Tacoma Guitars
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Founder | Young Chang |
| Defunct | 2008 |
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Area served
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Global |
| Products | Acoustic guitars |
| Website | tacomaguitars.com |
Tacoma Guitars was a musical instrument manufacturer—and later, a line of musical instruments from Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Tacoma brand guitars were originally manufactured in Tacoma, Washington.
Tacoma Guitars began as a division of Young Chang America in Tacoma, Washington that, starting in 1991, processed Northwest hardwood for export for piano soundboards. Sawmill general manager J. C. Kim persuaded Young Chang to build a guitar manufacturing plant nearby. For the first few years, the plant produced about 100 guitars a month for another guitar brand. In 1997, the Papoose and Chief models debuted at the 1997 winter Convention of the National Association of Musical Manufacturers. That year, mass production of the unconventional Papoose model, the first sold under the Tacoma brand, also began. Tacoma subsequently developed ranges of guitars—some with conventional round sound holes, others with the paisley sound hole introduced on the Papoose (as the Wing Series).
A recession in the Asian economy caused by the Avian Flu epidemic prompted Young Chang to sell the division to Kim in 1999.
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation purchased the company in October 2004 for an estimated $2–4 million and made it a division of Fender. In 2008, Fender announced it would close the 44,000 square foot Frederickson plant and lay off 70 employees. A Fender spokesman said the company intended to move Tacoma production to existing Fender factories in Connecticut to take advantage of economies of scale. However, Fender never resumed production of Tacoma guitars.
When the move was announced, former Tacoma Guitars CEO Ferdinand Boyce suggested that Fender's decision to close the plant was motivated in part by a desire to automate the Tacoma manufacturing process to cut costs.
Tacoma incorporated unusual features in many of its guitars—notably, paisley-shaped soundholes and bolt-on necks.
Several of Tacoma's models featured an unusual sound hole shape, a paisley soundhole, on the left side of the upper bout. Their idea was that moving the sound hole to a relatively low-stress part of the top would increase top strength, reduce bracing, and make the top more resonant. Tacoma called guitars that use the paisley soundhole the Wing Series.
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Wikipedia