Taylor 618e V Class... why did they go back to blonde?

[PaulieDC]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Another thought, the 600 Series features flamed maple back and sides and perhaps the brown-sugar stain helped the flaming to "pop" more. Both my 2015 brown-sugar-stained 600 Series Taylors show beautiful flaming.

Exactly. To this day 8 years later, people see the brown sugar stain with the gorgeous flame it has on my 618e and say "wow that is beautiful, why type of wood is that?"

I so love that look but that's because I'm used to it I guess. I wanted a maple finished guitar as a teen in the 70s but when I saw the 2015 finish come out, I was hooked for life. All opinions are good, I'm just in the brown sugar camp. Look at it this way, I have what I like and the blonde folks have the choice again. As far as Taylor saying t didn't work, they would have returned the whole line to natural. I think the J200 analogy mentioned above makes sense.

Not really an important topic, just interesting. Ish.

[Br1ck]

Maybe it's as simple as declining sales figures, figuring most that want one has bought them. Heck, in the mandolin world there are more obscured maple backs than any other finish. A blonde one is the exception.

I wonder what we would think if Martin quit staining mahogany? That would be something. As one who pretty much loves any "flawed" wood, I'd say quit trying to mask what it is. My SCGC has huge bearclaw randomly all over the top. It is how it is, and came with the rest of the guitar. Would I order that feature? I'll never know. But I'm not one to want non red streaked Adirondack spruce either.

[sinistral]

I realize that one has to take anything Taylor says with a huge grain of salt because it is mostly marketing gibberish, buts as FingahPickah noted last year in this thread, the word from Taylor was that they introduced the “brown sugar” stain on 600 series guitars to dispel the perception that maple is too bright, and to mimic the look of orchestral instruments.

I suspect that the switch back to blond for the 618 was, as guitararmy noted, to achieve a Gibson super jumbo vibe (or Gretsch for that matter). Maple jumbos don’t seem to suffer from the “maple is too bright” stigma. The change in the fretboard inlays away from the standard 600 series inlay to an x18 inlay that looks very Gibsonesque supports that theory.

[martingitdave]

To get us to buy another one? Frankly, the 2013? 600 series redesign with the brown sugar finish, torrefied tops, and scalloped x “advanced performance” bracing, fish glue, were excellent guitars. Really good. I played a new 618e V-class today and did not think it lived up to the last model.

[guitararmy]

I would like to see Taylor offer colored stains again!

[TwangGang]

I am a fan of natural blonde maple and had the opposite feeling when they went to the "brown sugar" stain on their maple models. But I seem to recall that while they were making the 618s (they stopped for a while when transitioned from X to V bracing) they were always blonde, even when all the other maple bodies had the stain. So I don't think they went 'back" to blonde on the Grand Orchestra I think they were blonde all along.

I could be wrong, but I don't recall ever seeing a GO with the dark stain on the body.

[phavriluk]

Why? Because they wanted to?