Scenaries inside 4 acoustics (Taylor, Martin, Lakewood and Gibson)

[hymn1984]

A guy who owns Taylor 914CE, Martin OM28MCS, Lakewood M53CS and Gibson Hummingbird put his cellphone into the sound holes of these 4 acoustics, took some shots, and checked out their interiors. Here are the shots. What do you think?

Taylor 914CE:
























To be continued.................................

[hymn1984]

Martin OM28MCS

[hymn1984]

Lakewood M53C

[hymn1984]

Gibson Hummingbird

[zeebow]

that's really cool thx for sharing. it's neat to see the differences in the bracing. at the taylor factory tour, they have a top where you can see the bracing. i think you can also see the body internals too, but not assembled in this type of view

i also think this guy has some nice guitars

[Minnesotaman]

Wow, can't believe the amount of excess glue inside a high end Taylor and the Gibson isn't a whole lot better.

[floyd80]

The Taylor innards seems a bit messy.

[MikeRGR]

Hello All

About the 10th pic in on the Taylor does that look like a cracked brace on the right hand side

Just wondering

Take care
mike

[Norm Gen]

Hmmm, I'm disppointed in the sloppiness of this Taylor (and it's a high-end 900 series).  The Martin and Larrivee are clean, the workers took great care in the craftsmanship.  (Disclaimer: I have Taylors and Martins.)

[timfitz63]

... About the 10th pic in on the Taylor does that look like a cracked brace on the right hand side...

I wondered that too...

Wow, can't believe the amount of excess glue inside a high end Taylor and the Gibson isn't a whole lot better.

The Taylor innards seems a bit messy.

Hmmm, I'm disappointed in the sloppiness of this Taylor (and it's a high-end 900 series).  The Martin and Larrivee are clean, the workers took great care in the craftsmanship...

The excess glue inside the Taylor was immediately apparent to me as well.  In fairness, though, few people bother to peer inside the guitar body; it's just not where the aesthetic focus is.  And cleaning up all that extra glue would require extra manpower -- which equates to a higher cost to the consumer.  I know Martin offers a "hide glue" option in their builds, so I can't help but wonder whether the Martin depicted in this thread has that option.  Exactly what benefit (short of aesthetics) the "hide glue" option would have is a bit of a mystery to me, since the Taylor folks are clearly doing something right with their guitar designs; I mean, we all keep buying them and raving about the tone, so the excess glue they leave on the inside apparently doesn't detrimentally affect the acoustical/vibratory properties of the body...

I'm also wondering if the newer 'eco' glues that Taylor is using on their redesigned lines simply require more of it to provide the same adhesive bond as the older glues...?  If so, there may be no good way around the excess glue except to account for the additional mass when designing the guitar...

[Gjtalis]

Bummer to see all that sloppiness in the Taylor, for me doesn't matter if you can't see it or not, cleanliness and attention to detail are things that distinguish Master craftsmanship from the norm....
Then again how much more would they charge for one of these things if they added another 2-3hrs to the build process
I'm kinda hoping that just his taylor is messy inside and not mine 

[Jersey tuning]

I've never seen a Taylor review in Acoustic Guitar Magazine that evaluated the fit and finish as anything less than pristine.  One wonders if some repair was involved in the photographed Taylor.  Wouldn't be surprised if Taylor reached out to the owner of the guitar in question.

[M19]

Mmmmm. Gonna look inside my GC tonight. That Taylor looks horrible.

[TaylorGirl]

The excess glue inside the Taylor was immediately apparent to me as well.  In fairness, though, few people bother to peer inside the guitar body; it's just not where the aesthetic focus is.  And cleaning up all that extra glue would require extra manpower -- which equates to a higher cost to the consumer.  I know Martin offers a "hide glue" option in their builds, so I can't help but wonder whether the Martin depicted in this thread has that option.  Exactly what benefit (short of aesthetics) the "hide glue" option would have is a bit of a mystery to me, since the Taylor folks are clearly doing something right with their guitar designs; I mean, we all keep buying them and raving about the tone, so the excess glue they leave on the inside apparently doesn't detrimentally affect the acoustical/vibratory properties of the body...

I'm also wondering if the newer 'eco' glues that Taylor is using on their redesigned lines simply require more of it to provide the same adhesive bond as the older glues...?  If so, there may be no good way around the excess glue except to account for the additional mass  designing the guitar...

Nicely stated, Tim, I agree. I'm no luthier, but I will throw in my $.02. When I look into my guitars (peering through the soundholes), I see nothing but clean, well-constructed guitars (on ALL my Taylors, including my recently acquired 914). I have never gone to this effort to look at the inside tops of one of my Taylors. But, I can understand the curiosity by others to do so. I do know that nothing here changes my opinion of the build quality of Taylor guitars. What Bob and Andy have done has made me a proud owner. Thanks, but I'm good!

[mgap]

I am changing strings today on my 514e FLTD.  Going from the HD lights to Mediums, decided to beef up the tone on it.  So when I saw this thread I decided to take a couple of photos inside and out.  I found no excess glue on bracing or otherwise.  Here you go a few photos of a 2013 F LTD





To me, this is pretty clean and well made.