Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars

Industry Profile: Bob Taylor's Passion Play

by Cliff Suttle
August 14, 2000

Bob Taylor

When it comes to innovation in acoustic guitar design, few manufacturers can rival Taylor. Launched by Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug in 1974, the company has had a modernizing influence on acoustic guitar design and construction. Among their innovations: the use of computer-operated CNC machinery and bolt-on necks in acoustic high-end guitar design.

Today, Taylor is one of the largest suppliers of high-quality acoustic guitars in the world, producing 177 instruments a day in a wide array of models and selling guitars in 32 countries over six continents. Noted for their tone, response, and playability, Taylors can be found on stage and in the studio with world-class artists like Garth Brooks, Hootie & the Blowfish, Stone Temple Pilots, Leo Kottke, and many others.

At the Winter 2000 NAMM show earlier this year, Harmony Central awarded Taylor Golden Axe awards in three categories: First in the Unlimited Acoustic division, and Fourth in both the Unlimited Bass and Guitar Best Value divisions.

Learn more about Taylor Guitars at www.TaylorGuitars.com.

Beginnings

When and how did you get into the business of building guitars?

I started playing guitar when I was in maybe fourth grade. I had my first $36 guitar, and pretty soon I had the saw out and the neck off, and I was working on it. By the time I got to high school I was making guitars in wood shop. When I was 19 I started this company with my partner Kurt out of the love of it.

I understand that in high school you won contests for your shop skills.

I won contests for industrial art shows in junior high and high school. I won awards for metal-working. I think it really helped me get my company started because I was a tooling nut. I didn't take that much wood shop -- it was mostly metal shop and drafting, which gave me the skills to make the tools we needed to build guitars. I already knew how to barrel and cut things on a lathe, forge things, ramp up patterns in cast aluminum, and weld.

Describe the first guitar you made in high school.

My friend had a Yamaha FG something or other and that was the nicest guitar I had ever seen. I copied the body and looked inside and saw how the bracing was laid out. I wanted a twelve-string guitar at the time. I read Irving Sloane's book Classic Guitar Construction, which was the only book available. So I took a book about classical guitar building, a Yamaha body shape, added some ideas of my own, and built a twelve-string with mahogany back and sides and a four-piece spruce top. It was a butcher of a guitar, but I got it all the way made and played it -- and it was wonderful. I was 16.

Did you draw inspiration from other designers' work when you started your company?

No. As far as I was concerned, I was the only guitar builder who ever lived. I made a lot of guitars before I even knew what Martin guitars were. I still don't know anything about other people's models or their history. Most guitar makers can tell you all about the Martin history; I can't do that. I didn't get into guitar building by being a repairman or wanting to make guitars as good as these Martins my Dad had or anything like that. I was the original guitar player in my family.

What hardships did you face in the early days?

Oh my … finding people in the beginning who would even consider buying our guitars. The guitar market was strong. Venerable guitar companies like Martin were making a hundred guitars a day. They had the dealership market sewn up. We decided to wholesale guitars right to the dealerships, right away. We were up against Martin, Fender, Guild -- the big boys. Every place we went in, we were ten minutes behind the Martin rep who had tied up all the dealer's money. But people liked our guitars. We had a tone that people really liked and that was just enough to keep us from going out of business -- though certainly not enough to keep us from having hardships. If we saw the Gas & Electric truck outside we knew that they were only there to turn off our gas.

How did you develop your business?

We learned how to make guitars as we went along. We didn't spend ten years perfecting our guitars. I was into selling every guitar I ever made, every single one. I've been learning on them since the beginning and I'm still learning and still selling every guitar we make.