Taylor's pallet guitar.

[hermithollow]

To say that the back and side materials have no effect on the guitar's sound is as wrong as the assumption that the back and side materials have everything to do with the guitar's sound.
I'm with the group that says the soundboard material and the way it is braced is of prime importance, and the back and side materials and how they are used can add to or detract from the finished instrument.
And by the way, Taylor built the back and sides out of - oak - a material that has been used to good effect long before he used it. That it came from a pallet is irrelevant. A local timber processor had pallets come in that were made from Wenge. I'm sure there were a few guitars that could have been made from them if you didn't mind the nails.

[Howard Emerson]

I played the original version of the Pallet Guitar when Bob Taylor came to the 48th st NYC store I worked in.

It sounded like a Taylor Jumbo guitar.

Regards,
Howard Emerson

[MichaelH]

Originally Posted by tylers45

Does anyone have a link to a video or a sound file of one of these guitars? For some reason I didn't know a thing about them until just a few minutes ago and curiosity is running high.

jim

I'm going to be recording one the next two months so I'll try to post it up on this thread when I do.

I spent an afternoon playing two Pallet guitars some time ago and was actually considering buying one at that time. One was 1 of 2 of the first prototypes made (the other one is in the Taylor company showroom), and one was from the batch of 25 made later. Being a Taylor, of course they played very well. Tone was good and held up well in comparison to the other guitars I played at that time including a few Presentations and 9 series. I was really tempted to buy one but didn't have the funds at that time and also one other concern were the cracks along the top/bottom where the original planks were glued together which was probably unavoidable for a guitar with so many pieces glued together to make one top/bottom. The nail marks were very beautiful and really was a treat.... Talking about this makes me think maybe I should've bought it

But yeah, a beautiful guitar and a nice tone... and a guitar with a story, which is really cool for collecting.

[Gunny]

[srick]

At the 2018 WILS Builder’s Coffee Talk, the discussion panel consisted of Richard Hoover, Roger Sadowsky, Linda Manzer, Michael Gurian, Dick Boak and Chuck Emerson. Part of the discussion concerned the use of alternate woods for acoustic guitars. They readily came to a consensus that the wood species was secondary and the resulting sound was all about the build.

Best,

Rick

[Stevien]

[QUOTE=Howard Emerson;6547413]I played the original version of the Pallet Guitar when Bob Taylor came to the 48th st NYC store I worked in.

It sounded like a Taylor Jumbo guitar.

..... and, um, is that good or bad?
Steve

[jimmy bookout]

Well, howabout the Torres "Cardboard" or "Paper Mache" (take your pick) guitar? Listen to the sound clip!!!!

https://www.cumpiano.com/torres-cardboard-guitar

[DavidE]

That pallet guitar sounded quite good when I played on a tour many years ago.

[hermithollow]

I've read that Torre's paper mache was more like what we would call pasteboard - sheets of paper glued together. This is essentially what Formica is - the glue is a phenolic resin. My "shop guitar" has a solid spruce top and HPL back and sides. I was playing it this morning, and thinking it really didn't sound too bad.
With careful construction many "second rate" materials can produce first rate results. But most makers don't devote much effort to building with them. People aren't willing to pay for a great sounding guitar that is made of crappy materials.

[The Bard Rocks]

I've always felt food was analogous to the effect back and sides have. Imagine pot of mashed potatoes (spruce), add one spice (mahogany) and it alters the taste slightly. Another (rosewood), changes it in a slightly different way - yet it's mostly potatoes (spruce) we taste.

[stormin1155]

Some years ago a local woodworkers club held a contest where every contestant got a single eight foot 2x4, and they could make anything they wanted. I attended the showing... there were the usual model trains, doll houses and such. A one of the contestants made an acoustic guitar. All the wood parts came out of that one 2x4.

The funny thing is, this guy didn't play. He was a retired cabinet maker, and bought out luthier Dave Plummer's shop when Dave passed away because he thought it would be fun to build guitars. So I was checking out the guitar, and a small crowd gathered around, and I ended up putting on a little impromptu concert.

It was a smaller bodied guitar, and he did a real fine job of it. The top looked like straight-grained spruce, and you could hardly tell it was made up of multiple pieces. It played good and sounded fine... about what you would expect a $400-$500 guitar to sound like.

[Michael Watts]

I played one for the first time a few months ago after being familiar with the story behind their creation for several years.

It sounded like a really good Taylor. as you'd expect. I liked the was the nails were still in the wood. It was kind of cool but not enough that I couldn't walk away from it.