Taylor...new finish??..abuse.

[$ongWriter]

I played a gig last night with my band. Used my D-18. It sounded great. But, are there any Taylor 717 or 515 owners with the new brush sunburst finish who gig with them? I sweated all over the D-18...wipe it off and good as new....but this finish seems fragile....and since my is "new" and doesn't have a scratch on it...I'm concerned about this finish....anyone know how it handles sweat.....????...(I know this is a strange question...but I'm on the fence about keeping it....partially due to the finish...)

[RP]

I don't have an answer, but it would seem to be one more good reason to look at the 317 with its gloss top if one is considering a Grand Pacific. The others are price and strap button placement...

[Simon Fay]

I'm not knowledgeable about this specific sunburst finish -- but if it is created with their standard polyester finish then it is not different than a regular Taylor. In fact, sunbursts tend to be thicker than regular finishes do to the color application (I'm not sure if that translates over to Taylor's finish process tho').

I'd be incredibly surprised if they didn't use their regular finish process as they've invested a tremendous amount of money on their finish process - so I'm sure every guitar gets the same basic finish treatment. In short, your guitar should be as durable as any normal Taylor. Polyester is an incredibly solvent resistant and scratch resistant finish - so you should be just fine.

[jklotz]

I have a 717e. Finish seems tough as nails to me. I've sweated on it and it leaves no markings whatsoever. My buddy played it, and he scratches up the pickguard of any guitar he plays. Mine doesn't have a pickguard. There is no evidence that he was there.

[$ongWriter]

Originally Posted by jklotz

I have a 717e. Finish seems tough as nails to me. I've sweated on it and it leaves no markings whatsoever. My buddy played it, and he scratches up the pickguard of any guitar he plays. There is no evidence that he was there.

thanks a bunch!!!!

[Wade Hampton]

As noted, Taylor uses a polyester finish on their guitars. I own a 1998 Larrivée OM-03W that has the same UV-cured polyester satin finish that Taylor uses on the Grand Pacific models, and it's the most durable of any of the finishes on any of the instruments I own.

It took three years of active playing on my part before the very first scratch appeared on it. Although I've owned and heavily used the guitar for nearly 21 years now, at first glance it still looks new.

As Simon pointed out, this sort of polyester finish is extremely resistant to solvents of any kind. Whenever one of those guitars finished in it has to go back to the factory for any sort of problems with the finish, the finish has to be physically removed, ground off with a buffing wheel.

When guitars that have nitrocellulose lacquer finishes have to be stripped, a solvent is sprayed onto them and then the finish is wiped off. But that doesn't work with UV-cured polyester finishes: the solvents that turn lacquer finishes into goo within seconds can sit on a poly UV finish from now till Kingdom Come and have no effect on it. Poly UV finishes have to be removed physically, which takes considerable effort.

Poly UV finishes are as close to chemically inert as it gets, especially when compared to nitrocellulose lacquer. So don't worry about your sweat corroding the finish on your cool new Taylor guitar. Perspiration won't damage it.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[jklotz]

BTW - Taylor recommends cleaning them with this:

https://www.taylorguitars.com/taylor...r-cleaner-4-oz

[dhodgeh]

I contacted Taylor about the availability of a pick guard for my 717.

Even though no pick guards are available, the rep commented that this finish is typically harder than a pick guard.

How accurate that is has yet to be seen, but that's the info that was relayed to me.

D

[ChrisE]

I haven’t experienced the new guitars with that finish, but my thinking is that if Taylor made it it must be pretty good.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by dhodgeh

I contacted Taylor about the availability of a pick guard for my 717.

Even though no pick guards are available, the rep commented that this finish is typically harder than a pick guard.

How accurate that is has yet to be seen, but that's the info that was relayed to me.

If I had one of these guitars, I'd get a pickguard for it. Just to be safe. Poly UV is a tough finish, but I still wouldn't rely on the promises of a customer service representative, no matter how well-intentioned.


whm

[BluesKing777]

The Builder's Editions have the new "Silent Satin Finish", different than the "Satin Finish" (My 717e has no marks at all after playing it quite a lot - no arm haze!. I have a friend with acid sweat that turns strings black - he would be the ultimate test. He is not touching my 717e.)

The section on finishes from the Taylor site:

Finish
In the mid-’90s, Taylor moved away from using traditional nitrocellulose lacquer finish and developed a polyester finish formula that offers many benefits: It’s more durable and less susceptible to “cold-checking,” the spiderweb-like microfissures that result from exposure to dramatic temperature swings; a thinner coverage can be applied, which allows the wood to resonate more freely; it’s clearer than lacquer and won’t yellow over time like lacquer will; and it’s easier to work with when doing spot repairs. It’s also much more environmentally friendly, which earned Taylor several official commendations and helped raise the environmental standards for the guitar industry as a whole.

To shorten the curing time of the finish — which had been upwards of 10 days with lacquer — Taylor’s tooling team built its own ultraviolet ovens, which drastically reduced the curing process to about 60 seconds.

Another innovation — a combined robotic/electrostatic spray system — dramatically reduced the material waste of the finish-spraying process and made it easier to achieve a beautifully even, glassy coverage on a guitar body.

Gloss Finish
Other than varnished guitars (Baby, GS Mini, Academy Series, 100 Series), all of our guitars are sprayed with UV-cured polyester — at least to form the base coat over the paste-filled surface. On full-gloss models, the base coat is sanded level then sprayed again with the same material, which is finally rubbed out and robotically buffed to gloss. While our standard gloss finish has an average thickness of 6 mils (6 thousandths of an inch), several Taylor series feature an ultra-thin 3.5-mil gloss finish. (This includes the 600, 800, 800 Deluxe, and 900 Series). The thinner coverage reduces the damping effect on the woods, resulting in a livelier, more resonant sound.

Satin Finish
The back and sides of satin-finish models (including the 100 and 200 Series), along with satin-finish necks throughout the Taylor lineup, have a base coat of polyester that is UV-cured and sanded level. The final satin finish material is UV-cured polyurethane.

Varnish
Varnish is used to finish the Baby Taylor, GS Mini, Academy Series, and 100 Series. Our varnish dries to a low-luster, matte finish, with no further surface preparation required. Because the varnish is often applied over unfilled wood (no paste filler is used), the resulting appearance of the finish is more open-grained than on models finished with polyester and/or polyurethane.

Silent Satin
Introduced in 2018 as a feature in our Builder’s Edition guitars, the silent satin finish couples the gentle, matted look of a traditional satin finish with a soft feel that produces much less noise when the player moves. The new formula dramatically reduces the squeaking and sliding sounds of a player’s natural arm movements, making it a perfect choice for recording musicians. For now, the silent satin finish is available only on Builder’s Edition models.





BluesKing777.