Everything and More - The Bob Taylor Interview

We had our guy Russ rope in a big one: all the way from Southern California, the co-Founder of Taylor Guitars, Bob Taylor. This is the guy who put the “Taylor” in Taylor Guitars, and he’s sitting with us at the AMS Studio to go over everything Taylor.

In a room full of glossy masterpieces (and I’m not just talking about these bald heads), Bob Taylor told us a bit about the direction of Taylor Guitars, how to find the right Taylor for our needs, a story about how he started crafting his guitar necks, and building the company off of innovations.

Taylor Guitars seemingly has an endless amount of options for guitars. If you were looking to hone in on that selection, there’s a nine-page document you can read on the Taylor Website that can guide you to your perfect guitar. But it took some trial and error and a ton of community outreach to find the best way to serve the Taylor Guitar customer. 

“We would go do clinics at stores or maybe we would have artists come play. What does a consumer want? Do they want to go hear someone play? Yeah, they want to hear that, but that's not really it. Well how about if we do string changes for free? How about meet your maker, you know, and Bob Taylor comes out and talks to you about guitars. Well we like that but that's not it. How about if we do free adjustments on your guitars? Oh that's not it. How about if we help you buy your next guitar? That’s it! That's what we want.”

The Find Your Fit roadmap takes into account your playing style, the body shape, and tonewoods. Maybe you want a compact big bold strummer that you can keep by your desk or in your living room but also take with you on stage? If that sounds like what you want, then the GS Mini is probably the guitar for you. Whether you’re a songwriter, a casual campfire player, or you need to take the stage the best way to start your search is with Taylor’s Find Your Fit.

One thing you might not recognize when holding a Taylor Guitar is that they’re the new kids on the block in the guitar world. Bob Taylor laughs and says, “We got a long way to go to catch up to Martin. They will always be 133 years ahead of us.” But when you get a tour of the Taylor Guitar factory, while there are tons of amazing guitars of the past and there’s always a drawing board to the future, Bob Taylor always chooses to show you the guitars of today. 

Bob loves that successful models can live on with the legacy line, and any seasoned Taylor player is a fan of it too. The modern player shouldn’t have to worry about anything outdated, as the Gold Label Collection is still executing a fantastic modern lineup! “I love this guitar. This Gold Label, it’s a good guitar. My guitar-maker friends think it’s a good guitar.” It seems like there is an audible Ooh La La effect that happens when someone plays these hot-off-the-press Gold Labels.

In the ‘70s, acoustic guitars had big necks and really made you work for it. So how did Bob come up with that signature Taylor guitar neck? “Well, I didn’t know any better.” The truth is Bob Taylor started building guitars when he was 17 and he didn’t have enough guitars in his hand to know what it was supposed to feel like. He made the neck how he wanted it, and others realized they liked it too. It was that simple!

When Bob was 18, he worked at a guitar shop called The American Dream making guitars. That’s where he made the first guitar he was going to sell to somebody. He filed the neck down to where he thought it ought to be. “I just remember I shaved that neck and other guys in the shop a few years older than me, like Greg Deering from Deering Banjos, was in that shop and they were like ‘feel this guitar that Bob shaped. It’s skinny, and it’s nice.’ And I said I meant to do that.” Bob Taylor learned how to build guitars by building guitars and reading the classic Guitar Construction by Irving Sloane. Bob makes building a guitar empire sound easy when he talks about it.

When Bob Taylor first started making his guitars for Taylor, it was all by hand. He realized this was going to be a lot of work every time an order came in. So with that, Bob had to start innovating. “I don’t want to do this a second time and it be as hard as the first time.” Bob made tools, templates and sometimes he even had sticks with different markings on them, all to help guide him through the hundreds of steps in the process of crafting a guitar. Everyday he would make guitars all day long, have dinner and then make tools to help make the process faster! 

Early on in the ‘80s, Bob and his partner Kurt went to Germany to the Frankfurt Music Mesa. After the event he went to the Mercedes factory and learned how these luxury cars were being produced. “Here they are making these high-quality cars, but there’s nobody there who can make a car. They did it by building a factory that left no stone unturned.” So Bob took this idea of making a high-quality car in a factory and made one of his own.

While Bob Taylor is taking a lighter lift of the work over at Taylor in his semi-retirement, Taylor Guitars is not going to stop growing, building, and shaping the guitar scene — especially with Andy Powers as the President, CEO, and chief guitar designer.

If you want to check out any of the top-notch Taylor guitars for yourself — including the amazing Gold Label series — you can find them right here at American Musical Supply. And if you enjoyed this interview, don’t forget to subscribe to the AMS YouTube channel for more content just like this.