ACOUSTIC SOUNDBOARD
BOB TAYLOR
Still Learning, One Surprise at a Time
I’ve spent a good part of my life trying to
improve guitars, trying to perfect certain
aspects, and trying to build a personal
experiential database of knowledge. It’s
been rewarding to arrive at a point where
there are things that I just out-and-out
know about guitars. But, like so many
things in life, I find that with each time I
gain some equity in knowledge or feel like
I fully understand some aspect about building the guitar, I also arrive at a crossroads
in guitar making where I might not know
which way to go. I also trip over good
things, new sounds, or even new ways of
solving a player’s problem I wouldn’t have
perceived even one day before.
nylons would be at that tension. Well, on
the day I heard about it, I’d just released
a baritone steel-string with a 27-inch
scale length. If you had a 25.5-inch scale
and asked me to put an extra fret behind
the nut—almost like capoing down from
the nut—that imaginary neck would be a
whole new direction. I doubt they could
happen for you or me if we didn’t have our
head in the game and weren’t willing to
give something new a try. And I find that
the more I’m engaged in guitar making, the
more often these wonderful, unexpected
moments present themselves. Isn’t it the
Acoustic aficionados love to hear of the
meticulous research that leads to improve-
ment, and, truly, much of what experienced
luthiers have to offer from their life’s work
is a result of simply staying on a goal for
years—or even decades. All of us can cite
examples of advances or innovations we’re
proud of. I can toss my knowledge of how
to dry wood properly into that category,
and you’ve probably heard me talk about
humidity control and noticed that I speak
as an expert regarding those subjects. But
there are many things I have learned and
still do along the way that come just from
being in the right place at the right time or
being willing to make something different.
Each time I feel like I fully understand some
aspect about building the guitar, I also
arrive at a crossroads where I might not
know which way to go. I also trip over new
ways of solving a player’s problem I wouldn’t
have perceived even one day before.
27-inch scale, more or less. So I made Zac
a guitar with that baritone neck and he
tunes it to E%, but the tension is normal.
We capoed him down and it worked like a
champ—it has since sent a lot of cool ideas
a-swirling around in my head. Probably
none of them will match the success of the
first simple idea.
same with you? You play, you practice, you
meet new people, you get nervous, you try
out a new scale and play a new solo, and
sometimes it all just comes together and
becomes a bit better. With enough of that,
one day it starts to look like you know what
you’re doing—because you do!
For example, when we dreamed up our
12-fret Grand Concert model, I never
could have predicted how much I’d love its
sound. So, if you talk to me today about
these changes, I can give you a full explanation of why they sound or work that
way. But beforehand, I truthfully would not
have been able to predict them. Only after
I’ve made the improvement am I able to
suss out the exact, measurable details that
caused it. Basically, you have to build it first
to figure it out.
I think it’s a lot like that when you play
guitar, and I always like to relate what I’m
doing with guitars to what you’re doing
when you play guitar. You can practice, gig
for years, play what you play to perfection, and then one night find a catalyst that
causes what you already do to come together in a new way. I remember playing with a
keyboard player once who unlocked some
chord secrets for me that the guitar players I’d hung out with never could. He just
explained a few things in a different way,
and the light came on for me. It’s possible
if I’d met him five years earlier, what he said
would have gone over my head, but that
day it all sunk in and helped a great deal.
My friend Zac Brown plays a nylon-string
guitar tuned down a half step to E%. He had
trouble for years because the strings were
too loose. You can imagine how floppy
I think we all have those experiences, and
sometimes they turn into a new product,
a new song, a new guitar solo, or even a
Bob Taylor
Bob Taylor is the co-founder and president of Taylor
Guitars. He built his first guitar as a teenager and has
since gone on to establish Taylor Guitars as one of the
world’s premier acoustic, acoustic/electric and electric
guitar manufacturers.
