What are the differences between Taylor guitars and guitars that are hand-made by individual luthiers?
Taylor guitars are "hand-made production" guitars. That sounds like an oxymoron, but it's true. We manufacture relatively large numbers of guitars with the aid of state-of-the-art tools and technology that can cut and shape wood to tolerances of two-thousandths of an inch, but much of the actual guitar building is done by hand. We use computer design programs and computer-controlled milling machines to perform the most time-consuming, laborious processing of the raw wood into various guitar components with much greater speed, efficiency, accuracy, and consistency than is possible with hand tools. However, all Taylor guitars are hand-made from these components by trained guitar craftsmen who use both traditional and Taylor-devised techniques. Qualitatively, in terms of tone, playability, construction, and aesthetic beauty, Taylor guitars are every bit as good, if not better than, guitars made one-at-a-time by luthiers - we just make more of them, and with more reliable consistency.
