From the R. Taylor website:
There’s no question that fervent attention to detail yields a superior guitar. One strum is all it takes to reveal it. Even one look promises that you’re in for something good. Welcome to R. Taylor Guitars.
Housed on the campus of Taylor Guitars, five craftsmen work to build a handful of guitars each week. Each luthier has a minimum of ten years experience at Taylor, and each possesses the skill and the will to bring a guitar to life in a special way that cannot normally be done. Starting with the finest woods available in the world, we thoughtfully lay out the parts, weigh and measure, and design a plan, drawing upon our depths of experience. What top geometry or bracing alteration will work on this striped ebony back and sides? How do we work with cocobolo to fashion a fingerstyle instrument for one customer and a strummer for another? This is what we do with each of the three hundred or so guitars we will make in a year. The extra attention to detail means a lot more labor hours spent on each guitar. But we believe it’s worth it. We’re confident you will, too.
- Bob Taylor
I think it's apples and oranges to try and compare Taylors to boutique small-shop/luthier instruments. Tone is subjective, as are personal tastes in appointments and aesthetics. That being said, when you look at what Bob was trying to do with R. Taylor and what he has said in the past about Collings, it would seem that even he would agree that a smaller team of skilled craftsmen might produce better results. Are there exceptions? Absolutely. Are the results going to directly correlate to price paid or time spent on a waiting list? I don't think so. But I do think there's a difference, even if it's negligible for some.
I'm fortunate enough to own both a Taylor and a luthier-built instrument. My Taylor is a humble early 210. It punches far above its weight and price point -- to the point where I've only played only one other Taylor I'd rather own. It has a rich, balanced tone and is incredibly versatile. I also own a Fairbanks F-35 -- an homage to the late '30s Gibson J-35. As expected, it sounds completely different. It's dry and dark and woody and has that beautiful Gibson-esque thumping bass. It's also incredibly versatile.
They're both great guitars and I love them for different reasons. But I admit I have really fallen in love with the featherweight hide-glue construction and beautiful hand-applied sunburst of the Fairbanks. I think either of those aspects of my guitar would be tough to achieve en masse from a larger builder. I might be wrong. But at the very least, there's something very cool about a hand-made guitar. It's very much in line with the whole "maker movement" that has become so popular in recent years as a response to the the tech industry (and, ironically, often by people from tech).
That's not to say that I don't love what Taylor is doing and their methodology. I think it's awesome. I love what the company does and what they stand for. And I'm sure I'll end up with another of their guitars before it's all said and done. I also think that bringing on a "boutique luthier" of their own is going to make Taylor that much better going forward.
Fact of the matter is -- apart from it being apples and oranges -- that there's never been a better time to be a guitar player. There are so many choices and the quality of guitars coming from big brands, luthiers' workshops, and everywhere inbetween is simply remarkable.
