Build To Order: At The Drawing Board With Bob Taylor
During the same visit in which Bob Taylor gave us the Taylor Guitars factory tour, we also had the opportunity to put together what we think are four pretty amazing Taylor Build To Order custom guitars. Because we were at the factory, we were able to pull loads of wood and choose some really nice stuff. Then Bob Taylor took some time to go over our selections with us and guide us through spec’ing out the guitars. It was awesome. These guitars are, to quote Bob, going to be “sweetie pies”. Specs, pictures, and video after the jump.
The Taylor folks we very accommodating, and patiently pulled out a lot of wood for us to sort through. We eventually settled on four sets: Flamed Koa, Cocobolo, Mahogany, and Macassar Ebony. Each wood set jumped out to us individually. The Koa was extremely flamey, the Cocobolo had a rich depth of color about it, the Mahogany was super pure and clean looking, and the Macassar had a great tonal contrast between dark and light. After we had the woods we liked, we got together with Bob Taylor and he gave us a masterclass on what to do next. He provided a lot of guidance in terms of tops and body sizes to match up with the woods we had picked. After two days of looking at mostly spruce tops in the factory, we wanted to run with some slightly more “out there” wood combinations, for both aesthetic and tonal variety, and Bob made sure that everything we wanted to do would work both visually and aurally, even if it meant firing up the saw and ripping down a piece of wood again to make sure the bookmatch was perfect.
For our mahogany set we picked a mahogany top to match. The Cocobolo we matched up with a cedar top, and set it off with flamed koa wood binding. The Macassar Ebony guitar was matched up with a Redwood Sinker top, and the guitar is bound in ebony giving it a dark, blacked-out look. We decided to stick with Spruce on the Koa guitar. Bob picked out all the tops for us. He was able to pick up the raw wood tops and immediately see, feel and sense how they would sound and mix with certain body woods. He told us he had an extremely nice Engleman top “set aside” and he thought it would go perfect with our Koa guitar.
Here are the details of all four guitars we spec’d out that day, with build sheets. All of these are ultimately headed to The Zoo; one of these could be yours!
Above: GA model, all mahogany, tortoise bound, rosewood headstock veneer, abalone center ring, no cutaway, large engraved diamond inlays, gloss finish, satin neck, ebony board, mahogany neck, reg headstock, 2 guards in the case (customer’s choice). View the build sheet
Above: 12 Fret model, flamed Koa back and sides, Engleman spruce top, Koa headstock veneer and backstrap, no inlays, no custaway, ebony bound, bound soundhole, gloss finish, satin neck, ebony board, mahogany neck, regular headstock, clear guard in the case. View the build sheet
Above: GA model, Cocobolo back and sides, cedar top, flamed Koa binding with arm rest, Koa center ring, Florentine cutaway, 4 mm dot inlays, gloss finish, ebony board, mahogany neck, regular headstock, ebony peghead veneer. View the build sheet
Above: GS model macassar ebony back and sides, Sinker Redwood Top, ebony bound, no inlays, ebony peghead veneer, Ebony board, MAH neck, regular headstock, ebony guard in the case. View the build sheet
