fretboard. The packets are designed to be tear- and
puncture-resistant and completely resistant to leakage. Depending on
climate conditions, they should last from two to six months, after which
they can simply be disposed of.
Humidipak Complete Kit
(includes 2 pouches & 3 packets) #80350, $40.00
Humidipak Replacement Packet (1) #80351, $10.00
SolidBody Pickups
Our HG (high-gain) humbucker gives SolidBody players a simple-toinstall pickup option. Slightly darker-sounding than our original HD
(high-definition) humbucker, the HG unleashes more front-end
drive for a crunchier tone with extra rawness. The modular design
allows anyone to swap them out at home with ease. The pickups are
connected with a Molex (pin-and-socket) connector, so all you’ll need
are a Phillips head screwdriver and a few minutes for a simple “plug
and play” experience. Available as Style 1 (Classic, Custom) and Style
2 (Standard), and offered in two versions, neck and bridge, with each
voiced and output-balanced for their respective string positions.
Available exclusively through TaylorWare. (Chrome, $79.00)
Special introductory price: $59 (for a limited time)
#83706 Style 1 HD Neck
#83707 Style 1 HD Bridge
#83726 Style 1 HG Neck
#83727 Style 1 HG Bridge
#83708 Style 2 HD Neck
#83709 Style 2 HD Bridge
#83728 Style 2 HG Neck
#83729 Style 2 HG Bridge
35
A Publication of Taylor Guitars
Volume 61 / Fall 2009
Taylor Guitars | 1980 Gillespie Way | El Cajon, CA 92020-1096 | taylorguitars.com
The paper we used is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. The FSC is a
non-profit organization that supports environmentally friendly, socially responsible
and economically viable management of the world’s forests.
Ebony Envy
This ebony/Sitka spruce masterpiece is
part of Taylor’s 35th anniversary armrest
series. The GS body features a back and
sides of AA-grade striped Macassar ebony
that boasts dramatic variegation. A sleek,
smoothly polished beveled ebony armrest
wraps around the left side of the lower
bout. The body is bound in matching
ebony with a thin, intricate purfling line
that elegantly accents the armrest.
Presorted
Standard
U.S. Postage
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