Taylor Guitars
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| Private | |
| Industry | Musical instrument manufacturing |
| Genre | Guitars |
| Founded | 1974 |
| Founder | Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug |
| Headquarters | El Cajon, California, United States |
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Key people
|
Barbara Wight CFO |
| Products | Acoustic, classical & electric guitars |
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Number of employees
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over 750 world wide |
| Website | www |
Taylor Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer based in El Cajon, California and is the #1 manufacturer of acoustic guitars in the United States. They specialize in acoustic guitars and semi-hollow electric guitars. The company was founded in 1974 by Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug.
In 1972, at age 18, Bob Taylor began working at American Dream, a guitar making shop owned by Sam Radding, where Kurt Listug was already an employee. When Radding decided to sell the business in 1974, Taylor, Listug, and a third employee, Steve Schemmer, bought American Dream and renamed it the Westland Music Company.
Needing a more compact logo suitable for the guitars' , the founders decided to change the name to Taylor as it sounded more American than Listug. Kurt Listug said, "Bob was the real guitar-maker." Listug became the partnership's businessman while Taylor handled design and production. In 1976, the company decided to sell their guitars through retailers. In 1981, facing financial difficulties, Taylor Guitars took out a bank loan to purchase equipment.
As of 2012 Taylor Guitars had more than 700 employees in two factories: one in El Cajon, California, and the other in nearby Tecate, Mexico, where the company makes their lower-priced models and guitar cases. In early 2011, the company opened a Taylor distribution warehouse in the Netherlands to serve the European market. In January 2014, the U.S. State Department honored Taylor Guitars with an Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) citing Taylor's commitment to responsible practices in obtaining ebony for its instruments.
In 1995, Bob Taylor was interested in finding out if the perception of using exotic tone-woods in quality guitars was more important than luthier techniques and good design. Taylor recovered some oak from shipping-pallets found at the factory for the Pallet Guitar's back and sides and used a nondescript 2x4 for the dreadnaught's top. The guitar's neck was also made from oak recovered from the pallet and the fretboard features a Formica and pearl inlay, depicting a fork lift. In 2000, a limited edition of 25 of the Grand Auditorium bodied Pallet Guitars were reproduced with aluminum inlay included to accentuate the original nail holes in the pallet wood. These Pallet Guitars have been sold to collectors, but the original Pallet Guitar remains on display at the Taylor Guitars factory in El Cajon, California.
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Wikipedia