Letters

As a 72-year-old guitar player who owns three Taylors but suffers from arthritis in my hands and shoulders, I recently purchased your new GT Urban Ash and can’t put it down. I play professionally and also daily at home, and was only able to play an hour or less without pain, but with the GT I can play for hours. Besides being comfortable, the neck is a dream when chording or playing leads, much like my T5 neck. I want to thank you and Andy Powers for making the pleasure and mindfulness of guitar playing easier.

I bought my Taylor 324ce in January of 2021. After 50-plus years of playing acoustic guitar, this Taylor is absolutely the finest guitar I’ve ever played. It is warm, accommodating, supple and very patient. I have played [another brand of] guitars all of my life. After playing this Taylor, I will always look at Taylor guitars first. I am currently looking at your [nylon-string] guitars, and I’m committed to buying one when my social security will allow. Very, very good job, folks. You craft beautiful guitars — in all respects. This Taylor guitar is my most prized possession.

With the arrival of the TaylorSense monitoring system, I decided to give my 717e a spa day and treated it to a thorough cleaning, fretboard conditioning (very light sanding with 000 steel wool and a light application of Taylor’s fretboard oil), installation of TaylorSense, and a re-stringing. TaylorSense was easy to install. I understand that some people want their guitars on stands or wall hangers — after all, they are beautiful — to be instantly accessible. With TaylorSense, you can monitor the humidity level, battery life, and any impact incidents whether the guitar is on a stand or in its case. Now I know my guitar’s condition instantly from a look at my phone.

I’ve been playing guitar since I was around 7 years old. I learned by ear and then was taught a couple songs from Metallica. I’ve been playing ever since. I’ve had my hands on many guitars and owned a dozen, and I can tell you the best guitar I’ve ever bought was this Taylor 210ce. It has great clarity, with highs, mids and lows that are well balanced. The action on the neck is as good as it gets. You are, in my opinion, the best acoustic makers. Great job with your quality and precision products.

I just wanted to comment on the V-Class bracing now being offered on Taylor guitars. My hat’s off to the designer. I’ve played for a long time and been fortunate enough to play some really high-end acoustic guitars. I recently bought my first Taylor, a 314, in October of 2020, and I can’t put it down. The sparkle of notes sustaining is something I couldn’t hear in any other guitar I’ve ever owned. It has incredible midrange and still plenty of bass. Thank you. To me, this is revolutionary.

In the early 1970s, I worked for a Hawaiian lumber company that specialized in harvesting and milling koa trees. The company would send us up on Mauna Kea to scout for trees, where we saw many beautiful stands of ancient koa trees. Sadly, much of the koa was over-harvested. I have been reading up on your efforts to plant new koa forests on the Big Island, in partnership with Paniolo Tonewoods, with the goal of developing a sustainable supply of koa. I say, hooray for koa! I believe what you are doing will ensure that this beautiful hardwood will be available in adequate quantities to meet the needs of the many companies that use koa, and in particular Taylor Guitars. In practical terms, I would be interested to know how long it will take you to grow a top-quality koa tree to the point where it can be useful for building guitars.

Thank you for investing to keep koa available while planning for a sustainable harvest. Keep it up!