Can you help me date this Lemon Grove?/Merge

[CollinEmory]

Originally Posted by cpmusic

Sorry to ask the obvious, but did you look up on the heelblock for the label? That's where they put the model and serial number until around 1997 or so.

From the look of things, that's an early 915. The 600 series, if it existed, was mahogany back then.

All Taylors have bolt-on necks. There's never been one built with a dovetail or any other kind of glued joint.

Yes, I have looked everywhere.....there is no serial number....who knows about the mortise board joints they used to use?? the guitar does have a truss rod, so that has to terminate somewhere in there. I can't find any evidence whatsoever of a neck reset...so that would seem to cancel out any idea that the neck was replaced or an extra cap put on to cover the bolts....I dont know what to think yet....I know i like it....

[CollinEmory]

Originally Posted by JNKLAZ

Do you know if it has a bolt on neck? the sticker would have covered this area. They started using those I believe early in 1976.

I can't find any bolts?...what were the early mortise board jointed necks like? could it be this?

[cpmusic]

Again, all Taylor guitars have bolt-on necks. The early ones used a mortise and tenon joint, but they were still held together with bolts. You can get some background at the article on Taylor at http://www.acousticguitar.com/issues...eature137.html.

The bolt holes are countersunk into the heelblock, and if you can't see the bolts then they've covered up with a label, a thin piece of wood, or possibly wooden plugs.

[JNKLAZ]

Beg to differ with you CPMUSIC regarding the bolt on neck. Per Taylor's Timeline( see their site) Guitar #20179 is the latest Taylor "on record" to have a mortised neck. By #20229 the bolt-ons were standard. The guitar in question here could very well be early enough to ave a mortised joint.

[cpmusic]

JNKLAZ, all that means that they used to cut the joint differently, not that they didn't use bolts. According to the article in Acoustic Guitar (see link above), all guitars with the Taylor name have a bolt-on neck, including the ones with the mortised joint. Bob Taylor posted here a while back to say the same thing.

[Fish Whisperer]

Hey, Collin. Long time no digitize.

Nice guitar, buddy! Still got the '87?

You makin' lemonade these days?

Guy

[Flunky51]

Regarding the bolt-on debate...

There's an 1970's photo in the new Taylor book that shows the neck disassembled from the body. It shows the mortise joint (which actually looks like a dovetail) with two bolts prominently in view.

[Rick Shepherd]

You can see my 855 from 1979 in my collection picture, it is the model Neil Young purchased also back then. I am the original owner. That is a nice earlier guitar you have there.

[CollinEmory]

Originally Posted by Fish Whisperer

Hey, Collin. Long time no digitize.

Nice guitar, buddy! Still got the '87?

You makin' lemonade these days?

Guy

Yep, thanks, still got the 87 play it nightly, I'm making lots of lemonade at my house. thanks for your lemon contribution!

[CollinEmory]

Originally Posted by Rick Shepherd

You can see my 855 from 1979 in my collection picture, it is the model Neil Young purchased also back then. I am the original owner. That is a nice earlier guitar you have there.

Awesome collection Rick! thanks

[Gratte]

Have you tried counting the lines on the top. I heard somewhere you can date wood by counting the rings. You multiply by a factor of 3 or 7 depending on the wood used.

If that doesn't work, try playing different songs on it - one from each year. You can download a list of the top 20 songs for each year from the Billboard website. If it's a 70's or 80's model, you may struggle to find acoustic tunes though. Play each one and see which song sounds best. That'll tell you what year the guitar was made in.

You might try a crosscheck of the result obtained under the second option with that obtained in the first or try playing a number of songs from each year. Sometimes songs are written a year or two before hitting the Billboard charts and this sometimes affects the accuracy of the test.

[CollinEmory]

Originally Posted by Gratte

Have you tried counting the lines on the top. I heard somewhere you can date wood by counting the rings. You multiply by a factor of 3 or 7 depending on the wood used.

If that doesn't work, try playing different songs on it - one from each year. You can download a list of the top 20 songs for each year from the Billboard website. If it's a 70's or 80's model, you may struggle to find acoustic tunes though. Play each one and see which song sounds best. That'll tell you what year the guitar was made in.

You might try a crosscheck of the result obtained under the second option with that obtained in the first or try playing a number of songs from each year. Sometimes songs are written a year or two before hitting the Billboard charts and this sometimes affects the accuracy of the test.

I have tried all those methods and they still didn't work. I was told that 70's models were very durable. So, I tried the roof test. I dropped it off my office building and ran down to street level where low and behold it was still completely intact! if you think that's incredible...just wait, it gets better...I picked it up and started performing all of the 70's hot hits....during my BeeGee's Shadow Dancing number people started dropping change at my feet. By the end of the day I had enough to purchase an airline ticket to California and flew straight to Bob's office whereupon seeing this remarkable guitar he immediately offered my a "full ride" with Taylor and (all the free guitars I want) plus a condo in the old Lemon Grove building... I decided to turn down the offer and come back to Tennessee....