TaylorStock feedback

[buddiesorg]

Now that TaylorStock's over and the whole weekend has sort of sunk in, I've been thinking about how the weekend went ... and how it could have been different. As for me, there were two things that I could have gone different.

I really wish we would have gotten to look at the Baby Factory and was a little disappointed when I found out it wasn't going to happen. If it was a problem of scheduling time, maybe next time have it on Friday morning or the day before.

I also felt bad that BT did not relax Saturday night with dinner or open mic. Of course, if his interest wasn't really on that sort of thing (I know the wood selection really brought a gleam to his eye), that's great ... he can do whatever he likes :) ... but I just felt bad that he didn't have a chance to join in on that part (which was why I was going to just let him or his staff choose my top).

[Steve314]

Originally posted by buddiesorg
I also felt bad that BT did not relax Saturday night with dinner or open mic

Mary, I certainly understand why you might feel this way. Still, I've gotta' say, Bob was definitely in his element on Saturday night. He sure looked relaxed to me, and was certainly havin' a good time!

Steve

[W5BLT]

I thought everything went great. If I would change anything, I would have ONLY TGF people playing on stage. I, for one, went there to hear my fellow TGFers play, to hear their styles and enjoy their music.

The only reason that I can think of that we had outside performers come in might be that they were unsure how many people would want to get up on stage. But then again, there were loads of threads that talked about "bringing guitars". I would have thought this would have been a "no brainer".

The bottom line is, I'd go again in a heartbeat. I had a ball and enjoyed every second!

[meridian]

My changes would be small ones relating to the schedule.

I'd make the second day start and end earlier. Of course, this is just 20/20 hindsight. If Saturday had started at say 10 or 11, and they had really set an ending time of 7PM for wood selecting (and then stretched it to 8 or 9) Bob might have had more time to relax and hang out in the evening.

I know there were more than a few folks who were still there after midnight and had early morning flights to catch.

Of course, I think all the Taylor folks were truly surprised by the number of hands that went up when Bob asked how many wanted to build a custom guitar (or two) that day!

A quick peek into the Baby factory would have been fun, but I don't feel compelled to fly back across country to see that. Mary, you can just drive over sometime and see it, no?

[buddiesorg]

They don't do the Baby Factory ... and when I asked (never pressing the issue, of course), the answer was that they don't Baby Taylor factory tours. I only asked once (after JR's trip), but I felt that was enough.

[SonShine]

Actually, I enjoyed hearing the two performers (Steve White, Joe Rathburn) quite a bit, just as I enjoyed hearing every one else play. I do agree that consideration should be given to changes in the schedule if and when this ever occurs again. I don't think we should have had to keep Bob T & Co. busy until after midnight.

[jeffrey]

I really enjoyed Steve White too. :)

The only thing(s) I would change is:

Start earlier on Saturday (as Joe said).

Maybe even have a brunch fairwell thing on Sunday so it's very relaxed and nothing else on the agenda but to eat with everyone and give thanks to Bob and crew.

And I know this will chap some hides but, limit each person to one guitar. They were so generous as it was with the deals they gave us, I almost felt like we were taking advantage of them by getting multiple guitars.

And not that this is a change per se, but I would limit the total number of attendees to 55 or 60. The attendence was almost perfect IMO and anymore would've been too many.

And lastly, maybe get a deals at a different hotel. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the efforts for a place like T&C, but for the money (even the discount rate) the rooms really weren't that nice. Hell the A/C in mine didn't work when I got there! I just think we could probably find a place with comparable rooms at a better rate for everyone. And considering that we all spent so little time actually at T&C, we really could've stayed just about anywhere. :)

[Hondo]

From what I can tell about J.R. (just from the forum posts), he has no problem with constructive criticism. That's all I see posted here - certainly no complaints. :)

It's like I tell my employees - no whining. If you have a problem, suggest a solution. Then we'll talk.

I'm kind of glad I let y'all go first, so J.R. can get the bugs worked out if there's another! :lol:

[Ian Anderson]

I would have to agree with many of the points raised so far. I don’t think anyone thought said that there were going to be soooo many custom guitars ordered, thus requiring all the time necessary to get this done right. Having said that, most people lined up for Bob's personal blessing on wood choices when his very capable staff were still available. Maybe more time and resources were needed there? I would try too keep the quantities at two guitars if possible, I can’t help but think more guitars is a good thing for everyone (even if the bank book suffers a little) If we had the 100 people originally planned, whoa we would have been there 'till Sunday afternoon at that rate. So maybe if there was more wood selection to start off with (really slowed things down wait for more to arrive) more use of people other than Bob to select wood (lord knows he deserved a break), advanced knowledge of the specifics of the sale (this way you could known what you were going to buy before you got back there), and started at a earlier time would have had the selection process finish up on time. Had it finished on time, I for one would have not wanted to miss Steve and Joe’s fine performances.

A baby tour would have been cool, just not sure the logistics could work out.

Jeff I agree on the T & C, it’s pretty run down for the price, and a location closer to factory would have been better. Ditto on the farewell brunch.

I would have liked to give more “air” time to our “accomplished” colleagues Jeff Rearick etc. should have played more songs……….maybe get the rest of us to play in groups of 4-5 performers. Sign up for a song they all know and perform it together, that way every one can contribute. Plus it lets the not so brave feel comfortable on the stage, and let the accomplished performers have more time.

One thing that was difficult to accomplish was the ability to hear the guitars intimately. I had my 810WMB that was designed to be louder with more bass with me and I would have liked to hear the 710Ltd (same E.I. rosewood B & S) for a direct comparison in a quite setting to really hear differences. Kinda hard to while in a big room while everyone else were playing. Also a little more time at the prototype wall upstairs, that’s a rare moment to see and play those, when are you going to get that chance again?

While I’m capable of maintaining the setup of my guitars, are there any of you that would have benefited by a “how to” setup clinic put on be the repair dept showing saddle adjustments, relief adjustments, spotting neck angle problems general maintenance issues, installing pickguards, under saddle pickups etc. I would hazard to guess there might be a few that might like this.

In all, given this has been never done before I can’t imagine this going any better, congratulations to all who organized a fine event!!!

[jeffrey]

Something else I thought of.

I would've liked to have more "jam time".

Kind of like the "open mic" you go to in a bar. More of a "hey, you wanna jam X tune?", "yeah sure! let's do it!" kind of atmosphere.

Or just get up and improv some.

I'm sure you guys get what I'm saying. :)

[trombone]

I thought the limit of two guitars seemed appropriate considering many people were wanting one of the limited editions. If they had not been coming out with a cocobolo, would there have been as many orders?

We chose to stay at a non-deluxe hotel that was an easy 5-10 minutes from the factory. Total cost for four nights was around $250.

We were one of those people who had to leave early on Sunday. Took me days to shake off the fatigue of only 3 hrs. sleep Sat. night.

With all the activities, it could easily have been stretched into a three day festival. That way you could feel like you weren't missing out on stuff. We missed most of the open mic stuff waiting for a chance to see wood. I am grateful they had the ziricote to choose from, but I got the last set. I inquired about more sets and they said they would bring some down. Later they brought a number of cocobolo sets but no more ziricote. So I asked again. "Well, all the rest of it looks just like that...." Since when does all ziricote look alike? That's akin to all maple or all koa looking alike. I didn't argue but I felt like a stepchild in this one regard. Everything else went fine for me, wood wise.

I was impressed with how much fun Bob was having. Each person got his full attention and he was genuinely trying to find the best top for each guitar. You can't keep up that kind of affect without truly enjoying what you're doing.

Overall it was a blast and I'd love to attend another fest. It was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm glad so many people were able to make it.

Waiting for Taylorstock II.......... :roll:

[tbondo]

I would like to have spent more time playing guitar together.....I missed any T&C sessions that occurred.

And I would like to have spent more time talking and visiting with everyone, but that's what "next times" are for.

That was the best weekend/most fun I've had in a long time. My thanks to all the organizers and all the attendees....the flowers at T&C were great, the room was ordinary.

[ScottyMac]

Most of what I think should be different is on my part...I wish I'd gotten more time to talk with fellow forumers.

My evaluation of Taylor and or J.R. was that it was perfect. I could have listened to Bob another a day or two talking about wood. It fascinates me.

I do wish I would have known that wood selection was going to go on for as long as it did. I felt a degree of anxiety that it needed to be wrapped up by 5pm, so I probably rushed that part more than I would have liked.

But good grief...this whole weekend was far better than I expected. I never imagined that Bob T. would spend so much time with us.

[cpmusic]

I agree that more playing and visiting time would have been good. Starting earlier on Saturday would have helped, but for my part, staying at the hotel also would have been good, and I've got no one to blame for that but me. Then again, the money I didn't spend there helped pay for the guitar I ordered.

I think a third day would be a great idea, perhaps just focusing on the TGF folks. I would never exclude Bob or anyone else at Taylor and would certainly welcome any who wanted to attend, but they already gave up a day off for us, and I wouldn't want to impose by asking for another in the same weekend.

It was a lot like folk festivals I've been to: There are too many things happening at the same time to experience them all. I think the "cure" is to do it again! :)

[jeffrey]

Yeah, don't get me wrong (just reading over my post(s) again).

It was an amazing time and something I will never forget.

But as it's said, there's always room for improvement. :)

[meridian]

On Friday night I asked Bob Taylor if we could get to see some of the different finishes (I think I've posted this elsewhere) you know, black, tobaccoburst, red, blue, green, all Koa, etc. He said they'd try to do that but it might be "look don't touch."

Unfortunately it didn't happen.

"Look don't touch" would have been fine. Hard to enforce, perhaps;)

But I really DO wish Taylor would put a few of these harder to come by models on display in the performance venue. Pictures just don't do it for me. It MIGHT have influenced my Taylorstock purchases.:)

[TimB]

I loved the trip and everything that Bob and JR and Jennifer setup. It was great!!

However ;) I'd like the idea of extending the time, limiting attendence (it would not have been anything like as much fun with 100 people IMHO). I didn't wanna ***** about the T&C as the landscaping was beautiful but I'm glad someone raised the issue as my room didn't do much for me and the distance was a pain. However staying with everyone else and running into folks during breakfast etc. was really cool.

Also was it just me (I am an a/c lover!) or might it have been nice to move the Friday meals indoors away from the sun?

-=Tim=-

[jeffrey]

Actually Tim, the lunch Friday was fine, the problem was the line!

Eating in the shade I was plenty comfy (and comparing our cranium insulation, that's saying a lot! :)). I just baked like a potatoe in the line. Maybe if they could get a few more of those tent things, that would solve the problem 100%. :)

[GSnyde]

I only have one constructive criticism. Next time, I should be there.

[J.R. Rogers]

I sure had a great time meeting everyone, and the event was such a great time - words can't express how much fun I had and how grateful I am to Taylor for receiving us as their guests.

There's a lot of good feedback here, that we'll certainly take into consideration for any future events like this. We've had some good feedback offline, already.

But before this turns into a gripe session and makes us look like really ungrateful people... Lets try to keep this in perspective. The tone of this discussion has just reached the uncomfortable level for me... (Maybe it's just the really bad week I'm having, due to some truly disappointing situations behind the scenes.) It's important to remember that we definitely tried to strike a balance with everything that we did in our planning.

For example, at the last minute, me and Jonathan decided to strike the Baby tour from the agenda. The reason? You're really not going to see anything you hadn't already seen in the other factory, aside from the guitars hanging from a conveyor system on the ceiling. (Trust me, the awe wears off quickly.) Had we done that tour, I can only imagine what the comments on this thread would have been.... "You know... Did we really have to tour the Baby factory and see the whole manufacturing process over again? I mean, I certainly would have rather spent the time playing the guitars....etc."

Or... How about this one? "Couldn't they have picked a hotel closer to some attractions? I mean, there's just nothing to do in El Cajon and no place to eat... I had to drive 20 minutes to Dave & Busters. The Radisson is a dump, and I've got a view of a brick wall from my window. I think someone tried to steal my rental car last night.... I would have much preferred something in another area, so that my wife would have something to do and someplace to shop, and wouldn't chew my ear off about spending our vacation looking at guitars...."

Okay, mildly sarcastic, but you get my point. :D Folks, I've stayed at many incredibly expensive hotels back in my frequent traveling days, that weren't any nicer than the T&C, and certainly didn't have the lush gardens to enjoy.

Personally, I had breakfast with my friends out in the cool San Diego air (not the 95 degree El Cajon air), and enjoyed the beautiful landscape. On Saturday, I had lunch with some great forum members at a good restaurant and learned how to pronounce focaccia bread (too bad I can't spell it!), after we walked around the open air mall that was across the street from the hotel. At night, I jammed with some more friends in their room on the balcony, again, enjoying the cool night breeze.

The drive took me about 15 minutes (when I wasn't lost because I was busy debating who the best hard rock drummer was with Jeffrey), and even less when Ryan was navigating me through the shortcuts in the area.

Nobody knew how the open mic thing would go, and that's definitely something we would change the next time. We would also have more sales support than just poor Uncle Ed available to handle the final write-up. Also, the wood selection event might possibly be in the wood area, so it wouldn't have to be moved very far, and they could easily pull out what people want. Lots of things that we might do different. However, Bob was really in his element and seemed to be having a great time doing what he was doing. We definitely don't want to change that. :)

Anyway, thanks for all the comments. Let's just remember the royal treatment that Taylor gave us as their guests. As one of the people who planned this event, to me, it came off much better than I expected. This event was completely unprecedented in the guitar building industry.
J.R.

[meridian]

J.R. I really hope my last post in this thread wasn't the one that got on your nerves! I just re-read it and it certainly could be misconstrued as "ungracious." I certainly don't mean to be ungracious or anything less than profoundly thankful!

ALL OF US are extremely grateful for Taylorstock! It was absolutley magical!

I don't think anyone is really griping, it is just "Monday morning quarterbacking!" You know, watercooler talk.

ALL OF US will readily admit that it is a heck of a lot easier to pick on this or that aspect of the event than it is to actually plan and execute an event of this magnitude!

And besides it's all Mary's fault for asking anyway! (I'm kidding, Mary, I'm kidding!):)

[cpmusic]

JR, I hope I didn't come off poorly, either. I don't think I was too critical, but sometimes the printed word doesn't come off as planned. Anyway, I'm grateful for all that Bob & company (and you) did for us, and if Taylorstock ever came around again and was planned exactly the same way, I'd be there again.

[TimB]

JR, I can understand your concerns about this thread after all your hard work! However I can't see much of this feedback as negative. Certainly zero towards the organization (Taylor/JR), maybe some towards T&C. Like you have in your post we're pointing out some areas where we can make something great even greater.

The first time you do anything there are going to be ways to improve things. This is life. its how we improve things.

To repeat, TaylorStock was great. I didn't hear anyone with anything less than 'wow' feedback about the event.

-=Tim=-

[david_m]

The ONLY thing I woud change is the open mic. I was much more interested in hearing the forum members. The performers were GREAT!, but they weren't TGF members.

The event, from beginning to end was FANTASTIC. I had extremely high expectations, and the event surpassed even my wildest dream.

JR, don't take any of this personally. It's basically like saying, "I wish the leather interior on my new Ferrari 550 was just a tad darker." We're not complaining at all!

Thanks to JR and Jonathan and all the other fine folks at Taylor for their hard work, and for making the Taylorstock event the guitar highlight of the year!

David

[buddiesorg]

I'd like to apologize to everyone for even starting this thread. I didn't mean to sound ungrateful or that I didn't think the entire weekend was fantastic. Maybe this entire thread should just be closed or removed.

[jeffrey]

I don't think any of us are coming across as ungrateful honestly. J.R. is just being a Nervous Nancy. :roll:

Everyone appreciates everything that was done to an extent that words cannot do it justice (I think I speak for everyone here). :)

We are just giving our opinions/feedback. As long as it's all taken as such, I don't see a problem with this thread. :)

This, however, does bring up one of the major shortcomings of internet communication: the lack of ability to express tone-of-voice.

So as long as we watch our wording and keep reaffirming to J.R. and Taylor that we loved every second of it, but like everything in life there's always room for improvement, I think everything will be okie-dokie. :)

[meridian]

But I really DO wish Taylor would have put a few of these harder to come by models on display in the performance venue.

I can hear Uncle Bob, now "Cry me a river!":roll:

[Mike Carter]

I for one thought that everything was just perfect, considering it was the first one Taylor had ever done. I am sure that they would do some things different based on what they learned from this first one, all on their own. I was amazed it went as well as it did, with 56 people all trying to squeeze the last drop out of this in incredible experience.

I believe it to be presumptuous
of us to make suggestions for the next one, when they have not even started the guitars that were ordered from this one. Given that there were probably twice as many as they expected, and the tremendous demands on their production schedule given the custom nature of these guitars. I would be willing to bet that the time lost in there regular production and the extensive amount of extra time spent on each and everyone of these guitars eats up any profit they could make on them.

Also keep in mind that the TGF is growing at an incredible rate, and given the praise that everyone that went to this Taylorstock has given, there will be considerably more people that would want to attend the next one. How do you decide who gets to go and who don't ? the amount of people we had last time was close to the limit in my opinion. If we had more people Uncle Bob would be stretched to thin, or he would have to limit his exposer to us, which would severly take away from the experience we all had.

I would be willing to bet that registration is over full the first day and there will be some hard feelings if people could not get in based on the fact that registration closed do to capacity before they had a chance to get in. I am sure that Taylor has thought of all this also.

J.R hit the nail right on the head as far as the T&C.
$109 a night in that area is mostly unheard of and, we were lucky to even have the availablity at that rate. I have paid over $200 a night to stay at the hyatt Islandia and 180 to stay at the Handlery. We could have stayed closer to the Factory but the temperature goes up about 20 degrees within 5 Miles east of the T&C.
also there are is nothing out there close to anything of interest.
I for one am very grateful that we stayed at the T&C and would stay there next time, if we were allowed to do this again no matter where everyone else stays. The gardens at the T&C and choices of great places to eat in that area are just fantastic and you feel as if you really were on vacation after you leave. I think that there would have been quite a few dissapointed people if they had arrived to find that they flew across the country to
San Diego and didn't really get to experience it but were staying in a motel in El Cajon. Also alot of us brought Wifes, how do you think the odds of talking them into something like this again would be, if we had not stayed some place nice and subjected them to a cheap motel in 100 plus degree weather and took them to denny's to eat. Then inform them we just bought a guitar that cost several thousand Dollars.

I think the plan to get a nice place to stay in the mission bay area was absolutely a must. and allow others that came alone just for the event or that really wanted to save a few bucks to stay someplace else that suites there needs.


I realize this post may offend some people and that is why I almost deleted it before I posted it. I think Mary is an awesome person, and was just trying to get some imput into a possible next Taylorstock when she started this thread. And every reply was meant to help make the next one better, but after I read through this, all of these things were on on my mind and my heart and I just felt I had to share them.

Please remember these are just opinions, and not meant to offend anyone as I consider you all family.

[Rick Crider]

Originally posted by Mike Carter
......[Huge SNIP]......Also keep in mind that the TGF is growing at an incredible rate, and given the praise that everyone that went to this Taylorstock has given, there will be considerably more people that would want to attend the next one. How do you decide who gets to go and who don't ?........[Huge SNIP].......

Hey....that's simple. All of the 'charter attendees' of the first TaylorStock automatically get first dibs on registration. Right guys and gals? :roll:

Rick

[Gutch]

Originally posted by Rick Crider


Hey....that's simple. All of the 'charter attendees' of the first TaylorStock automatically get first dibs on registration. Right guys and gals? :roll:

Rick

Works for me!!!!:roll: