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Old 10-19-2017, 07:56 PM
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Guitars44me Guitars44me is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Mountains east of San Diego
Posts: 7,446
Smile Sweet!

I have had a couple RT1s in cedar/Mahogany and they are VERY NICE! No doubt this is a stellar axe.

Here is my poop sheet on R.Taylor:

R.Taylor was a COMPLETELY SEPARATE COMPANY from Taylor guitars.

Bob Taylor selected Head Luthier Tim Luranc, and the half dozen luthiers of RT to show what they could do in a small shop.
Think Bourgeois, Santa Cruz, Goodall, or maybe the Martin Custom Shop, etc! I toured the shop on the edge of the enormous Taylor campus in El Cajon, when custom ordering, and it was about the size of a four car garage.

R.T guitars took about three times longer to make than ANY Taylor, due to extensive individual voicing, tap tuning, and A LOT of handwork. Unfortunately they turned out to be in competition with Taylor's Build To Order and custom guitar programs. They ceased production at the end of 2011. I have it on good authority from the folks I know who worked at R.T. that if they ever start up production again the guitars will be a lot more expensive!

R.Taylor only made about 200 guitars a year for six years. In contrast the two Taylor factories turn out about 400 guitars per day!

R.T.s have significant structural differences from any other Taylors. Among them, solid Kerfing resulting in extremely rigid sides, which allowed the top to be made lighter and braced lighter. That needs to be done by hand, resulting in more volume, and better tone!
Also, the "snake head" headstock yields smoother tuning due to a straighter string angle over the nut. The different bridge design has quite a bit less mass. And the Gotoh 510 tuners cannot be beat!

And Mike can not be beat either! Haha

Hope this helps and congrats to whoever winds up with this cutie!!!

Cheers

Paul
__________________
4 John Kinnaird SS 12c CUSTOMS:
Big Maple/WRC Dread(ish)
Jumbo Spanish Cedar/WRC
Jumbo OLD Brazilian RW/WRC
Big Tunnel 14 RW/Bubinga Dread(ish)

R.T 2 12c sinker RW/Claro
96 422ce bought new!
96 LKSM 12
552ce 12x12

J. Stepick Bari Weissy WRC/Walnut

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