companies like Taylor & larrivee are likened to spring chickens, when compared to martin or gibson -
when a company radically changes their build process, it can mark the end of an "era" & the start of another
some companies are bought out, their quality control suffers &, due to lack of sales or ineffective marketing, die off
Taylor built guitars for the first two years under the westland music co name,
but it wasn't until 76 that the company was officially Taylor quality guitars -
for a guitar made when the company was in its infancy & with so many major changes being made,
some consider the late 90s preNT neck models to be a "golden era", the original design guitars made
in lemon grove or santee could be considered "vintage", as there were no CNC or UV finish processes
martin's vintage period is considered to be pre-war & if it weren't for oliver ditson & co, who knows
when martin may have gotten around to building steel string dreadnought acoustic guitars
maybe the correct term would be "classic", as the preNT neck & preStandard II bracing have been considered
a "classic" neck & bracing pattern & in a few more years, the earliest models might be considered "antiques" ... or not
age is not the only criteria that the "vintage" label requires -
the product should be desirable & ideally the company is still in business
