If you could design your own Taylor... What would it be?

[J.R. Rogers]

I thought this would be a fun discussion...

If you could design your own Taylor... What would it be?

Mine would be an x14C-style with Engelmann Spruce Top, fishman natural pickup (no hole in the side), 3pc flamed koa back and sides, solid rosewood neck, ebony fretboard, no fretboard inlays, tortise shell binding around the body, white binding around the neck, polished ebony headstock with the K-series inlay.

J.R.

[Brett Valentine]

Right now, I guess it would be a baritone acoustic, slightly larger than the x15 Jumbo series with maybe a 28"scale, same depth. It would have a 2 piece Rosewood Body with Englemann Spruce top, 3 piece Mahogany neck with a tiger maple center stripe, 1 3/4" width, 20 frets. I guess you could call it an 815CBE*, or an 816CE*.

It would have a cutaway, ebony fingerboard, bridge, scalloped bracing, and something like the LRBaggs Dual Source System (so there would not be a huge hole in the upper bout). It would also have abalone rosette and "diamond" fret markers, also Gotoh tuners w/ebony buttons.

Choice of Bone, Micarta, or Fishman Cleartone Saddle (or a small case with all 3 along with the "standard "Tusq").

Brett

[Jon S.]

In fact, I already have designed my own Taylor, which I currently own. A "John Cephas dreadnaught a year before it's time." Here it is:

non-cutaway dreadnaught;
900 series woods (AAA Engleman top; AAA rosewood back and sides);
700 series cosmetics;
ebony tuning pegs;
Fishman Acoustic Matrix Natural I PUP;
strap button on neck heel;
sticker inside soundhole reads, "Custom Dreadnaught Built Especially for Jon Silberman."

The only thing I didn't like about the axe when it arrived was the ebony fretboard had a dime-sized brown spot on it, in addition to the usual marbling. I didn't like it - yes, I know Bob T. purposely chooses to leave his fretboards natural, but I'm the one playing this guitar, not Mr. Taylor - so I picked up a bottle of Siebring black leather dye, removed the strings, and using Q-Tips, ever so carefully lightly dyed the freboard a uniform black. It came out 100% absolutely perfect!

[Felipe Nacif]

x14 series, Rosewood back and sides, 2-piece Koa top, Rosewood neck, Ebony fingerboard and headstock overlay. Diamond inlays. Not too fancy, but I'd expect a heavily flamed topm on my personal guitar

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Felipe Nacif

[Ebin Parker]

I would love a k-22/12. I beautiful little 12 string it would be, maybe with a German top.

Ebin

[Too Tall]

I think I would settle for something straight forward in construction. A pretty much off-the-shelf 814, CE.

However, I would like to have some custom inlays. I am an avid fan of 55 Chevrolets (rebuilding one even now) and would enjoy some Chevy crest inlays or something like that either in the neck or top (or both). Just some way to tie my two big hobbies together.

I even sent Taylor a wish list on this for their special series (like the Koi model).

So, I'm pretty easy to please huh?

[J.R. Rogers]

You guys have some great ideas for guitars. I was thinking about this last night... A rosewood neck would be nice, but it would probably be too heavy. The last thing I want is my acoustic falling neck down. Still I wonder if there's some way to weight the body down a little more to balance it out without deadening the tone.

Any thoughts?
J.R.

PRS has done some guitars with solid rosewood necks and I've not heard that they are neck heavy. The buzz is that they make the sound more bell-like.

I would guess that you would need to be pretty picky about the quality of the rosewood to ensure it's stability as a neck.

Has anyone at Taylor done any experimenting with this?

[J.R. Rogers]

Originally posted by Jim:
PRS has done some guitars with solid rosewood necks and I've not heard that they are neck heavy. The buzz is that they make the sound more bell-like.

Having personally owned a Brazilian Rosewood Limited edition Paul Reed Smith, I can tell you that the guitar was well balanced because it had one of the heaviest bodies I've ever seen on a PRS. A lot of Brazilian PRS owners claim the same thing. It's pretty obvious that PRS used the heaviest wood he could find for the bodies to offset the weight of the neck.

Still, I'm wondering if this could be done on a Taylor... Would the rosewood be heavy enough to tip the balance? The new guitars are heavier in the middle, so that might help. Hmmmm... Now I'm really curious. I've never ever seen a rosewood neck on an acoustic before. Has anyone else?

J.R.

[franchelB]

Pinless bridge!!! Also, a GA cutaway model with all mahogany top, back, sides and neck. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. Ebonized tuner buttons. The neck is a full-step longer with the 1 and 6 string tuned to D. The 1 tuning button is a D-tuner. Takamine digital pre-amp pickup AND Highlander microphone.

[Jeff Carter]

Hmmm...I'd like GA with a cedar top (sans pickguard) and claro walnut back & sides, soft cutaway, wood & abalone rosette, koa or rosewood binding, ebony tuners, fossilized ivory nut & saddle, 1-3/4" nut width.

--Jeff

[PaulP]

I also have a PRS McCarty with a Brazilian Roswood neck (#79/250)and boy is it warm sounding. It's so "woody" sounding. I don't think the guitar is overly heavy overall and it seems to be pretty balance. I wold really like see what an acoustic would be like with a solid rosewood neck. If it does for an acoustic what it does for my McCarty...count me in!

Paul P

if i could design my own taylor, i would have a x12 with the depth of a x14. rosewood back and sides with engelmann spruce top. no cutaway. also, i'd have the l.r. baggs dual source installed because that's what i have in my 412k now and i love it. i think that would be a very good sounding guitar. i love the size of the x12 and with the extra depth it would just be awesome.

[TheTaylor310]

If i could afford to customise a Taylor, i'd have either a x10 or x14 body...

for the x10 body
-sapele or mahogany back/sides
-grade AA spruce top
-gold Grover tuners
-Fishman Natural II pickup
-abalone binding
-Presentation Series inlays
-NT neck (i love my 310!)
-polished headstock

for the x14 body
(new body shape... i hear that they
recently reshaped the GA/GC and Jumbo
bodies)
-sapele or mahogany back/sides
-grade AAA Englemann Spruce top
-gold Grover tuners
-soft Venetian cutaway
-Fishman Natural I
-abalone binding
-Presentation Series inlay
-NT neck
-polished headstock

...gosh, this would cost so much! :-p
Blessings,
nick, TheTaylor310

[bembi]

My Dream Taylor would be:

1. xx2 body (w/o electronics nor cutaway)
2. englemann top, rosewood back and sides (for power!!)
3. gloss finish
4. Chrome tuners, simple rosette (ala 314)
5. Rosewood binding, abalone headstock logo, large abalone dots