Behind the Strings: Bob Taylor Talks Guitar Innovation with Eddie's Guitars

[@dannyprasetya2496]

Seeing Bob acknowledging and praising other makers is refreshing. I stand proud of owning a single guitar with a Taylor badge on it. Thanks folks!

[@MatthewPeskay]

Thanks for posting this great interview. Taylor guitars are amazing and Bob is a living saint of music, guitars and the planet! Bob has done so many interviews and I feel like I always learn something new about the history of Taylor or guitars or music - or watch-making!

[@kbdda]

What a treasure! As a young college grad back in 1982 I was teaching an art class part time. One of my students was working for Taylor and we got to talking because I was unhappy with the action on my Martin D28 (not the sound). He took a look at it and offered to a little work on the nut and saddle to bring the action down slightly. The next week he brought a matching set of a 6 and 12 string he had built for himself in the shop (not sure if they had an assembly line but he worked on both of his guitars). I fell in love with the guitars immediately, both the sound and playability, so he loaned me his 12 string to play for two weeks. When I returned it to him I asked how they got such low action and he said the guitars were designed from the ground up to play that way and that no one aspect of the guitar contributed separately, it was a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

[@rmzzz76]

What a truly great interview, the part where Bob talks about his revelation with Andy Powers about how they build a guitar that sounds great for the average player really hit the nail on the head for Taylor's wheelhouse. He's right about that, you can look at Taylor Swift, early Dave Matthews, etc.. long list of players who have added custom shop and boutique built guitars as their main instruments, but played Taylor guitars all the time starting out. This has continued if you pay attention. I was watching KZbin videos of Alt country singer songwriter Zach Bryan in his early days and the guitar in his hands in all those videos, a Taylor 110ce. For a performer of any age and really any stage in music looking to cut through a mix with a reliable, I-don't-have-to-fight-this-thing instrument that you can depend on to sound good and be easy to maintain, well balanced to sing over direct into PA without a lot of processing, there is nothing better on the market than the Taylor 100-200 series. I think their Expression 2 pickup is also underrated and unfairly critiqued, usually without consideration for how it's characteristics enable it to deliver a great cut-through the mix tone on a noisy stage without feedback and all this for models under $1k in 2024. Truly amazing value, amazing product. A engineering and design leap forward for acoustic guitars and this man is responsible for that.