Andy: Trevor, we do build prototypes during a guitar’s development phase. At times, those prototypes will incorporate one variable to evaluate an individual element. Other times, the development of a model will involve multiple criteria as a means to distill the sonic, structural and aesthetic aspects of a design into the finished form. A counterpoint to this is that we’ve built a lot of guitars over a lot of years, and with each instrument, we learn some factors that remain true from one design to the next. As a result, not every aspect of every guitar needs to be proven out individually. For example, once we learn how a species of wood behaves in a certain context, it’s reasonable to expect it to behave similarly in a similar context. The parameters we pay closest attention to during a development project are the new and unfamiliar ones. As a more recent example, the red ironbark wood we’ve introduced with our 500 Series guitars took several years of working with to establish our understanding of how it should be used. That might sound overly tedious, but we don’t mind. We love building guitars and working through ideas in the pursuit of a guitar that offers a rewarding voice to a musician.

Bob: Trevor, these are good questions, and it’s good to hear that you’ve learned about guitars through Wood&Steel. I know what you mean about having an identifiable sound. It’s kind of like most people’s cooking, where they add their own flavor profile to each dish. We love our sound profile. It’s almost impossible for us to make a guitar that sounds like another maker’s profile. I mean, we could if we copied it exactly, but in the end, we still nudge it away from that direction. Personally, I find myself a little more into the category of trial and error than Andy. He’s good enough to know what a guitar will sound like before he makes it. I’m good at making a guitar I like, but if I need more of this and less of that, I’m not as sure as he is. And I have to say that we make so many guitars that those variables become evident just from everyday observation. We don’t really have to make a guitar with a pickguard and one without one to determine which one we like. When you do it all day, every day, you build a strong sense about it.

Editor’s Note: Taylor Customer Service Manager Glen Wolff responded in addition to Andy and Bob.

Glen: Mike, regarding your feedback about loose-fitting bridge pins, we fit the pins slightly looser on purpose so they’ll all seat evenly down on the bridge. They require a little tension on the string to lock them in, which may be a little tricky at times, but having them all set even is worth it. The problem with a pressure fit is the pins end up at different heights, which can be distracting depending on where you rest your hand over the bridge while playing.

Andy: Thanks for the critique, Mike. We’re always open to input from players on what aspects of a guitar’s design matter to them. I hear you on the neck dive and physical balance of an instrument. I, too, like a perfectly balanced guitar. In some cases, the weight at the headstock end of guitar is dictated by the reality of tuning machines, how many there are, and how big that peghead needs to be to hold them. At the body end, there is a range of factors to contend with, such as the species of wood and size of the body. While there have been times I’ve been tempted to add weight to a body to counterbalance a peghead, I’ve rarely found that to be a satisfactory solution as I often dislike what the resulting overall weight does for the instrument. There are a few considerations a guitar maker can play with to help, such as the size of tuning machines or species of neck wood. We certainly take those factors into account, but as you point out, there’s always room to improve on a good thing.

As for the fit of the bridge pins, we like to fit them so the heads end up at a uniform height when properly worn in. One of the tricks I use to help securely seat the ball end of the string against the bridge plate where it belongs is to make a slight bend on the twisted end portion and insert the string with the bent portion and ball toward the soundhole. That gets the ball end out of the way of the pin and helps it rest against the underside of the top, where it won’t want to pop the pin out.

Bob: Thanks, Mike, and rest assured, I don’t consider you a complainer. Your comments make me want to take a look myself, which I will do. As Glen said in his comments, we make the pins a little loose. I think Rob Magargal [Taylor’s Service Network Manager and longtime repair technician] has a restring video where he shows how we seat strings with the endpin and the ball end of the string up against the maple pin plate that’s glued to the underside of the top. Each pin is the same size. Each hole is the same size. We don’t ream a taper into our holes. We use a tapered pin into a straight hole. We find we can seat strings and pins evenly this way. What varies is the size of the string and the size of the slot. We try to match those together. One technique I personally use is that I don’t always put the groove of the pin facing forward. There’s variability in all this matching. So when I have a string seated in its slot and the ball up against the underside of the top, if the pin is loose, I twist it so that the groove is not in line with the string. This usually tightens up the fit by interfering with the string a little. This may sound like a cheat, but it’s really just flexibility. Give that a try, and while you do that, we’ll take a look to see if anything has drifted in the manufacturing.

Andy: Caleb, I’m with you on the tone of Western red cedar. I love it as a top wood, especially on a Grand Concert or Grand Auditorium guitar like yours, particularly for its touch sensitivity and warmth. Great cedar for guitar tops may not be quite as readily available as some other top woods, but we do get it and like building with it. While it may not be the standard choice on many models, we do commonly offer cedar as a top substitution in place of another wood on many models, in addition to building limited-edition guitars with it.

Bob: Caleb, it’s simple: Cedar is super hard to find these days, and we can’t easily obtain sufficient supply to ensure a model. I’m not sure if that will change. But that’s the main reason. These days, we tend to make limited-edition runs of guitars with cedar, but no longer the high-volume models. By the way, I have a 20th anniversary Grand Auditorium made with mahogany and cedar. That’s a fine guitar, so I agree with you.

Andy: Chuck, I’m very fortunate to work with great teams of folks in every area of our company. Without them and their expertise in their respective fields, I would never be able to get everything done. Titles aside, I remain a guitar maker first and foremost, and I’m happy to spend a good portion of my days at the bench. I’m not hanging up my chisels. But certainly we love including great talent in every corner of our business and are actively training future generations of guitar-loving instrument makers.

Andy: Gary, that’s a good suggestion. A number of guitar makers have experimented with including carbon fiber or fiberglass in their brace architectures, either alone or combined with wood. In fact, I’ve experimented with those materials myself in different designs. So far, I’ve always come back to wood for braces. To me, there’s something special about the way wood works, sounds and ages that seems to offer the most musically pleasing results.   

Bob: Gary, many have asked this, and some makers have done it, but usually on an all-carbon-fiber top. Wood is really perfect, though. You can cut it, dry it, carve it to any shape. You can glue it. Carbon fiber doesn’t carve and doesn’t glue with anything but epoxy. Each shape would have to be molded. We have hundreds of shapes. And in the end, it’s not really stronger for what’s needed, nor does it improve sound. Just talking about it now makes me stop and enjoy the wonders of wood. Plus…wood grows on trees!

Andy: Jeff, as a matter of fact, we have built a number of guitars from black limba, also referred to as korina. It’s been used in electric guitars as far back as the 1950s, most famously on the Gibson “futuristic” models of the late 1950s. Sonically, it’s reminiscent of the mahogany we love and has physically similar properties as you point out. We don’t come across this wood often, so we’ve never built a regular model from it, but we’ve featured it in some limited-edition guitars as well as custom instruments.

Bob: Joe, we’ve used it a time or two. Your assessment is pretty correct concerning its characteristics. But alas, one little drawback of a factory like ours is that we typically only seek out wood that has sufficient quantity to make at least an LTD run.

This is a good question, Shane. We could talk for hours, and maybe it could be a podcast with both Andy and me on. But in this limited space, I’ll try to describe some differences that I see.

Our approach was as different as it was similar. We both had a lot of original concepts for guitars, yet Andy studied in order to learn deeply what made the good historical guitars so good. Then he applied original thought to his guitars. I never studied or, frankly, cared too much about what had come before me, except that acoustic guitars were hard to play, and I wanted to change that.

We both worked hard and with passion, throwing ourselves at it, but Andy was more studious than I was. He was careful and learned how to be an expert with hand tools at a bench. I wanted to use machines. He put his 10,000 hours into how to sharpen a chisel. I put my 10,000 hours into how to eliminate a chisel.

Andy is an incredible player, and I can strum along to songs and know when you change chords, which doesn’t mean I know which chord to change to! Andy does, even the esoteric chords. But that made our guitars different because we both made guitars to please ourselves.

Andy was happy to work alone, and I wanted to build a factory. So, in essence, I tried to design a factory that could execute the complex tasks that my guitar designs required. Andy did those complex tasks with his great hand skills.

We’re very similar in that we can both draw a nice curve. And we both have the same ideas of what a nice curve is and is not. You can’t even imagine how important that is. We both sweat over it.

These are just some basics. Our partnership has brought his depth of knowledge in guitar design together with my ability to see ways to make the pieces or execute the operations. Andy has become quite adept at that over his nearly 12 years here. He innately thinks about how we can execute his ideas in a factory setting.

Here’s what I told Andy when I suggested he come work with us: “Kurt and I have built a foundation that doesn’t crumble and a roof that doesn’t leak. You can use your working life to design and build out the interior in a way that you envision.”

He’s doing just that, and I’m proud of him and our association. Our guitars are much better for it. I have to say that it’s wonderful to be able to continue our legacy of improving guitars.

Andy Powers responds: Great questions, Steve. Frets are one of the most critical components of a guitar’s playability and yet possibly the most commonly overlooked. More specifically, the accuracy and installation of the frets need to be of the highest precision possible in order to offer great playability with consistent feel and sound. Beyond the installation and fretboard preparation itself, the size of the playing portion of the fret that protrudes above the fretboard, referred to as the bead, influences the feel and resulting sound of the guitar. A tall fret allows a player’s fingertip to easily press the string to the fret cleanly and offers great expression, as the player’s finger can easily bend the note sideways while holding the string to the fret or create vibrato effects by varying their fingertip pressure or position.

While these expressive effects are made easy by large frets, it becomes easy to press with too much or with uneven fingertip pressure and corrupt the pitch accuracy of the notes — effectively playing the guitar out of tune. Frets with a smaller bead will allow some of the player’s fingertip pressure to be distributed against the wood of the fretboard itself, inducing more accurately pitched notes. Typically, a fret size is chosen based on a good balance of expressiveness and accuracy.

Parallel to this is a desire to balance the hardness of the strings and the frets. When the frets are made from extremely hard material, they will have an exceptionally long lifespan before wearing to the point of needing maintenance. However, hard fret material can also have the effect of producing a somewhat brash, metallic sound as a string touches each fret, as well as wear the windings of strings so quickly the strings begin to buzz and rattle. Frets made from a softer metal alloy will tend to offer a warmer sound but wear more quickly.

For our guitars, we chose a fret material that gives a good balance between longevity and tone, expressiveness and pitch accuracy. For our electric T5z guitars, we do size up the fret bead, as those guitars are intended to bridge the gap between acoustic and expressive electric playing styles. I hope this helps.

Andy Powers responds: I’m happy to hear you’re having fun with these two guitars, Dave! While I didn’t specifically sit down and tell myself to design a guitar that fits a person with shoulder or neck strains, the player’s physical comfort was certainly near the top of my list in terms of design criteria for these instruments. From my own experience, when I’m comfortable and relaxed with an instrument, I tend to enjoy playing it more, and (I think) my playing sounds a little better. Many aspects of those Builder’s Edition guitars — the dimensions, cutaway, armrest, etc. — were created to make the guitar more comfortable to hold and play, sore shoulders or not. As for Shamel ash aging, one factor I’ve noticed, having observed the aging process of a lot of different guitars, is that the tonal development of different woods tends to take a similar path. Despite the varieties of woods guitars are made from, with time, the guitar as a whole will tend to become richer, with improved dynamic range and greater sensitivity to the player’s touch. There are some subtleties of particular woods needing a longer ripening time than others, but largely, they’ll simply continue to ripen and get sweeter like a peach. The Shamel ash and mahogany of your Builder’s Edition 324ce will fall right in line.

Andy Powers responds: Larry, you make some good observations. The top of an acoustic guitar is indeed an important aspect of making a guitar sound great. It’s also a very nuanced, complex component and hard to build generalizations around. Adding material to it in the form of pickguards, the hard wood of a bridge, even an inlaid rosette or the type of finish used all impart influence of some degree in the form of damping. In this case, damping doesn’t necessarily mean a total or linear reduction of vibration like turning down a volume control, but a selective reduction where different frequencies are affected more than others, changing the sonic stew more like a tone control. When a change is made to an acoustic guitar such as removing a large pickguard, the guitar may or may not become appreciably louder, but it will typically respond with some change in tone, sometimes for the better, and occasionally worse, depending on who is listening and their preferences. This is one reason the Builder’s Edition guitars were designed with no pickguard. It’s not that the guitars sound bad with a pickguard on them, it’s simply that we like the way they sounded without one in their minimally dampened state.

Steve, I love each new Spanish word or phrase I learn. I wish my comprehension when listening to Spanish was better. I enjoy learning more about growing trees. I own 250 acres in the mountains and hope to get more proficient operating my Bobcat and other equipment I have up there. It’s surrounded by U.S. Forest Service land, and I’ll put cattle on part of it, so that’s something to learn. Plus, learning how to attract more wildlife for the areas in between paddocks. All you need to do for that is plant edibles and provide water. They like to eat, and they tell their friends. And of course, l love learning more about guitars and guitar building. I’m not checking out of guitar building. I mean, I can stay here at Taylor as long as I like — I have a ringside seat, and even one at the table, to watch, learn and continue to contribute.

John, I laid out the first three factories we had alone and did a lot of the work myself to build them. The fourth building was a team of a few others working alongside me. There were more buildings after that, each with more help. By the time we designed our current factory in Tecate, Ed Granero, VP of Product Development here at Taylor, designed it with his team of people. We have an approach that we follow, and until that approach doesn’t serve us, we’ll continue to stick to it. I had very little to with the Tecate factory design other than looking at it and saying, “Yep, that’s what I’d do too!” And yes, we have expansion plans. I’ll sit back and enjoy watching. I’m pretty sure that’s how it will go. I’m happy to toss in new ideas that might change the course, but the team is usually ahead of me now.

This is a good question, Shane. We could talk for hours, and maybe it could be a podcast with both Andy and me on. But in this limited space, I’ll try to describe some differences that I see.

Our approach was as different as it was similar. We both had a lot of original concepts for guitars, yet Andy studied in order to learn deeply what made the good historical guitars so good. Then he applied original thought to his guitars. I never studied or, frankly, cared too much about what had come before me, except that acoustic guitars were hard to play, and I wanted to change that.

We both worked hard and with passion, throwing ourselves at it, but Andy was more studious than I was. He was careful and learned how to be an expert with hand tools at a bench. I wanted to use machines. He put his 10,000 hours into how to sharpen a chisel. I put my 10,000 hours into how to eliminate a chisel.

Andy is an incredible player, and I can strum along to songs and know when you change chords, which doesn’t mean I know which chord to change to! Andy does, even the esoteric chords. But that made our guitars different because we both made guitars to please ourselves.

Andy was happy to work alone, and I wanted to build a factory. So, in essence, I tried to design a factory that could execute the complex tasks that my guitar designs required. Andy did those complex tasks with his great hand skills.

We’re very similar in that we can both draw a nice curve. And we both have the same ideas of what a nice curve is and is not. You can’t even imagine how important that is. We both sweat over it.

These are just some basics. Our partnership has brought his depth of knowledge in guitar design together with my ability to see ways to make the pieces or execute the operations. Andy has become quite adept at that over his nearly 12 years here. He innately thinks about how we can execute his ideas in a factory setting.

Here’s what I told Andy when I suggested he come work with us: “Kurt and I have built a foundation that doesn’t crumble and a roof that doesn’t leak. You can use your working life to design and build out the interior in a way that you envision.”

He’s doing just that, and I’m proud of him and our association. Our guitars are much better for it. I have to say that it’s wonderful to be able to continue our legacy of improving guitars.

Andy Powers responds: Great questions, Steve. Frets are one of the most critical components of a guitar’s playability and yet possibly the most commonly overlooked. More specifically, the accuracy and installation of the frets need to be of the highest precision possible in order to offer great playability with consistent feel and sound. Beyond the installation and fretboard preparation itself, the size of the playing portion of the fret that protrudes above the fretboard, referred to as the bead, influences the feel and resulting sound of the guitar. A tall fret allows a player’s fingertip to easily press the string to the fret cleanly and offers great expression, as the player’s finger can easily bend the note sideways while holding the string to the fret or create vibrato effects by varying their fingertip pressure or position.

While these expressive effects are made easy by large frets, it becomes easy to press with too much or with uneven fingertip pressure and corrupt the pitch accuracy of the notes — effectively playing the guitar out of tune. Frets with a smaller bead will allow some of the player’s fingertip pressure to be distributed against the wood of the fretboard itself, inducing more accurately pitched notes. Typically, a fret size is chosen based on a good balance of expressiveness and accuracy.

Parallel to this is a desire to balance the hardness of the strings and the frets. When the frets are made from extremely hard material, they will have an exceptionally long lifespan before wearing to the point of needing maintenance. However, hard fret material can also have the effect of producing a somewhat brash, metallic sound as a string touches each fret, as well as wear the windings of strings so quickly the strings begin to buzz and rattle. Frets made from a softer metal alloy will tend to offer a warmer sound but wear more quickly.

For our guitars, we chose a fret material that gives a good balance between longevity and tone, expressiveness and pitch accuracy. For our electric T5z guitars, we do size up the fret bead, as those guitars are intended to bridge the gap between acoustic and expressive electric playing styles. I hope this helps.

Andy Powers responds: I’m happy to hear you’re having fun with these two guitars, Dave! While I didn’t specifically sit down and tell myself to design a guitar that fits a person with shoulder or neck strains, the player’s physical comfort was certainly near the top of my list in terms of design criteria for these instruments. From my own experience, when I’m comfortable and relaxed with an instrument, I tend to enjoy playing it more, and (I think) my playing sounds a little better. Many aspects of those Builder’s Edition guitars — the dimensions, cutaway, armrest, etc. — were created to make the guitar more comfortable to hold and play, sore shoulders or not. As for Shamel ash aging, one factor I’ve noticed, having observed the aging process of a lot of different guitars, is that the tonal development of different woods tends to take a similar path. Despite the varieties of woods guitars are made from, with time, the guitar as a whole will tend to become richer, with improved dynamic range and greater sensitivity to the player’s touch. There are some subtleties of particular woods needing a longer ripening time than others, but largely, they’ll simply continue to ripen and get sweeter like a peach. The Shamel ash and mahogany of your Builder’s Edition 324ce will fall right in line.

Andy Powers responds: Larry, you make some good observations. The top of an acoustic guitar is indeed an important aspect of making a guitar sound great. It’s also a very nuanced, complex component and hard to build generalizations around. Adding material to it in the form of pickguards, the hard wood of a bridge, even an inlaid rosette or the type of finish used all impart influence of some degree in the form of damping. In this case, damping doesn’t necessarily mean a total or linear reduction of vibration like turning down a volume control, but a selective reduction where different frequencies are affected more than others, changing the sonic stew more like a tone control. When a change is made to an acoustic guitar such as removing a large pickguard, the guitar may or may not become appreciably louder, but it will typically respond with some change in tone, sometimes for the better, and occasionally worse, depending on who is listening and their preferences. This is one reason the Builder’s Edition guitars were designed with no pickguard. It’s not that the guitars sound bad with a pickguard on them, it’s simply that we like the way they sounded without one in their minimally dampened state.

Steve, I love each new Spanish word or phrase I learn. I wish my comprehension when listening to Spanish was better. I enjoy learning more about growing trees. I own 250 acres in the mountains and hope to get more proficient operating my Bobcat and other equipment I have up there. It’s surrounded by U.S. Forest Service land, and I’ll put cattle on part of it, so that’s something to learn. Plus, learning how to attract more wildlife for the areas in between paddocks. All you need to do for that is plant edibles and provide water. They like to eat, and they tell their friends. And of course, l love learning more about guitars and guitar building. I’m not checking out of guitar building. I mean, I can stay here at Taylor as long as I like — I have a ringside seat, and even one at the table, to watch, learn and continue to contribute.

John, I laid out the first three factories we had alone and did a lot of the work myself to build them. The fourth building was a team of a few others working alongside me. There were more buildings after that, each with more help. By the time we designed our current factory in Tecate, Ed Granero, VP of Product Development here at Taylor, designed it with his team of people. We have an approach that we follow, and until that approach doesn’t serve us, we’ll continue to stick to it. I had very little to with the Tecate factory design other than looking at it and saying, “Yep, that’s what I’d do too!” And yes, we have expansion plans. I’ll sit back and enjoy watching. I’m pretty sure that’s how it will go. I’m happy to toss in new ideas that might change the course, but the team is usually ahead of me now.

Thanks, Richard — consider the word put out to readers. I’ll be getting hearing aids soon. I dread it, really, because I don’t really want to be less portable and have more stuff that helps me function daily, but I’m tired of the TV getting louder and louder. We used to laugh at the volume in my parents’ house. And now…I’m there myself.

Scott, we make a hardshell wooden case. It’s not a sealed vapor barrier, but it does a good job protecting against humidity as long as it’s not left for ages in a bad environment. As you stated, Martin does offer some cases that are molded plastic and can keep a guitar sealed.

When I think of the practical physical side to this question, here are the considerations and why we don’t offer both. First, guitars go in and out of cases all the time. When they’re out, they are exposed. If the case is left open when they are out, its lining absorbs or releases humidity. If the lining is humid and you close a guitar in it, it can be a disaster. We actually acclimate each case to the right humidity inside before we pack a guitar for storage. Then we put it in a heavy poly bag, and it can be stored for a long time. We can ship guitars around the world in containers on ships going to heaven knows where, into every ravaging climate, hot or cold, dry or wet, spending months on their journey, and end up fine with a properly built case and a plastic bag. A plastic case would still require the poly bag. If I were to store a guitar long-term in my home, I’d just put a plastic bag over it, all tied up. Other than that, our hardshell case, made with layers of wood and completely covered in vinyl, does a good job. Especially considering that in normal use, the guitar is in and out all the time. We talk about cases being a vapor barrier. This is hard to explain, but imagine paint on your door, which water runs off of. But the door can still swell and shrink seasonally. That’s because vapor goes through paint and other protective layers.

So in the end, I feel that a good case’s primary job is to protect the guitar from sudden and extreme changes in weather, and certainly damage from shock. It’s why I decided to make wooden cases. Also, we can make wooden cases ourselves, but we don’t have the huge technology to make molded plastic. And we love making our own products.

I do suggest, and always have, that people who own good solid-wood guitars learn over time how to care for them humidity-wise. Our TaylorSense product is a good tool to monitor how your guitar is doing, and Humidipaks are a great remedy, no matter what case you have, whether it’s a gig bag, wood hardshell or molded plastic.

Here’s one story you might enjoy, Randy. We just introduced the AD27 Flametop. People have asked for maple-top guitars for years, and we refused. But I wanted to try for a few reasons. Andy wasn’t too happy about that, but he’s a team player, which is great. Andy also knows how a guitar will turn out before he makes it. He doesn’t need much, if any, trial and error. Remember, Beethoven wrote symphonies while he was deaf. He could hear how it would sound in his head. Andy is similar when it comes to guitars. He said the Grand Pacific shape would work but other shapes wouldn’t. To please me, he made the other shapes. He was right, and he showed me why. The other shapes sounded fine, they were OK, but they would not tune. You could tune the guitar forever and not play two chords in tune with each other. The Grand Pacific tunes because of the shape of the top, defined by the sides, and that’s what Andy knew would happen and what I did not consider at all, not in my wildest dreams.

Scott, I touch on this in my answer to the other Scott’s question about cases. A few years back, we started packaging every guitar in a medium-weight plastic bag, over the case or gig bag, before putting it into a box. This saves guitars’ lives. That’s because the humidity remains constant, and if the guitar is cold or hot, at least the water volume doesn’t change. We had great evidence of this even before pandemic shipping delays, but it’s proven to be successful even now with containers stalled all over the world. I’m very pleased with how this works, although Scott Paul and I aren’t super-pleased with another use of plastic. But I’d trade a lifetime guitar shipped in plastic over almost every single thing you buy in a store now that doesn’t really need more plastic than product. I don’t know why pliers have to come in plastic that takes metal shears to cut them out. I don’t get that. I’ll remain on my plastic soap box, but it seems a guitar that will last for generations deserves a bag.