We’re immensely saddened to report the passing of Artie Traum, a longtime member of Taylor’s extended family whose heartfelt music, gentle spirit and playful sense of humor touched countless people during his life. Artie had been undergoing treatment for a rare ocular melanoma for the past four years, but it spread to his liver and in its advanced state was untreatable. He died peacefully at home on Sunday, July 20, with his wife Beverly at his side. A message from the Traum family is posted on his website, www.artietraum.com. “Like everything else in his life, Artie handled his diagnosis with dignity, strength and acceptance — and even a little of his irreverent humor,” his family noted.

A man of copious musical gifts, Artie emerged from the vibrant Greenwich Village folk scene of the ’60s and would go on to distinguish himself among critics and audiences alike over a career that spanned nearly four decades. Artie adventurously explored a variety of musical idioms, from folk to blues to jazz to pop, absorbing American music’s rich heritage and then blending elements of different genres in fresh ways to brew his own signature blend of contemporary acoustic music that was at once rootsy and sophisticated.

Artie’s appetite for diverse musical ideas stretched far and wide, and his wonderful way with people invited creative collaborations with some of the world’s finest musicians along the way, bringing exotic flavors to his music. Beyond his work as a singer-songwriter, Artie donned many other musical hats during his career, among them session player, producer, bandleader, arranger, film/TV composer, video producer, teacher, radio host and writer. One might call Artie a modern day Renaissance man; of course, if Artie were around, he’d probably fire back a self-deprecating zinger without missing a beat and crack everyone up. You can read more about Artie’s career here.

In 1999, Artie joined the Taylor clinician program, which proved to be a great fit for his talents. Beyond his musical versatility, Artie was an entertaining and witty storyteller, an encouraging guitar instructor, and ever-gracious in his exchanges with people during and after a workshop. Whether sharing the secrets of DADGAD tuning or breaking down blues licks or jazz chords, Artie always left people with a warm feeling and a smile, as many of you who attended his workshops can surely attest.

For several years, our “Artie Traum and Friends” set on the Taylor stage at the Winter NAMM show was a perennial centerpiece of Taylor’s Winter NAMM show performances, packing the room and bringing down the house. Although Artie was perched center stage, performing his own material, and serving as bandleader, it was the ego-free way he allowed his all-star musical cast — including regulars Jeff Pevar on guitar, Scott Petito on bass, Neil Wilkinson on drums, and occasionally, John Sebastian on harp — to coalesce around him that made the sets memorable.

Artie’s life was rich with friendships and love, and he lived with complete integrity. For those of us fortunate enough to have known him, his spirit was an inspiring example of how fulfilling life can be when filled with great people, great conversation, great food, and great music.

Our deepest condolences go out to Artie’s wife Beverly, Artie’s brother Happy and his wife Jane, and to the rest of their family. You’ll be deeply missed by many, Artie. We hope you’re jamming with your musical heroes in the great beyond.

You’re invited to visit www.artietraum.com, where you can read or post messages in remembrance of Artie’s life. A memorial celebration of Artie’s life will be held on Thursday, July 24 at 2 p.m. at the Bearsville Theater on Rt. 212, approximately two miles west of Woodstock, New York. For directions, the theater’s website is www.bearsvilletheater.com.

You can also view a video clip of some of Artie’s Taylor performances here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JuDln63BhU.

Eventful and Taylor Guitars - "Fire Up the Fans"

Eventful and Taylor Guitars today announced that music artists anywhere in the world can register for the "Fire Up The Fans" summer competition to compete for a grand prize of $5,000 and three Taylor guitars. To help showcase a 2008 line that positions Taylor as a full line acoustic and electric guitar company, Taylor is leveraging digital platforms like Eventful to get guitars not only in the hands of musicians but in front of thousands of music lovers. As musicians register for the competition, fans across the country can "Demand" which artist they want to perform in their city using Eventful's Demand service.

This year, Taylor Guitars is giving away brand new guitars to the top five bands participating in the "Fire Up The Fans" competition. Fans and musicians can log on to: http://eventful.com/taylorguitars or http://eventful.com/fireupthefans to participate. Launched today, July 9, the "Fire Up The Fans" Summer Demand competition will continue through 2:00 p.m. PT, September 23, on Eventful. The winning bands will be announced on September 24.

"We're excited to see how fans and musicians get behind this competition," said Bob Borbonus, Director of Entertainment Relations for Taylor Guitars. "Bands receive top of the line gear from Taylor and a load of cash, while fans get a live show from the winning band in their city — everyone wins. We've learned that fans love it when an opportunity arises for them to truly show support for their favorite bands. The element of fan participation and advocacy will only enhance the opportunity for emerging artists to showcase their talent by way of a game-changing music industry tool like Eventful Demand."

Along with MySpace, YouTube and iTunes, Eventful is an essential part of the online marketing toolkit for performers and artists. Eventful is transforming the way that tours get routed by empowering fans to influence the tours of their favorite performers and by enabling performers to make the best decisions about where to tour.

"We love helping build stronger connections between fans and artists," said Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier. "We're excited to work with the Taylor Guitars to give the fans the power to shape their favorite artists' tours."

MXTabs.net Launches - Taylor Guitars Gives a Guitar a Week for July

World's First Free, Legal Music Tablature Network Launches at MXTabs.net

The musicians' fight for free, legal tablature (a form of text-based music notation) has finally paid off. Today MXTabs.net officially launched as the world's first free, legal tablature network, providing guitarists, bassists and drummers with an online community in which to freely create tablature and share their knowledge of how to play tens of thousands of songs.

The month of July is MXTabs launch month, starting with the premier of the official, and newly redesigned MXTabs.net web site on July 1st. MXTabs has also partnered with Taylor Guitars® to give away four guitars from the legendary company throughout the month, including two of their new electric guitars. Additional prizes, including MXTabs t-shirts, messenger bags and other branded merchandise will also be awarded.

Featuring licenses from Alfred Publishing, Sony/ATV, Universal MGB, Domino Publishing, BUG Music and several thousand additional publishers, MXTabs boasts a catalog of nearly 50,000 licensed, user-created tablatures (tabs), with more being added daily. The tabs for the songs are created and shared by the users of the site, with a focus on a free and legal distribution of knowledge and information. Publishers and songwriters are paid for their intellectual property through an advertising revenue-share model.

All songwriters, whether they are part of a large global publisher or simply an individual who has written a song can participate in MXTabs. In what is a first for user-generated arrangements of copyright-protected material, a full 50% of ad revenues is paid directly to publishers, songwriters and copyright holders, while the community receives free, unlimited access to the tablature on the site.

In addition to music tablature, MXTabs offers a fully-featured social network community, including the ability for users to find and add friends, participate in the MXTabs musician forums, post blogs and video lessons, as well as show off photos of their music gear.

“The purpose of MXTabs is to allow musicians to freely share their knowledge and to participate in a community with other musicians,” said Bill Aicher, MXTabs' project manager. “The rebirth of MXTabs was done with the direct input of previous users of the site and what we've built is directly based on what musicians have been asking us for.”

To participate, publishers and administrators are encouraged to visit the site at www.mxtabs.net.

About MXTabs.net: MXTabs.net is the first legitimately licensed online social community designed to provide musicians with access to free guitar, bass and drum tablature, while also compensating music publishers and songwriters through a share of advertising revenue. Originally launched in 1999, MXTabs was one of the first, largest and most popular destinations for freely available online tabs. In 2006 the site voluntarily closed its doors due to issues of copyright, and the assets have since been acquired by Musicnotes, Inc. It officially re-launched on July 1, 2008.

Taylor Road Show 2008 Set to Launch

El Cajon, CA (March 5, 2008) -- In 2007, Taylor Guitars launched the Taylor Guitars Road Shows, bringing the Taylor-loyal out in droves — the shows drew maximum capacity crowds at over 150 dealerships. The Road Show is back again for 2008, with stops in 11 states and Canada already announced.

The Taylor Guitars Road Show features a two-person team from the Taylor factory who demo Taylor's acoustic, acoustic-electric and electric guitars. Attendees can learn first hand how body shape, size, wood and Taylor electronics, such as the Expression system, T5 humbuckers, and Style One and Style Two SolidBody humbuckers, affect the sound of a guitar.

Another popular feature of the shows is the “Petting Zoo,” where rare, custom and one-off Taylors are available for playing and purchasing. Attendees looking to buy a new Taylor will have the opportunity to test drive Taylor's new models, including Taylor's new solidbody electric. After the hands-on experience, the road shows offer a Q&A session with the staff from the Taylor factory.

The Road Shows are packed with free stuff and contests as well. Staff will be handing out Anti-Rust Elixir acoustic string sets and other gear — including free subscriptions to Premier Guitar, courtesy of Taylor. Attendees can also register to win this year's grand prize — a custom Taylor guitar and a Bose L1 Model II system with T1 ToneMatch Taylor presets.

Taylor is kicking off the festivities on March 25 with shows on both coasts — at Hertlein Guitars in Dublin, California and Alpha Music in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Admission to the two-hour events is free.

For the most up-to-date listing of scheduled events and to find out more, visit taylorguitars.com/roadshow.

Come Celebrate Taylor Guitars with the San Diego Airport!

On Friday, February 29, 2008, San Diego International Airport will host a special free event featuring our own Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug. As part of the Airport Art Cultural Exhibits Program, Taylor Guitars was invited in November to curate an exhibit for the Commuter Terminal. We invite you to come down and see the exhibit at this time. (The Taylor exhibit will run through the second week of April, so if you're traveling to San Diego in the next couple of months you will be still able to see it.)

At the Taylor event, Bob and Kurt will each give a short presentation, and introduce the new SolidBody electric guitar to San Diego players. Key members of Taylor's Product Development team will perform on the SolidBody, the T5 and the new GS cutaway acoustic/electric. There will be free Taylor T-shirts, while they last, and a reception catered by the award-winning 4-star Anthology restaurant.

The Taylor exhibit presents an informative display of the company's past and present, with four glass cases, each wrapped with specially-created posterized graphics and holding several beautiful Taylor guitars and other Taylor items. Descriptive passages in each case support various aspects of the company's history and identity: “Taylor's Heritage of Innovation,” “Artists Who Play,” “Taylor in the Schools,” and “The Body Electric.” According to airport personnel, the exhibit is super-popular — people are initially lured in by the guitars, and end up reading every printed word in the cases. We've even had folks showing up on our daily factory tour specifically because of this exhibit!

The Taylor event kicks off at the San Diego International Airport Commuter Terminal, 3225 N. Harbor Drive, on Friday, February 29, at 5:30 p.m. (Bob and Kurt will speak at 6:00.) The Commuter Terminal is the big building with a large mural depicting Charles Lindbergh on its side. Public parking will be available directly in front of the terminal. We hope you can join us for this one-of-a-kind Taylor Guitars event!

TAYLOR AND FENDER JOIN FORCES IN EUROPE
January 15, 2008

Taylor Guitars and Fender Musical Instruments Corporation today announced a strategic relationship between the two companies, which will now work together to raise Taylor's brand awareness throughout Europe. Fender Europe's new Taylor Division will be the exclusive distributor for Taylor guitars in Europe, Africa and most of the Middle East, and is expected to commence distribution operations on July 1, 2008.

“The world has become more and more flat, with cultural, currency and trade barriers becoming less and less,” said Kurt Listug, co-founder and CEO of Taylor Guitars. “With the advent of the European Union, the adoption of a common currency, and the free movement of goods across borders, a huge opportunity has been created to do more commerce at a higher level. Fender has proven the concept of an American guitar and amp company successfully exporting their business model to Europe, and achieving much higher sales and brand awareness as a result.”

Listug said he approached Fender with the idea of distributing Taylor guitars in Europe, after learning how successful Fender had been with their overseas sales model. “Bill [Mendello, Chairman and CEO of Fender Musical Instruments Corp] shared his experiences in creating Fender Europe with me a few years ago, and invited me to see their European operations firsthand. I spent a week visiting their warehouse, sales offices and even their Dusseldorf custom shop showroom. I was blown away by their incredible success in Europe, and the huge potential of their sales model for Taylor.”

“We are extremely pleased to be working closely with Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug, two admired industry leaders who have built Taylor into a premier guitar brand,” said Fender's Bill Mendello. “By providing our expertise in sales, marketing, warehousing and logistics, we look forward to enhancing their success throughout the European market.”

Taylor evaluated creating its own European distribution arm versus partnering with Fender. “We considered doing it ourselves, but distribution is expensive and requires specialized expertise,” said Listug. “Having the opportunity to work with Fender, leveraging their resources and experience into much higher European sales for Taylor, is the best decision.”
 
ROAD HOWS
In 2007, Taylor launched a new series of in-store “Road Show” events, in which a team of Taylor factory representatives visits a Taylor dealership for a fun, informative “guitar night” gathering with local Taylor enthusiasts. The Road Shows, which will continue in 2008, put a fresh spin on our in-store outreach efforts, embodied for more than a decade now by our award-winning workshop program, which brought world-class Taylor-playing clinicians into stores for a combination of instructional clinics and mini-performances.

The Road Shows are a response to Taylor players' ongoing thirst for knowledge about our latest products, such as the T5, GS, and the new SolidBody, as well as their desire to learn more about how attributes such as tonewoods, body shapes, and other design nuances affect the voice of a Taylor. The Road Show teams are usually comprised of a product specialist, who gives a comprehensive demonstration of the T5 and our other acoustic and acoustic/electric guitars; a repair and service technician, who explains everything from how to change strings and keep a guitar properly humidified to the design of the Taylor neck joint and our Expression System electronics; and a Taylor sales representative, who often serves as emcee, helps moderate a Q&A session, and spends time with store staff to get them up to speed on our latest product information. The evenings are intended to be very interactive and loose enough to reflect the specific nature of the audience's interest on any given night.

Although the Road Shows aren't designed to be “Taylor Day”-style events that we held in 2006, in which Taylor owners could bring their guitar in for a diagnostic checkup, there is definitely a strong hands-on feel to them. The middle portion of the event is geared toward a Taylor “petting zoo,” in which attendees are invited to play an array of Taylors on display, some of which are store inventory, with other “Road Show Specials” and cool one-offs also on-hand.

In just a short time, the feedback from both guests and dealers has been overwhelmingly positive.

Adrian Schumacher, the proprietor of Guitars Etc. in Tucson, beamed with enthusiasm for the Road Show concept, after an event at his shop drew upwards of 70 people.

“It's brilliant!” he said afterward. “The Road Show has something for anyone who plays guitar. It's a great service to the guitar community.”

Taylor player Mike Castoro, who attended the Guitars Etc. event, called the Road Show “a fantastic idea” and appreciated “having access to factory personnel, tech, sales and marketing, all at one event.”

For more on the Road Shows, check the Road Show page for the latest schedule of events.
 
CAMPAIGN FOR SUSTAIN
Taylor and three other prominent guitar companies — Martin, Fender and Gibson — have teamed up with the environmental organization Greenpeace to promote changes in logging practices that would secure the longterm sustainability of tonewoods.

The partnership, the Greenpeace MusicWood Coalition, launched its initiative with a focus on Sitka spruce, commonly used for guitar and piano soundboards. The main location of Sitka spruce trees is the coastal rainforest regions of Alaska and Canada, which for many decades have provided a source of old-growth trees that are coveted by instrument makers.

“In many regions we could be a short time away from the end of the Sitka spruce trees large enough to provide wood for guitar parts”, said Bob Taylor, referring to the reliance of guitar makers on trees that are more than 250 years old for their exceptional tonal properties. “That could change through different logging practices.”

Though the guitar industry is not a major consumer of Sitka spruce (American guitar companies together use about 150 spruce logs a year, Bob says), the wood has been steadily depleted by other industries. According to an extensive, several-year analysis of the region's timber market initiated by Greenpeace, over eighty percent of Southeast Alaskan timber ships to Asia, primarily for home-building, with the bulk of the remaining wood used for door and window frames in the United States.

The intent of the MusicWood Coalition is to leverage the high profile of the guitar industry to draw attention to the need to develop sustainable forest management systems. Greenpeace laid the groundwork for the coalition when it arranged an educational tour in Alaska with representatives of all four guitar companies in the summer of 2006. (Bob Taylor wrote about this trip in his BobSpeak column in the fall issue of Wood&Steel.) As Bob comments in a video on the MusicWood website (musicwood.org), it's easy to think that the region could never be overlogged as one sees a dense forest in an untouched region — until one sees firsthand a clearcut mountainside and the realization becomes starkly clear — literally — that aggressive, unmanaged logging could severely deplete the region in a relatively short time.

During their Alaska trip, the guitar group met an assortment of parties with a vested interest in the region, including local loggers, ecology experts, and board members of Sealaska, a Native American corporation and the largest private landowner in Southeast Alaska. The corporation owns 290,000 acres of surface land.

Currently the MusicWood Coalition is encouraging Sealaska to apply for certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which would entail adopting logging practices that would safeguard the survival of the region's remaining ancient forests while continuing to produce high quality wood.

During the 2007 NAMM music trade show in Anaheim in January, Taylor hosted a breakfast meeting involving Greenpeace, Sealaska, and representatives from the aforementioned guitar companies, along with personnel from Walden Guitars and Asian instrument companies Yamaha and Kawai. Discussions of the Sitka spruce campaign were positive, and the group also addressed other tonewoods that are in jeopardy in other regions of the world, including mahogany.

To learn more about the Greenpeace MusicWood Coalition, visit www.musicwood.org

[Images, from top down: Greenpeace MusicWood poster; L-R: Larry Edwards and Scott Paul of Greenpeace, Nick Colesanti of Martin Guitars, Rob Stangelini of Fender Guitars, Bob Taylor, and Dave Berryman of Gibson Guitars, in front of an old-growth spruce tree in Sitka, Alaska; a clear-cut tract in Southeast Alaska.]

 
TO SUMMIT UP: REPAIR TECHS IN THE HOUSE
They came from far and wide to learn the ways of the Taylor Repair Department. Thirteen of Taylor's authorized repair technicians flew to San Diego in early March for a week of intensive training at the Taylor factory in El Cajon.

The training program has been happening in a formal sense for the better part of three years now, although usually in smaller numbers. In addition to technicians from the U.S., we've trained techs from throughout Europe, as well as Japan, Singapore, and Australia.

The benefits are substantial — the more attuned the field techs are with Taylor's latest repair methods, the greater the range of repairs that can be handled outside the Taylor factory, offering Taylor owners more convenience.

Customer Service Manager Zach Arntz organized the summit and coordinated much of the logistics, while Repair Department Manager Rob Magargal, a 16-year Taylor veteran, handled the training. Magargal said that the bigger group this time occasionally presented space challenges, but that the “classroom” dynamic brought a lot of energy to the sessions.

The attendees were: Pat DiBurro, DiBurro Guitars (Exeter, New Hampshire); Emory Knode and Nick Anthony, Appalachian Bluegrass Shoppe (Baltimore, Maryland); Kjell Croce, Elderly Instruments (Lansing, Michigan); Kyle Roggendorf, Raritan Bay Guitar Repair (Freehold, New Jersey); Casey Jones, Alamo Music (San Antonio, Texas); Dave Strunk (Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania); Paul Hvidsten, Marguerite's Music (Moorhead, Minnesota); Chuck Cellinos, Cellinos Handcrafted Guitars (Phoenix, Arizona); Chris Eudy and Dan Wolf, Third Coast Guitar Service (Chicago, Illinois); Benny Rodriguez (Concord, California); and Danny Douglas, Danny D's Music (League City, Texas).

In the same way that many of Taylor's production methods differ from other guitar manufacturers (the NT neck, UV-cured finish, our ES electronics), some of our repair techniques also differ. For that reason, Magargal's training approach was to put the visiting techs through the production process before they began their repair work.

“To me, you can't repair the guitar until you know exactly how it goes together,” Magargal says. “Once you can put one together and it's to our specs, then, when someone brings one in, the tech can look down and determine, 'OK, you need a reset,' or 'I need to change this shim.' They have a much better understanding that way.”

The group kicked off their week with a factory tour. Among the training topics covered over the five-day period were new pickup installations, diagnosis, and repair; a rundown of Taylor design advantages and our in-house set-up specifications; ding and crack repair and the application of UV-curable finish; fretwork and bridge re-gluing; and humidification techniques.

Visiting tech Dan Wolf says that after repairing guitars for the last decade, he honestly didn't expect to learn much, but that the experience was a “real eye-opener”.

“With repair, there has always been this unspoken romance with doing things slowly, in an 'old school' way — that it's just the way good repair people do things,” he says. “But that's just not true anymore. You can never stop thinking forward and learning new ways of doing things, even the things you thought you'd already mastered. The guys at Taylor are forward thinkers who've mastered the idea of building and repairing guitars both faster and better.”

Magargal understands that doing repairs within the factory affords one access to the ultimate in Taylor resources, from specialized jigs to UV lights to heating elements for pulling bridges. For that reason, he says, he trains as though he's at the tech's own shop.

“That also goes for the training DVDs that we'll send out,” he adds.

One additional benefit of bringing the outside repair techs to the factory for an extended stay, Magargal says, beyond the realm of training itself, is to give them a feel for the unique Taylor vibe.

“I think one thing they saw firsthand is that that we're still a first generation company,” he elaborates. “It's still Bob and Kurt. And a lot of the original guys are here from when the company really took off. It was great for them to see that we're not a company that's just a board of directors. I think they also liked that it isn't a micro-managed facility. Bob hires his guys and they do their jobs.”

Although it was a full agenda by day, the group enjoyed some down time to socialize with each other and an assortment of Taylor employees over dinner in the evenings, getting a taste for the San Diego area's tasty Mexican and seafood cuisines. They also left the shop early one day for a barbecue with Bob Taylor at his beach house. Considering the weather in other parts of the country at that point, kicking back and tossing a Frisbee by the ocean made for an especially nice afternoon.

One of the techs in attendance, Benny Rodriguez, spent several years building electric guitars with Tom Anderson and the past six years as the guitar tech for the popular swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. He seemed to encapsulate the feelings that most of the techs expressed in some form during their stay.

“I enjoyed the immediate camaraderie between the summit guests and everyone at the El Cajon facility,” he said after the event. “More than just a weeklong training session, it felt like I was part of the family that comprises Taylor Guitars. The free exchange of information says a lot about Taylor's continued demystification of lutherie among builders, repair shops, and players. It was also comforting that as much as the company grows, Bob and the Taylor crew humbly go about their daily routine of making great guitars.”
 
SIGN ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND
Rock legend David Gilmour took a break from a recent recording session at his South West London studio to sign a Taylor guitar for an upcoming charity event. The guitar, a cherry sunburst T5-S (spruce top), will be auctioned for the UK's Willow Foundation at its gala ball on Saturday, March 3, 2007.

Gilmour was introduced to the foundation by Taylor's exclusive UK distributor, Sound Technology plc. His support will add significant value to an already beautiful musical instrument, elevating its appeal as a choice item of rock memorabilia.

The Willow Foundation funds and organizes special days for seriously ill young adults aged 16-40, and is the only UK charity that offers quality of life and quality of time through the provision of special days within this age range and across all major life-threatening conditions. Gilmour and Sound Technology recognize the difference the charity's service makes to those who should be in the prime of their lives yet face the difficulties and uncertainties of living with conditions such as cancer, motor neuron disease, muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and organ failure.

"We're very grateful to Sound Technology and David Gilmour for providing us with this exceptional item for our auction," says Bob Wilson, charity co-founder and former soccer goalkeeper (Arsenal) and sports TV presenter. "We're obviously hoping for a few Floyd fans in the audience, but even those few audience members who aren't familiar with David Gilmour's work will appreciate the beauty of this extraordinary instrument."

Following the auction, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London, Sound Technology's Ian Cullen had good news to report: “One thousand guests attended the event, including celebrity patrons from the world of sport and TV. The signed Taylor T5 raised a staggering £20,000 — equaling the record set by a Robbie Williams-signed 614ce at last year's auction. The money goes directly to the Willow Foundation for its fantastic work. Sound Technology is extremely proud and honoured to be able to help the Willow Foundation in this way.”

For more information please visit www.willowfoundation.org.uk

And speaking of David Gilmour, you can catch him playing his Taylor nylon-string on the Pink Floyd tune “High Hopes” in an “AOL Music Sessions” segment here.

[Photo: David Gilmour signs a T5. Photo by Phil Taylor.]

 
CROSSPICKING
The following five people are the winners of our Winter 2006 Taylor Teaser crossword challenge in Wood&Steel. The winners were randomly drawn from all of the correctly answered entries that were submitted to us. Each of our winners will receive a $25 (U.S. dollars) TaylorWare Gift Card.

Connie Ralls (San Jose, California)
George Amrhein (Connersville, Indiana)
Bob Fox (Traverse City, Michigan)
Kathy Oganezov (Portage, Wisconsin)
John R. Sager (Eagle, Idaho)

In addition to the five winners for each issue's puzzle, all correctly answered entries submitted for each puzzle will be entered into a final drawing to be held at the end of the year, at which time five lucky winners will receive gift cards, with the Grand Prize gift card worth $500.

Entries for the Spring 2007 Taylor Teaser (in the Fall issue of Wood&Steel) must be received no later than June 1, 2007. Winners will be announced in the Summer 2007 issue of Wood&Steel and here on the “Taylor News” page around mid-July 2007. (No faxed or e-mailed puzzle entries will be accepted. TaylorWare orders from outside the U.S. must be placed by phone at +800-494-9600 and are subject to additional shipping charges.)
 
GREAT EXPORTATIONS
In August, the United States Department of Commerce, U.S. Commercial Service, gave a prestigious award to both Taylor Guitars and Frederick Export (of Ventura, California) for significant accomplishments in the global marketplace. Appropriately, the award ceremony took place at the Carlsbad, California headquarters of NAMM, which has evolved from the “National Association of Music Merchants” (founded more than a century ago) to the “International Music Products Association”. Many of Taylor's important relationships with overseas distributors begin with introductions at the annual NAMM trade shows.

After a congratulatory speech by NAMM CEO/President Joe Lamond, the Export Achievement Certificates were presented by Colleen Litkenhaus, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Domestic Operations, U.S. Commercial Service. Accepting the award on Taylor's behalf were Media Relations Manager Andy Robinson, International Sales Manager Diane Magagna, and Public Relations Intern Chris Cosentino.

[L-R: Chris Cosentino, Colleen Litkenhaus, Andy Robinson, Diane Magagna, and Joe Lamond outside NAMM headquarters. The Baby Taylor was signed by Taylor staffers and presented to the NAMM Museum of Making Music in 2003.]

 
NOW SEE/HEAR
As our 30th Anniversary Kenny Loggins concert webcast proved, technology is making it easier for us to share exclusive special events from the Taylor factory with the rest of the world. Video has proven to be a dynamic tool for presenting everything from new products to factory footage to artist performances, and we're working hard to keep adding fresh new video features that will enhance the Taylor experience for our website guests.

With the fall 2004 issue of Wood&Steel, we began posting companion video content, "Wood&Steel Video Extras", to supplement story features. The first video clip accompanies the cover piece about Taylor's 30th anniversary. Excerpted from the San Diego cable TV program Forefront, Bob Taylor reminisces about the beginning of his partnership with company co-founder Kurt Listug. Our popular Factory Fridays feature takes you on a virtual tour, stopping at a different factory location each month to give you a detailed look at our innovative guitar-guilding techniques. Look for a new installment on the first Friday of each month. And for easy reference, check out the Taylor Video Library, where we've organized all of our video features, including our user guides, instructional lessons, performance clips, and more.

 
WOOD&STEEL&WEB
Since the Spring of 2001, Taylor's quarterly publication, Wood&Steel, has enjoyed a second home in cyberspace. Complementing the large direct-mail subscription base and dealer, festival, and workshop distribution, Wood&Steel Online was added to the Taylor website to enable Taylor fans around the globe to view the complete text and graphics in downloadable Adobe Acrobat format (*.PDF). Look for the Fall 2005 issue and previous issues online (going back to 2001) from the Wood&Steel page.

Periodic installments of Wood&Steel Online will include expanded content not found in the printed version. Subscription mailings to Taylor owners will continue, as usual, each quarter.
 
BUILDING TOMORROW'S BOBS
24 students from Valhalla High School in El Cajon, California recently earned some pretty cool bragging rights: they built their own guitars. In the fall of 2003, the students participated in Valhalla's first ever guitar-making class, a program sponsored by Taylor and fueled by Bob Taylor's desire to bring more resources to industrial arts curricula in junior and senior high schools.

Over the years, industrial arts programs at the secondary level have suffered substantially, in the wake of system-wide budget cuts and a stronger emphasis on academic and computer training. At schools where industrial-arts instruction survives, the budget-constrained courses generally lack adequate access to facilities, equipment, and materials. And frequently, the course content is neither relevant nor interesting enough to attract all levels of students. Bob Taylor, a self-described "wood shop nerd", recognizes the need for academic education, but he believes that students with other interests and aptitudes should also have their needs met.

"Shop classes are not for dummies," Taylor says. "They provide a valuable, hands-on education with very practical applications. If I had not taken industrial-arts courses in high school, I never would have learned the processes and disciplines that enabled me to build this company."

Several years ago, Taylor assumed an advocacy role by working with the local Grossmont School District and the East County Economic Development Council to retain and improve industrial-arts courses at local high schools. Last fall, Taylor partnered with Valhalla and El Capitan high schools, both in San Diego's East County, to launch a pilot guitar-building program. Taylor donated the materials, made specialized equipment (including a sidebending mold and an arbor press), trained the instructors at our own factory, and underwrote a guitar-building class to accommodate as many as 60 students.

When the program was announced at the school level, shop teachers from the respective schools reported that it instantly became the fall semester's hottest class; students clamored to get in, and many had to be turned away simply because there wasn't room for everyone.

Taylor Production Supervisor Ed Granero and Training Specialist Gerry Kowalski created a prototype of the guitar the students would be building. They had to re-learn how to build a guitar completely by hand — literally, the way Bob Taylor would have done it 30 years ago — and in the process, they developed a blueprint for the instruction itself. It was hoped that by the time students completed this course, they would have learned a skill-set that few adults have acquired, and would be able to apply those skills to a variety of situations.

"About once a week, we had a demonstration day where I would show the students a procedure," says Gerry Kowalski. "We also videotaped the procedures to have as a training reference for future classes."

With the limited class time available to the students, Kowalski and Valhalla teacher Gary Mowrey also held Guitar Shop Nights during the week, along with some shop time on Saturdays, to help the students finish on time.

To celebrate the fruits of their labor, the student luthiers and their families attended a special ceremony held on Tuesday evening, January 27 in our performance venue, where Bob Taylor presented each of the students with their finished guitars. There was a visible sense of pride on the students' faces as Bob handed each of them their self-made instrument and admired their work.

Gerry Kowalski had begun the evening by acknowledging the "enthusiasm, energy, and hard work" of the students, who learned to work against time constraints in order to complete their guitars on schedule. One of the students, Randy Hamama, spoke next, recalling the steep learning curve at the outset of the project, but also his growing feeling of confidence as the "bunch of wood pieces" stored in his locker before 6th period gradually took on the form of a guitar.

"It was pretty extraordinary to see that we could build this, and that it actually works," Hamama said.

Bob Taylor prefaced his remarks with a sweetly fingerpicked tune on one student's guitar, then congratulated everyone for successfully tackling such a challenging project.

"People don't believe that you can actually build a guitar, but you can, and you are proof of it," Bob said, recounting the experience of building his first guitar on his own in high school wood shop, where the mere notion of trying to make a complex instrument all by himself was rejected by his classmates.

"I'd be working on my own, and the students would come up to me and go, 'Hey Taylor, what are you making?'

" 'I'm building a guitar.'

" 'You are not.'

"And I'd go, 'OK, I'm not.'

"And then they'd say, 'What is he making?' 'Well, he says he's making a guitar but he's not.' "

The anecdote drew a hearty chuckle from the crowd.

Bob concluded by thanking the parents for their support, and the kids for sticking it out through the inaugural run of the class.

"We're going to keep refining the class every single year, and just try to help more and more students to come in and experience something a little bit different. Some of you will discover a love and a talent that you didn't know existed, and if that happens, more power to you to pursue it to wherever your heart takes you."

Valhalla is offering the guitar-making class again this semester; El Capitan is also running two guitar-making classes this term. From there, the plan is to continue the courses on a permanent basis, and to extend their duration from a semester to a full year in order to give the students more time to learn the requisite woodworking skills and complete their guitars. Hopefully, this innovative pilot program will also serve as a model for other school districts, and attract the attention of school administrators to help generate future funding, so that the same opportunities will be available to more students.

[Valhalla High School guitar-building class photos by Gerry Kowalski. Taylor Presentation photos by Erin Fitzgerald.]

 
STAYING IN TUNE
If you haven't already done so, we invite you to sign up to receive the Taylor Insider, an online newsletter we plan to send out 4-6 times per year as an interactive supplement to Wood&Steel. The newsletter will be e-mailed to online subscribers in-between Wood&Steel's quarterly publication cycle to keep you current on the very latest Taylor goings-on -- from product developments to CD reviews to a regular "anything goes" column from Bob Taylor. The Taylor Insider is completely free, and you don't have to be a Taylor owner to receive it.
 
SOME DAY YOUR PRINTS WILL COME
Taylor is offering for sale prints of the original art that Southern California artist Tom Voss has been contributing to our "Seasonal Tips" feature since Wood&Steel's beginnings. Tom is one of the most talented and versatile artist/illustrators we've ever known, and his work has been recognized in some prestigious juried shows. You might have enjoyed his beautiful, Colonial-era scenes in our award-winning documentary, The Liberty Tree Guitar, as well as other illustrations he's done for Wood&Steel. But it is his "Seasonal Tips" work that elicits calls and e-mails from people wanting to know how to buy prints.

We'll begin by offering Tom's faux-Lautrec work, which dressed up our Winter 2002 issue. It's a much-requested piece, and it seems appropriate to make it available now, with the Holidays coming on fast. It'd be the perfect gift to warm the music rooms and parlors of Taylor owners in the coming months. Check the TaylorWare section of our website later in October for information. To view more of Tom's portfolio (including past "Seasonal Tips" illustrations), visit his website at tomvossart.com.
 
T2
When and why did Taylor make a black and white "paisley" guitar -- and where is it now? Find out the answer to that and many other questions in the second phase of our official company Timeline (covering 1980-1989). Even if you think you know all about Taylor Guitars, you'll find some rather surprising (and humorous) stories, photos, and insights into the company's development within our expansive Timeline feature, located in the "History" section of the website.
 
WALNUT WINDFALL
Walnut has long been a favorite tonewood of ours, boasting a rich voice that blends a warm low end with clear highs. The immediate future of the Taylor Walnut Series grew brighter in late 2002, as Bob Taylor purchased a supply of beautiful logs from a California walnut orchard that was being replanted.

Although the tonewood has appealed to Bob ever since he began crafting walnut guitars as a young luthier in the 1970s, the wood's limited supply precluded its consistent use among the Taylor line for much of the company's history.

In recent years, we've been able to sustain our Walnut Series, yet acquiring attractive wood at a reasonable price has remained a challenge, as Bob explains in his "BobSpeak" column in the Winter 2003 issue of Wood&Steel.

"You might say that walnut is plentiful, but you'd be talking about Eastern black walnut, which is not the variety I like using," he says. "I prefer the California Claro walnut. Although it is black walnut, the stuff that grows here [in California] has a different and more interesting grain pattern and color. But not much of it is actually cut into lumber and available to buy."

Another species is English walnut, typically distinguished by beautiful grain and rich colors, and known for the flavor of its nuts.

"I think [English] looks more like rosewood than black or Claro walnut does, because the lines are so nicely variegated with tan and black; plus, the grain is tight and focused," Bob says. "Some of the nicest furniture and gunstocks have been made with English walnut."

A stroll through most California walnut orchards will reveal an interesting hybrid of the two strains: English walnut tree trunks grafted onto Claro walnut rootstock. While the English yields the better-tasting nuts, Claro has a more blight-resistant root system. That graft-line stays with the tree no matter how old and how large the tree becomes. It also creates a unique fusion of figure that Bob intends to incorporate into the guitars built from these logs, to make them especially alluring visually. Whereas the wood for our Walnut Series guitars has traditionally been cut from the Claro portion of the log, these logs will be cut to showcase the graft line. In other words, the gorgeous grain shift as the wood changes from Claro to English walnut will be clearly visible.

Bob felt that buying a whole walnut orchard was an environmentally responsible way to obtain the wood, since the orchard is typically cleared out for replanting when the trees become over-mature (at about 85 to 100 years of age), and have served their useful life in the orchard.

The accompanying photos help depict the nature of the grafted walnut. The lead photo shows Bob Taylor in the central California orchard where he purchased the walnut logs. The second photo shows a standing tree. You can clearly see the Claro walnut on the bottom, and the whiter-colored English trunk growing right out of the top of the Claro stump.

The third photo shows a log sawn in half. Here, note the gorgeous grain shift as the wood changes from Claro to English walnut. (The white wood along the side is the sapwood, not to be confused with the graft-line.)

The last photo shows a guitar outline on a bookmatched set of wood, trimmed down to size.

"You can begin to see the combination of the Claro, English, and even the whiter sapwood," Bob points out. "Imagine this on the back of a guitar, and what a special delight it would be."

Bob says the long-term future of walnut as a tonewood is less than promising, due to differences in the way that walnut trees are planted nowadays.

"Now they make more of a walnut 'bush' by planting the trees very close together and keeping them pruned small. They harvest walnuts early in the life of the tree, and that harvesting is made easier because of the smaller stature."

In fact, the decision was made to remove the Walnut and Koa Series from the Taylor line for 2004, due to the irregularity of both the supply and the visual appearance of the two woods. The plan is still to make Walnut and Koa guitars, but in smaller, more special offerings that enable Bob's design team to respond to the unique attributes of each batch of wood we acquire.