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An inset NT neck pocket spacer and an exposed string sensor for the Expression System®
The NT Neck®

Taylor has long had a reputation for having the most playable necks and best intonation in the acoustic industry. From the very beginning, Bob Taylor’s necks, with their slim profile and low action, attracted players. His innovative bolt-on approach early on brought easier adjustability. The patented NT Neck, first introduced in 1999, brought arguably the most important structural improvement to the acoustic guitar in the 20th Century.

The ability to maintain a straight, stable neck has long been a fundamental challenge for guitar makers, partly because of an inherent design flaw: The fretboard lacked sufficient support to remain truly straight because of top movement caused by changes in humidity. All guitars experience this phenomenon —often resulting in a slight bump at the 14th fret — which usually causes intonation problems.

With the NT Neck design, a continuous piece of wood supports the fretboard all the way up to the 19th fret. Traditional necks lose that support at the 14th fret, relying instead on a “floating,” unsupported fingerboard extension that’s glued directly to the constantly-moving soundboard. As a result, other necks may bend, literally hinging at the 14th fret. But the NT neck remains perfectly straight and stable.

The NT Neck also allows the neck angle to be set with dead-on precision on every guitar. A computer-milled pocket is precision-routed to accommodate the neck. The pocket is then inset with a pair of laser-cut, tapered spacers (shims) that allow the neck angle to be set to an accuracy of .001of an inch. As a result, every Taylor neck is straight and the intonation is true, which means there are never any “dead spots” on the fretboard.

Micro-adjustability is another major NT advantage. Since the NT Neck angle is created by spacers and requires no glue, a neck reset simply requires a repairperson with a new set of spacers and about five spare minutes. Altering the neck angle of a traditional neck assembly could require invasive surgery to remove wood and relocate the bridge.

The bottom line is that the NT Neck gives players a stable, easy-to-adjust neck that will stand up well to the real-world pressures all acoustic guitars face.
A rack of braced spruce soundboards
Bracing

Peer into any Taylor guitar and you’ll see an important source of its unique sound: bracing — the thin strips of Sitka spruce glued to the inside surfaces of the top and back. Bracing exists to perform two seemingly contradictory functions: it must strengthen the top and back of the guitar to prevent warping or distortion, while leaving them flexible enough to vibrate and generate tone.

Taylor’s ongoing bracing refinements, together with proprietary developments in a guitar’s shape and body geometry, have brought incredible voicing improvements to the acoustic guitar. Balance and clarity have long been recognized as signature tonal traits of a Taylor guitar. From modifications in traditional X-bracing to nuanced manipulations in bracing dimensions and patterns, we’ve increased the power and sustain of a guitar without sacrificing balance. Our patented relief rout on the underside of the soundboard complements the bracing and brings more vibration to the outer edges of a soundboard, which helps generate more volume. We’ve also experimented with Adirondack spruce as a bracing material to increase a soundboard’s elasticity and tonal output. When it comes to bracing, our quest for inspiring tone never ends.
Taylor kerfing clamps securing freshly glued kerfing strips
Kerfing Clamps

Taylor innovation isn’t always a big, revolutionary undertaking; sometimes it’s simply about improving some small part of the guitar-making process. Take our kerfing clamps. For years, guitar makers had used ordinary wooden clothes pins to secure kerfing strips — tapered or wedge-shaped strips of wood glued around the inside rim of a guitar body to add strength and stability where the sides meet the top and back. The problem was that clothes pins would have to be thrown away when glue had accumulated on them, or the steel springs would eventually rust after the pins were cleaned with water. They also didn’t properly fit the angle of Bob Taylor’s reshaped kerfing.

In 1993, Bob and senior machine and tooling designer Matt Guzzetta designed an aluminum kerfing clamp to more firmly hold the kerfing in place during the gluing process. The clamps better matched the tapered angle of the kerfing strips, and they were machined in different widths so that thinner clamps could be arranged around the tighter curves like a cutaway. A latex rubber band gave the clamps considerable power, and the tension could be increased by using wider segments of latex. The clamps were also rustproof when cleaned with water.

The clamps definitely caught on — we’ve been selling them to other guitar makers for years.