What attracted you to Taylor?

[Edward]

Regarding "budget line acoustics" ...Mark Stone made a superb point in his post.

Taylor simply makes the best sub-1k guitars out there.  Yeah, tone is subjective, and many will prefer non-Taylor tone, which is fine.  But in terms of design quality, quality controls, quality materials, and overall craftsmanship, nothing out there can touch a Taylor's NT neck and superlative playability, and backed by the best customer care I have ever witnessed in decades of playing, buying, trading gear when at this lower price point.  Every other guitar maker simply can't do it, while Taylors routinely deliver $4k-quality design and craftsmanship on a $1k and under guitar.

FWIW, within the last year I sold a couple of pricier guits to thin the herd, then decided to "go cheap" and hunted for a grab-n-go beater: scored a used 210dlx for cheap and thought I did well as soon as I hit buy.  Until it showed up at my front door and I put it through its paces ...yiiiikes!  No WAY a "cheap" guit should play, sound, (and look) this ridiculously good!  And frankly, given what I paid, there is NO way any other marque can.  But Taylor does, as a norm. This is why whenever anyone asks me what's a good "cheap" guitar to start with, my go-to answer is always the same

Sidenote: just got my son a graduation present: a used GA3 ...need I say stellar guitar for a pittance.

Edward

[ClassicRock]

I bought my first guitar the year before Bob Taylor opened his doors. At the time, Martin was The Professional’s Guitar. But, as a poor college student, they were as accessible to me as Neil Armstrong on the moon. After a few years of playing, I pulled a Rip Van Winkle from the guitar hobby as I raised a family, paid a mortgage etc, etc. Now that I’ve retired, I have time and money for re-entry into pastimes I enjoy.

I first noticed Taylor in the hands of my son’s favorite artist, Dave Mathews. My first thought was, “Who the —— is Taylor?”  So, as I did my research catching up on Martin, I coincidentally began learning a few things about Taylor. I bought an iconic Rosewood Martin then went through an incredibly difficult process to order a custom sinker mahogany from them. This really opened my eyes to how archaic their business practices are.

A BT video about succession really opened my eyes to the business operation of Taylor before I ever touched one of their guitars. Bob stated he wanted a very experienced luthier and player, one with great passion to drive the company to heights greater than he is capable. He has a businessman to run the business. He wanted a visionary to drive product innovation, the hallmark of his company. Now after Andy Powers has been on board a few years, Bob’s vision is coming to life in remarkable new products such as the K14ce BE. Compare that to the “legacy” company as Taylor calls them. Their 62 yo CEO had no interest in the business, no passion for guitars, could not play one or build one but got drafted by the Board of Directors because he had the right initials. One could argue he’s done a pretty good job but a lot of his success is due to circumstance—a much better economy and a baby boomer generation that grew up with rock and roll now flush with cash. “Innovation” in Nazareth consists of making a 2018 guitar sound like a 1930’s guitar! How weird is that?!?

There is no succession plan in Nazareth. The next person with the right initials is 13 yo. Many of the talented people that made the company great have retired. There appears to be no plan for the future. So, I was first attracted to Taylor because of the quality of the business. Quality businesses produce quality products in a niche that suits their culture. Taylor has not only found its “lane” but is stepping on the GAS (pun intended).  I do not yet own a Taylor, but there is no doubt one is coming as soon as the finances recover from my two earlier purchases. I was smitten by the K14ce BE and in the process of checking it out discovered a 514ce V-Class with Cedar top! As a “Martin Guy” I didn’t even know Cedar was being used for soundboards. I also was surprised that Taylor is moving so fast to propagate the apparently wildly popular V-Class into their mid-level guitar lines. This cedar topped Hog was spectacular and I would tell anyone interested in Mahogany to check this guitar out before you buy. Wow! What a sound! I was so impressed I started a thread about it on a Taylor forum! Anyway, as you can tell, Taylor has won me over. Once my bank account recovers, there will be a difficult choice as to which one to buy first. Have you seen a K24ce? Wow!

[jjrpilot-admin]

I bought my first guitar the year before Bob Taylor opened his doors. At the time, Martin was The Professional’s Guitar. But, as a poor college student, they were as accessible to me as Neil Armstrong on the moon. After a few years of playing, I pulled a Rip Van Winkle from the guitar hobby as I raised a family, paid a mortgage etc, etc. Now that I’ve retired, I have time and money for re-entry into pastimes I enjoy.

I first noticed Taylor in the hands of my son’s favorite artist, Dave Mathews. My first thought was, “Who the —— is Taylor?”  So, as I did my research catching up on Martin, I coincidentally began learning a few things about Taylor. I bought an iconic Rosewood Martin then when through an incredibly difficult process to order a custom sinker mahogany from them. This really opened my eyes to how archaic their business practices are.

A BT video about succession really opened my eyes to the business operation of Taylor before I ever touched one of their guitars. Bob stated he wanted a very experienced luthier and player, one with great passion to drive the company to heights greater than he is capable. He has a businessman to run the business. He wanted a visionary to drive product innovation, the hallmark of his company. Now after Andy Powers has been on board a few years, Bob’s vision is coming to life in remarkable new products such as the K14ce BE. Compare that to the “legacy” company as Taylor calls them. Their 62 yo CEO had no interest in the business, no passion for guitars, could not play one or build one but got drafted by the Board of Directors because he had the right initials. One could argue he’s done a pretty good job but a lot of his success is due to circumstance—a much better economy and a baby boomer generation that grew up with rock and roll now flush with cash. “Innovation” in Nazareth consists of making a 2018 guitar sound like a 1930’s guitar! How weird is that?!?

There is no succession plan in Nazareth. The next person with the right initials is 13 yo. Many of the talented people that made the company great have retired. There appears to be no plan for the future. So, I was first attracted to Taylor because of the quality of the business. Quality businesses produce quality products in a niche that suits their culture. Taylor has not only found its “lane” but is stepping on the GAS (pun intended).  I do not yet own a Taylor, but there is no doubt one is coming as soon as the finances recover from my two earlier purchases. I was smitten by the K14ce BE and in the process of checking it out discovered a 514ce V-Class with Cedar top! As a “Martin Guy” I didn’t even know Cedar was being used for soundboards. I also was surprised that Taylor is moving so fast to propagate the apparently wildly popular V-Class into their mid-level guitar lines. This cedar topped Hog was spectacular and I would tell anyone interested in Mahogany to check this guitar out before you buy. Wow! What a sound! I was so impressed I started a thread about it on a Taylor forum! Anyway, as you can tell, Taylor has won me over. Once my bank account recovers, there will be a difficult choice as to which one to buy first. Have you seen a K24ce? Wow!

Hey Classic!  When you’re in the market for a Taylor give our friend Ted at LA Guitars a buzz! If you go to the “dealer” part of the forum he’s posted some of the guitars you’ve mentioned

[ClassicRock]

Thank you. I have already been in contact with Ted and he has notified me of his summer sale.

Update: I ended up purchasing Ted’s V-Class K24ce. It is currently in a hot UPS truck bouncing across the great western U.S. enroute to Indiana. It is due to arrive 6/27. I suspect a NGD thread won’t be far behind.

[VTexan]

I first started hearing about Taylor in another forum. You know, the big one where all the other brand guitar players are, too.
Anyway, there was a lot of love expressed for them, and some resentment that they were less hand-made than some. And so I started doing my research.
I went to my local music store and played a few, and really liked them. I also really liked the way they looked.

In my online research I eventually I came across the video of Bob Taylor talking about ebony, and how the people who sawed his ebony out of the forest had to cut down 10 trees for every one that had pure black wood. And how then and there he decided to change the business model, using all good ebony, black, streaked, whatever. I had a career long ago in the tree business, and fancy myself something of a tree nut. I grow Bigtooth maples from seed here in Texas, and am involved in a program to re-introduce them here, where in nature, the over-population of deer has threatened their existence in the wild.

Anyway, eventually I connected with an owner looking to cut back the amount of guitars he owned, and was selling a 314ce for a price I could afford. We connected, I bought it, and it now one of my stable of three.

[Charmed Life Picks]

It's funny hearing about how people fell in love with their guitars. It is my first love (but don't tell my wife).

Scott Memmer

[Buckhart Marty]

I love the playability of Taylor Guitars!
I’m interested in buying a used 810.  Can someone please tell me what year they started using the 1 3/4” nut on this guitar.  I’ve seen some good deals on late 80s and early 90s 810s but wasn’t sure what the nut width is.

[Edward]

Hey Marty,

Welcome to the forum!

Not sure of an exact model year for the 1 3/4" nut since they have done both this and the 1 11/16" nut for quite some time, with the latter often going to the dreds in the earlier days, likely to appeal to the "traditional" crowd who played the ubiquitous Martin/M-esque dred, and that nut width was their norm. 

But if you want a good year to bank on, 2000 marked Taylor's "NT" neck, where the 1 3/4" nut width pretty much became their company standard offering, still with some exceptions on a few models from 300-up (or indiv-customer order), but the entire 100-200 line retained the narrower nut, even to this day.  Hope that helps you a bit

Edward

[Stringband Eric]

As a few old timers on this list know, I've owned a lot of guitars through the years. Have liked Taylor ever since they let a friend become a small dealer back in 1992. I purchased one of the early 410 models from him soon after. Prior to that, had handled a few Taylors at a couple of different stores and liked the sound. They fact they didn't try to sound like Martin and Gibson at the time really appealed to me. Plus, they were able to cut through in old-time jam sessions.

Spring ahead 25 years and I now find Taylor to still be the most consistent builder out there.

[joshi]

I didn't go to the store expecting to buy a Taylor, but what captured me was the playability. Speaking generally, I prefer the Martin sound-- Taylors are often too bright for my taste-- but as I've gotten older playability has grown in importance. As I swapped between a bunch of different guitars (HD28, D28, etc), I realized that the less chunky neck is the secret to the Taylor's greater playability, with a lesser nod to the Elixir strings (tried to mentally eliminate the latter as a factor). As I swapped back and forth between Martins and Taylors and tested fast transitions, I found it was easier to fret the Taylors on barre chords.   

Also, the v-brace models don't sound (to me) as good strummed, but I like that chords and notes played on the lower and upper neck sound more similar to each other.

[ak4seven]

For me... it was really about the feel and the sounds of the guitar. Fit me like a glove and just had such a nice tone, could not resist.

[billonbass]

It was love at first strum (a G I believe) Fat, Full sound with killer highs and it felt really good in my hands (and my wife said I could have it )

[steelstring]

Nt neck joint, 1 3/4" nut width. Build quality.

[tremolo arm]

Resurrecting an old topic, as I recently re-fell in love with Taylor...

I owe my love story with Taylor to... a volcano...

The year was 2010 and I was in Chicago for business (I live in the UK).

The day before my planned return to London, a certain volcano (with an unpronounceable name) erupted in Iceland and the Northern European air space closed to air traffic due to silica forming in the eruption plume (apparently a risk for jet engines).

That meant that I was "stranded" in the US until the ash dissolved.

6 days later, I was still in the US (Downers Grove, IL - to be precise) and at this point I had already visited all the Walmarts, Targets and sport shops selling Blackhawks merchandise in the immediate area of my hotel. Getting progressively restless and bored, I noticed there was a small Guitar Center about 5 miles from the hotel and the hotel shuttle was kind enough to take me there.

At this point I will say that I was predominantly an electric guitar player and I viewed acoustics as a "thing of the past".

As I had some (a lot) of time to kill, I entered the acoustic shack and something happened. The smell, the colours and the sheer simplicity of holding an acoustic guitar in my lap was just magic. The last time I had an acocustic guitar was when I was 15 - a nylon string Yamaha. Now I was 35.

It so happened that the first guitar I got off the wall was a Taylor. I do not remember the model, but what struck me was the incredible zebra effect it had on the back of the neck - specifically behind the headstock. It was just mesmerising and I thought - wow, acoustic guitar can actually look cool. The sound was also superb.

I said to myself - if air traffic does not resume over Europe in 24 hours I am buying this guitar to keep me company.
It so happened that I was able to fly the next day, but I had already made my mind that I ought to get myself a Taylor.

Sadly the prices in the UK were (still are) much more expensive than in the US, so I could not afford that particular model so I bought a 114 instead.

Two Taylors later (including a baby Taylor for my daughter), I just bought a used GS-Ltd Fall 2011 Cocobolo. It is the nearest thing to that April 2010 feeling, the date when I fell in love with Taylor... 

And I still wonder what that model was...

[TaylorGirl]

Resurrecting an old topic, as I recently re-fell in love with Taylor...

I owe my love story with Taylor to... a volcano...

The year was 2010 and I was in Chicago for business (I live in the UK).

The day before my planned return to London, a certain volcano (with an unpronounceable name) erupted in Iceland and the Northern European air space closed to air traffic due to silica forming in the eruption plume (apparently a risk for jet engines).

That meant that I was "stranded" in the US until the ash dissolved.

6 days later, I was still in the US (Downers Grove, IL - to be precise) and at this point I had already visited all the Walmarts, Targets and sport shops selling Blackhawks merchandise in the immediate area of my hotel. Getting progressively restless and bored, I noticed there was a small Guitar Center about 5 miles from the hotel and the hotel shuttle was kind enough to take me there.

At this point I will say that I was predominantly an electric guitar player and I viewed acoustics as a "thing of the past".

As I had some (a lot) of time to kill, I entered the acoustic shack and something happened. The smell, the colours and the sheer simplicity of holding an acoustic guitar in my lap was just magic. The last time I had an acocustic guitar was when I was 15 - a nylon string Yamaha. Now I was 35.

It so happened that the first guitar I got off the wall was a Taylor. I do not remember the model, but what struck me was the incredible zebra effect it had on the back of the neck - specifically behind the headstock. It was just mesmerising and I thought - wow, acoustic guitar can actually look cool. The sound was also superb.

I said to myself - if air traffic does not resume over Europe in 24 hours I am buying this guitar to keep me company.
It so happened that I was able to fly the next day, but I had already made my mind that I ought to get myself a Taylor.

Sadly the prices in the UK were (still are) much more expensive than in the US, so I could not afford that particular model so I bought a 114 instead.

Two Taylors later (including a baby Taylor for my daughter), I just bought a used GS-Ltd Fall 2011 Cocobolo. It is the nearest thing to that April 2010 feeling, the date I when I met Taylor... 

And I still wonder what that model was...

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading your story. I think life has a way about it, that causes us to go in certain directions.....these turns (that we may not have planned on) can be significant.