We are an acoustic music duo (
www.jiva.co.uk) in the UK and have been playing Taylor guitars since 26 March 2003.... Rewind for some background... Apologies for the lengthy intro, but our journey (in more ways than one) to Taylor is a story and a half - so skip to the last paragraph if you just want the current guitar line-up!
Began playing acoustic guitar in 1971 (Eko Ranger 6 and Eko Ranger 12). Added an Eko El Paso (black, double scratchplate), then a Fender and moved up a notch or three to a Yamaha FG580 (Jacaranda Brazilian Rosewood 6-string) and spent years searching for its 12-string counterpart - eventually found it in the Yamaha FG630 after dabbling with various 12-strings including Fylde, Guild and Bozo. Of those early guitars we still have the Yamahas and Val's Eko Ranger 6.
In 2003 we were looking for a smaller guitar for Val and I (Jimmy) thought she was sure to find a good fit with another Yamaha but, no, as soon as she picked up a Taylor Big Baby that was it... we took it home and found that its sound just blew away the Yamahas. So GAS kicked in and we bought me a Taylor XXV DR 25th Anniversary on eBay. But then the 12-string didn't seem to cut it against either of the Taylor 6-strings, and we headed off to Wales to buy an 855 (again from eBay). When we got there the guy also offered us a Taylor 810-LTD Brazilian Rosewood at a bargain price if we bought it with the 855. Sure enough we drove home with them both.
The Big Baby was semi-retired (but we still have it) and Vall had two beautifull 800 series while Jimmy had the 25th Anniversary (which all of a sudden didn't sound right against the Val's guitars). So we shopped around and bought Jimmy two Yamahas - a CPX15 6-string and CPX 8 12-string. Nice, but the 6 was returned to the store with an electrics fault and the 12-string still wasn't right alongside Val's 810 and 855. We traded the Yamaha 12 against a Taylor 810CE for Jimmy, but Val fell in love with it and we swapped guitars... Jimmy was back to his tonewood heaven (Brazilian Rosewood and spruce). We also bought a second 855 (eBay USA this time), and it seemed we had the perfect blend - each of us with an 810 and an 855. But Jimmy's 810-LTD developed a buzz that we couldn't track down, and so Jimmy was on the lookout again for another guitar!
While surfing the web in 2007 we found a new 910CE in Scotland, and made arrangements to go and check it out - and, would you believe it GuitarGuitar had a 2004 910CE-L7 Brazilian Rosewood that had been unsold in their Glasgow shop for 3 years. They had it shipped to our local store (Newcastle) and on 21 September 2007 we took the 810-LTD in to see if they would do a part-ex. After a thorough examination of the 810 they agreed, and Jimmy became the proud owner of the 910CE-L7... BUT, we had promised to drive to Scotland to check out the other 910 - and (you guessed it) we bought it too!
Here the story takes a wonderful twist - when we decided to get married we wanted the wedding to be held somewhere that was in keeping with our life and music... nowhere seemed to fit the bill, and then we had a totally off-the-wall thought "Maybe Taylor might let us get married at their El Cajon facility?"... so an international call to Customer Services was made, and we guess it must have been quite a shock to have a couple of Brits asking that very question. But, after further emails and phone calls where we explored the possibility we were thrilled when they said yes!!! We would have been happy to have the ceremony in the parking lot, we didn't want to cause any disruption - but on 12 August we were married in the Marketing Suite... a day that we will never forget. During the ceremony we played a song to each other (on guitars borrowed from Taylor on the day). Val was so taken with the 12-string that we just had to enquire if it might be for sale... yep, you guessed right again. This is a Custom Build Jumbo 12, Cocobolo back & sides, Spruce top, custom edgeburst, all the beautiful trimmings on the headstock and fretboard and a sound to die for.
Wind forward to 2012 and we were at a UK Taylor roadshow when we spotted the impossible - a Custom Jumbo 6, Cocobolo back & sides, Spruce top, custom edgeburst, the same trimmings/appointments - the twin of Val's newest 12-string. We bought it on the spot, convinced that we could wish for nothing more... until... it developed an Expression System fault (we'll spare you details) and it was shipped to Amsterdam to be fixed under warranty. By major coincidence, when we took it to GuitarGuitar for shipping to Taylor they had a pre-owned 2004 914CE-L7 Brazilian Rosewood Taylor in the shop... and we could not resist it... bought it 3 years to the day after buying the 910CE-L7 from them.
That's it... phew... current Taylors are:
2003 Big Baby
1998 855 (Indian Rosewood, Spruce)
2004 910CE-L7 (Brazilian Rosewood, Spruce)
2004 914CE-L7 (Brazilian Rosewood, Spruce)
2007 910CE (Indian Rosewood, Spruce)
2009 Custom Jumbo 12 (Cocobolo, Spruce)
2009 Custom Jumbo 6 (Cocobolo, Spruce)
