beyond compare. Then there is the choice of the finest dealers the market has to offer.
All this at my fingertips, and catalyzed by an abiding love of guitar making and fine
craftsmanship. Imagine running a small guitar shop that can go next door to a place
like Taylor Guitars and “borrow a cup of sugar,” free of charge.
 
I’d like to mention the craftsmen working hand in glove with me on this. First, there is
Larry Breedlove, my nearly life-long partner in design, and our young colleague Ed
Granero. The three of us make up the design wellspring. When I arrived at The
American Dream guitar shop in 1973 as an 18-year-old guitar builder, I worked beside
a bench already occupied by Timothy Luranc. Tim still works with me today! He has now
transferred to the R. Taylor shop. Tim does all the final assembly of the guitars along
with any customer repair work, and even though he finished guitars for years on end,
he gets a break from that pursuit now. The gorgeous finish on the guitars is proudly

applied by Josh Carter. Josh has been finishing guitars at Taylor for ten years, and
having finished literally thousands of guitars, he’s at the top of his game.
 
Bodies and necks are made by Keith Greenwood and Eric Larson, each 10-year
veterans who were literally chosen out of a selection of 300 craftspeople. These guys
are good! Guitar orders are supervised by product manager and sales manager, John
DiMaggio. John came here exclusively for R. Taylor and has a lifetime of experience
around guitars.
 
This is my guitar-building dream team, and the people who will make your R. Taylor
guitar if you are ever of a mind to order one. I invite you to read on and learn more
about the company and the guitars.

Sometimes you find a guitar, fall in love, and buy it. Game over. Other times you go on
the hunt and these days that includes the possibility of having a guitar made for you.
While exciting, it’s a scary thing. Believe me, I understand. To help make a complicated
subject simple, here’s my attempt at explaining what R. Taylor has to offer.
 
We currently offer one body shape, which we refer to as “Style One.” We designed it
to be an all-around guitar that responds well to both fingerstylists and flatpickers.
Whatever your playing style, these guitars yield tremendous dynamic range with superb
balance, nuance, and clarity. I know that if you are considering the purchase of an
R.Taylor guitar, it’s pretty likely you already have a mental MP3 track that has the tonal
fingerprints of these wood combinations, so I won’t attempt to wax on about “crispy”
this, “deep mellow” that, and so on.

The wood combinations are:

Mahogany/Cedar

Indian Rosewood/Cedar

Indian Rosewood/Sitka Spruce

Big Leaf Maple/Sitka Spruce

 
And the price is:

$4,480

 
It’s your choice, same price. We’re trying to keep the pricing easy because, for the most
part, the cost of producing these four models is all the same to us. So we’ll make it all the
same to you. Also, every R. Taylor dealer—of which there are very few—is an expert in
this subject. Lean on them for help.

These guitars embody all the love you’d ever want applied to their creation. The insides
are impeccable. The neck is classic “R. Taylor”, which means that if you’ve ever
played and loved a Taylor, you’ll understand. The binding, rosette, finish and details are
as good as guitar making can get.
 
But what if you want something more or different from what I’ve mentioned above?
Well, that’s not a problem either, because our shop is small. We keep track of everything
we build the old-fashioned way: on a whiteboard. So the entire crew can see your
guitar’s specs at a glance.
 
Again, it’s pretty much all the same to us so we’ll make it all the same to you. That means
there are many changes you can make to your standard R.Taylor without it costing
more. If customizing your R. Taylor is something you’re interested in, read on...

One of the most popular custom changes that players make to their guitars is the
combination of woods used. For example, some people know for a fact that they’d like
to have an Engelmann spruce top on their guitar. Or perhaps they like mahogany with
spruce rather than the cedar we offer. Any of the woods mentioned in the four
standard models can be mixed and matched at no charge. There will be some charge
for adding other top woods such as Engelmann spruce, Swiss Alpine spruce, and
Adirondack spruce.
 
Next in popularity are premium woods. I’m talking about woods that are hard to
acquire, especially in the quality required for these guitars. Woods like super premium
koa, Madagascar rosewood, cocobolo, Brazilian rosewood. You don’t come across them
everyday, so you’d expect them to carry some cost. Depending on the wood, it might
be a lot.

We expect that most people will love our standard neck, but we have other neck
shapes as well. If you like your neck more “V”-shaped or a different width, no
problem. We’ll do it at no charge to you.
 
We even have different bracing patterns that give the guitar different tonal character-
istics. No charge here either.
 
There are more changes that can be made, whether a shorter scale length or custom
inlays. We’re willing to discuss anything with you, and help guide the process so that
the guitar works together both aesthetically and tonally.
 
Feel free to discuss all of these details with your dealer if customizing is what you are
interested in doing. They will know a lot about what is possible, and they have a direct

line to us. We know that sound quality is the primary interest when buying a guitar, but
we also understand that the guitar buyer has other criteria that they are hoping to
satisfy at the same time. This is why we are offering to stick our neck out, so to speak,
and try to bring our best efforts to you, the player.