Surprise Honey! Today is NGD!!

[tfarny]

I went down to the local gear emporium intending to buy a set of acoustic strings. Up on the used wall were two of these: Taylor Solidbody Standard. I don't think I had ever seen one or heard about them. I do not "need" another guitar, but I had certainly been GASing for something vaguely in the dual humbucker / Les Paul / PRS vein. I am missing my PRS Mira. Anyhow I guess these came out around '07 right when the great recession took hold and "the guitar is dead" meme was everywhere. They just kind of missed the market / there was no need for yet another guitar design. The unique bridge is super comfortable and I really like the pickups. Upper fret access is excellent considering the body style, with a really nice heel design.

This one was apparently a prototype / guitar show model, it has "not for sale" stamped on the back. The quality / playability is PRS Core level. It appears new except for some light fret wear. The price including G&G hard case was $700! I had to get it. The wife was slightly displeased (we just bought a new car this week, so....) but I promised I would move some old gear to pay back the purchase.

 

[brookdalebill]

Nice!

 

[stormsedge]

Sweet! HNGD!

 

[bullfrogblues]

Heck of a score!!

 

[bgmacaw]

How to bring it into the house...

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

Taylor's are great!

Very nice, indeed...

 

[Telefsantasia1]

I went down to the local gear emporium intending to buy a set of acoustic strings. Up on the used wall were two of these: Taylor Solidbody Standard. I don't think I had ever seen one or heard about them. I do not "need" another guitar, but I had certainly been GASing for something vaguely in the dual humbucker / Les Paul / PRS vein. I am missing my PRS Mira. Anyhow I guess these came out around '07 right when the great recession took hold and "the guitar is dead" meme was everywhere. They just kind of missed the market / there was no need for yet another guitar design. The unique bridge is super comfortable and I really like the pickups. Upper fret access is excellent considering the body style, with a really nice heel design.

This one was apparently a prototype / guitar show model, it has "not for sale" stamped on the back. The quality / playability is PRS Core level. It appears new except for some light fret wear. The price including G&G hard case was $700! I had to get it. The wife was slightly displeased (we just bought a new car this week, so....) but I promised I would move some old gear to pay back the purchase.

Brother that is gorgeous!

 

[tfarny]

Maybe later I'll post some pics of the heel and the neck construction. It's pretty original - it's a bolt on that looks / acts / feels like a set neck. There is really something to be said for rethinking some of the old ways. It's a very comfortable shape to hold and play seated or standing and access to the dusty end is way better than a typical LP-ish shape. And I really love the bridge. Only concerns really are the controls especially the 5 way switch being under the volume knob, kind of weird for me. At practice last night I couldn't really operate the controls while singing and playing standing. Maybe I'll get used to it. I like that the additional extra switching options are pretty useable (one is the inner coils in parallel a la strat quack, one is the neck humbucker plus one bridge coil in parallel and one is the inner coils in series a la wide bucker). The switch itself is mounted to a PCB unfortunately so a failure there would be an issue, as I'm assuming spare parts for this thing are nonexistent.

I am pretty amazed that I was able to score a guitar this high quality, made in USA, for under a grand.

 

[John C]

Congrats! I remember these; I think a big part of it was that people just weren't willing to go to Taylor for electric guitars (same happened with Martin whenever they tried to get into the electric market).

As you say it's a cool design with that 1 large screw construction, but they also used a lot of proprietary components in the electronics, and the bridge is also a unique design that can't be swapped with anything else. There were 4 models - they called them "Custom", "Standard" and "Classic" - the "Custom" is chambered and has proprietary mini-buckers, the "Standard" is the same but full-sized humbuckers (you have the "Standard" model), and the "Classic" is not chambered and has pickguard-mounted electronics.

I found this nice rundown on the original 3 models here: https://musicplayers.com/2008/06/taylor-solidbody-series-electric-guitars/

I think they eventually offered a variation on the "Classic" model with a tremolo version of their bridge, and they offered that one with multiple pickguards if I'm remembering correctly - or at least you could get a pickguard with the full-sized humbuckers (covered in this case) instead of the mini-buckers.

 

[7171551]

I've owned two of these previously, a trans white Classic with mini-buckers and a Standard identical to the pics in OP. I ended up trading or selling both but they were nice guitars. I especially liked the mini-buckers.

Both of mine- and every one of these I have seen advertised since- has had "NFS" stamped somewhere on it. I vaguely recall reading some story that Taylor may have done this when they discontinued the model and then donated new old stock to charities? No idea if this is true or not.

I have also read online that the bridge design is flawed and can break... and that no spares are available. I don't think anything else could easily be substituted either. I stopped looking for another after reading that.

There is a lot to like about these guitars, so just watch out for that bridge issue....

 

[Bluego1]

How to bring it into the house...

View attachment 980719

 

[tfarny]

I've owned two of these previously, a trans white Classic with mini-buckers and a Standard identical to the pics in OP. I ended up trading or selling both but they were nice guitars. I especially liked the mini-buckers.

Both of mine- and every one of these I have seen advertised since- has had "NFS" stamped somewhere on it. I vaguely recall reading some story that Taylor may have done this when they discontinued the model and then donated new old stock to charities? No idea if this is true or not.

I have also read online that the bridge design is flawed and can break... and that no spares are available. I don't think anything else could easily be substituted either. I stopped looking for another after reading that.

There is a lot to like about these guitars, so just watch out for that bridge issue....

Interesting. You know what, for the price I paid I am just going to enjoy it and play the heck out of it. As long as the bridge doesn't move around on me (and it seems very solid) I don't intend to do any adjustments, as it is perfect right now. I also don't intend to change out pickups or anything. It's just a good guitar that works as-is.
Of course I am also in honeymoon period,who knows if I will keep this longer than a year. If I do sell, I am pretty sure I could get my money back.

 

[57joonya]

No doubt u could get your money back,
I would think . Some nice looking wood on that .I’ve Never seen one