I wonder if your guitar was made from the same sapele tree as my 2012 GSce-FLTD? I love knowing the wood journey that became my guitar. Here's the Wood and Steel Fall 2012 article:
"Quilted sapele is an extremely rare find. Rare enough that the first and last time we offered it was on a pair of limited edition models to commemorate Taylor’s 25th anniversary back in 1999. At the time we considered it a one-time fluke, so when we randomly received some figured sapele 4x4s in a shipment for necks about eight years ago, our wood purchaser, Bob Zink, told our cutter that if he ever encountered it again to call us before cutting it. A year and a half ago, Bob got the call, we were very interested, and an odyssey to procure some of the wood ensued.
After being harvested in Africa, the entire tree — a huge old sapele about 6-7 feet in diameter — was shipped to a sawmill in France, where it was cut into slabs with a massive saw. From there it had to be sent to Germany, where there was planer large enough to surface it. The original purchaser of the tree eventually shipped the slabs to his mill in the U.S., and when they finally arrived months later we were called and given first dibs on the wood. By this time there was other interest in it, with some parties offering to pay more, but the owner held it for Taylor since we’d expressed interest first. Within a couple of days Bob Zink and Andy Powers arrived in Cove City, North Carolina, a small port town where the mill was located. Once they were there, they sorted through every slab, selecting the ones with figure.
“We went through something like 12,000 board feet — a couple of tons of wood,” says Andy. “Some of the boards we picked out were about four feet wide and in some cases 16 feet long.”
They ended up buying about 2200 board feet (the rest of the wood wasn’t quilted). The wood was flatsawn, which is cut 90 degrees different than the quartersawn sapele we typically use for guitar backs and sides. This not only allowed the beautiful figure to be showcased to maximum effect, it also added a unique twist to its tonal response.
“Sapele tends to be pretty stiff, and this stuff has a lot more give to it,” Andy says. “You hear a little more power, a little more warmth on the low end compared to most sapele guitars.”
