well it's bound to happen from time to time when working with hundreds upon hundreds of clients. sprinkle some confirmation bias to forget the misfits and there you go
Every trade is like that I worked on locomotives and they too had cyclic events, if I had one fuel pump go down I would start watching for the next one if a second fuel pump failed I would order 5 more at the same time. The CFO would freak out and call me (me being the CMO or chief mechanical officer) what the hell? Cyclic failures are a part of every trade I think. Always a pleasure watching your finesse and expertise in action and I want to personally thank you for the time involved in creating this content editing it and uploading it for our pleasure!
I bought my son a Taylor GA4 several years ago, it's an absolutely a wonderful instrument. The sound is just amazing, easy to play. Even mistakes sound musical.
What never ceases to amaze me is your unwavering eloquence when using the English language! Your calm demeanor while speaking leaves me both calm and assured as well as confident you're doing what you should be doing in life! I on the other hand was an adrenaline junkie who could rarely finish a sentence without stuttering or stammering! Kudo's to you for the library of lutherie information you provide and the way you deliver it so well! (Maybe it speaks for Hamilton's school system!)
I almost thought for a second there, you were about to play "The house of the rising sun" never the less. Great clear sound. Crisp and resonant. Good job.
I don't know if you ever had a problem with the foam tape. In the past I've had it inconveniently unstick and had problems with re-sticking. I take drop or two of white wood glue and smear it on the area of intended adhesion, let dry then apply the foam tape. It works very well. I think the bare wood surface releases maybe a micro amount of the untreated surface just enough to unstick the foam. The white glue makes a shiny surface more appealing to the adhesive on the foam.
I maintain an inventory of new/old stock Taylors' that go back to yr 2000 that have lived in a humidity and temp controlled environment for their lifetime under tension and not played (often). If it needs it, some do some don't, that 15-20 yr range consistently has been the point where it will need a reset to pull it into factory spec. The 600 series most often.
I just love Taylor Guitars. I have a couple, a six and a 12 string. I love the feel and the sound. I rarely plug them in, rather I just use them as acoustic guitars.
I understand this guitar already had a pickup system installed so I can see going with another one.(and arguably a better one) That being said I completely agree with our luthier here that a high quality microphone near the sound hole (like they did in the 60's and early 70's) produces a far better sound! It kills me to see people cutting into an acoustic to install an onboard system - every pickup on an acoustic I hear sounds like plastic.
You don't generally see a mic near the sound hole. Way too boomy. Acoustics are usually miked around the twelfth fret. Not putting the mic in front of the sound hole is kind of rule #1.
I have a 2003 RCE 414 (the R is for Rosewood). It's traveled a lot. It has the center seam back graft and also has the finger joints for the neck to head stock connection. I also removed the Taylor Expression system and replaced it with a K&K passive pickup. Much better for playing open mics which I did regularly a year ago. I agree that recording acoustic guitar with a nice mic is fine. Instead of filling the holes for the vol/bass/treb knobs with wood plugs like you did (nicely done btw), I just cut the knobs off from the circuit board so they can still be fiddled with but they don't so anything of course. Funny, I lent it to a friend at an open mic and he tried to adjust the control knobs between songs. I let him work on it for a minute on stage before telling him. :^) The finish on the headstock is peeling off. I wonder if anyone else has seen this and what they did to fix it.
Very nice, precise work, as always. If it was me, I would convince the owner that another 'sound hole' is needed on that top bout. Then I would cut an oval opening to cover the 3 knob holes, Voila! Yeah, that's me...
It’s possible to add the Anthem while preserving the expression system and its controls. Oh, and all the while using the same single battery. Output becomes a stereo setup with one channel handling the expression and one channel handling the anthem. Happy to walk you through the mod
Thanks for all of your videos. My '72 Martin D-35 made it about 40 years before it became unplayable from belly bow. Thanks for the reassurance that it's a normal age-related thing and that I didn't do anything to cause it. I'm going to install a new, very slightly larger bridge plate, with a neck reset as a last resort. Thumbs up to crush a troll.
There is something we can do to prevent our guitars distorting under string tension. It's possible to detune a guitar after playing. I was taught this to 'practise tuning and preserve the playing action'.
A little hint to the drying super glue bottles, same happened to me. I found out, storing the bottles in the fridge prevents it to dry out. Some glue in my fridge is almost 2 years liquid now.
This is the most fascinating video I've seen so far of yours. Primarily because in all the StewMac Dan Erlewine vids, not ONE of them has him working on a Taylor. Not that he couldn't of course. Just curious about how someone would tackle the bolt on neck approach and the difference in the electronics.
That used to happen at my shop all the time. Every so many years it would just be alternator week and i would change out tons of alternators. I will say that every year before school starts back is brake week
Ted, I use the same small containers of super glue. Every time I buy a bigger quantity, I end up throwing half of it away. So I go to a dollar store and buy a pack of 4 or 5 small tubes and hardly ever have to throw a tube out because it's moisture compromised.
That's the same model I have. Bought it about 20 years ago. I haven't noticed a problem, but I mostly don't play anymore. Anyway, if you read this, I really am enjoying your channel wish you were in Texas.
Funny I ordered a 314 C(no E) about 15 years ago. Sometimes I think someone at the factory said “Oh, he wants a NICE acoustic guitar.” Sounds really good.
I can see setups anywhere, dude . . . much rather hear//see you show us stuff you are enthusiastic about or interested in. And yeah , dont do this so much , that you hate it . . . your stuff is good and really useful and educational. I'm not in the US and you show a lot of guitars that I've never even seen , let alone work on them, so thats really interesting, for me and many others, I'm sure. . . and thanks again for your time and efforts.
Almost made it another Taylor to be brought in! Was thinking about a setup on my wife’s 314CE but this darn COVID stuff is getting in the way. As usual a lovely job!
I had a 614CE with extremely high action and after examining it I found it had bellied quite a bit. The case had a humidifier in it and I drew on past experience to take it out of the case and hang it on the wall for a few days and sure enough the belly went flat, action came down. Sometimes too much humidity is the problem.
We have that same phenomenon at my shop.... last week was Ventura LP week. The week before that was Martin D-15 week and we had Ric 12 string and MIM P-bass week not too long ago. Tacoma Chief month should be coming soon.
I did the same for my gf's 814E Taylor. On the battery thing I used the same thing it has just cutted the cable and joint them with the lr baggs plugg. I was trying to mcgiver the taylor contro knobs with the lr baggs decided not to. And just left them covering the holes
I have the exact same issue with the hot stuff bottles. These days I either open the bottle completely or I dispense a small portion of glue and then use small disposable pipettes to apply the glue.
I pour my CA into a drilled hole on a piece of plywood and dip various small instruments (toothpicks, bamboo skewers, an old ground down palette knife, etc.) to apply the glue. I have never been able to control CA like Ted does using the tip of the bottle to apply.
That was totally cool. I've considered what you said about Taylors neck needing reset earlier than a Martin. You didn't mention if the top had lifted up much here in that amount of time. But you can shim that neck if needed, I'd love to see one of those adjustments when you have to do it. And i agree a microphone in front of an acoustic guitar is a high quality sound. Your rerouting of the battery to existing holder was perfect, easy access and plugging the holes was fine. I thought you were going to make a sound port.
That looks like a JST connector on the battery cable. You can get a crimp tool and connector kit for pretty cheap and it will open a lot of wiring potential.
I like what you said about recording the voice of an acoustic, I've never thought of it that way... When I bought my martin, it had pickups build in even though I didn't want them, but that'll be good info for the future. Thanks!
Nice tidy to cover the old control holes, I might try something similar on an old Les Paul Junior which I unwisely drilled a couple of holes in years ago. I own a couple of Taylor guitars, one with a finger jointed headstock and the other with a scarf joint, both seem very secure but I actually prefer the appearance of the finger joint although I understand that they stopped using it because customers disliked it. My oldest Taylor is 18 years old and the action is still nice and low with plenty of height left on the bridge saddle. Resetting the neck on Taylor guitars should be a lot easier than on acoustics with glued in necks, I believe that Taylor can supply special shims for the job.
Henry, yes, a neck reset on a Taylor takes about 20 minutes. Only Taylor silver techs and above have access to the proper shims. Also, according to a gold tech I know, messing with the saddle to change the action is a no-no.
That was great information. The action on my 16 year old Taylor is creeping up enough that I've noticed it. I haven't measured it and was wondering for a while if what I thought was happening was actually happening. Another useful data point for me for this particular issue. Don't know that I will do anything yet, but appreciated information just the same.
I have the expression system in about the same model guitar and using a tip and ring cable (TRS) direct into a sound board makes a world of difference in the older expression version. It is the one thing I like most about it and makes a guitar of this size sound much fuller IMO. But I also have a larger body Taylor and there’s no comparison in bottom end richness, no matter the pickup system.
My 2006 Taylor 814ce had the ES1 system from Taylor. I hated it. They replaced it under warranty for distorted tone but it still had horrible b string loudness and metallic tone. I replaced it with the JJB soundboard 3 piezo system, similar to K&K and it sounds awesome. Using a baggs DI or Fishman Aura Spectrum pedal it's all I could ever want in tone. I left the knobs alone but modded the battery box for my output jack.
Thanks for share your skill and luthier knowledge, I didnt read all comments But please can you tell me when buy the new preamp System that you installed. Thanks God bless you
It's a Taig. You can also set it up for metalwork (or similar work in plastics/waxes) - just add the cross slide/carriage, compound if you want, toolpost, etc. The power is up to you - it doesn't come with a motor (1/4 horsepower is pretty much the go-to). And it can do some light milling as well. It's not super-cheap, but it's really versatile, and fills in a lot of those "I really wish I had a..." moments. (You can do more or less the same thing with Sherline's version of the LEGO Machine Shop, though it's slightly bigger. And it was never sold at Lee Valley - I'm going to assume that Ted could have gotten a better deal on the Taig than you can.)
It's clear that you don't care for acoustic pickups in general, and I'm with you there. But you do need something on stage and miking an acoustic in an electric setting can be a challenge. Best solution I ever had personally was when someone installed a pair of mics inside my main acoustic (an old-ish Kent!), along with one of those gigantic soundhole pickups of the era with pole pieces you could adjust. He put a switch in so I could go back and forth and even mix the two. It was cool because I could go full on overdriven on the soundhole, then to the mics for the faux-acoustic sound, which really wasn't bad.
When you mentioned the 'live folky stuff' I knew you were talking about Simon & Garfunkel Live From New York City. When I first heard this recording last year, as a recording engineer I was absolutely stunned by the quality! I need to figure out what mics those are. They look like AKG 414s.
I really like L R Baggs systems and you did a great job Ted. However , I own a Taylor and like their system. Maybe it's the pick that makes it sound " thin" I don't know. My Taylor has the expression system and set correctly sounds great.
I did a similar mod to use the battery box instead of the battery bag. I just used the box as is. Not sure why you felt like you needed to use the battery clip that came with the Baggs. Wiring into the existing box has been perfect.
Im planning to do the same. How do you do that? Also can you explain your process? Did u cut the wires for the es2, did you remove the knobs? Did u also have to drill the whole bigger at the back to fit the LR Baggs? Im wanna be able to this myself but i just wanna make sure i do it right
Taylors after 2001 use a bolt-on neck. They don’t need a traditional neck reset, they need a simple neck angle adjustment, which takes about an hour. It’s pretty easy for an authorized repair tech. They’re designed to be adjusted rather than filing the saddles down. In fact, if you’re an authorized Taylor repair tech the training tells you there’s rarely a reason to file a Taylor saddle unless it’s out of spec. All other adjustments are made using the neck shims. Taylors aren’t more susceptible to needing resets than anything else, but are far easier to do.
No authorized repair techs nearby and those that were, gave it up because they hated dealing with Taylor. Getting shim stock took months and getting paid was even harder.
@@twoodfrd you should become an authorized tech. Getting shims is hard when you aren’t one, yes. I’m an authorized tech and in nearly 20 years I never had trouble getting them - or getting paid for warranty work. I can connect you with the head of Network Service, he’s awesome. They’re literally the easiest company I’ve ever worked with. Ramsay Phillips has moved from Dubai to Ireland to New Zealand in the last 5 years and has no trouble getting anything.
I hated the pickup in my 2006 814ce Taylor. Installed a K&K and have a serious improvement in tone. I used the same output box from the 814ce and left the control knobs in place, not using them. My neck needs reset to lower the action.
I chuckle when I hear complaints about Taylor's pickup system. I just heard a comparison with the anthem, Taylor es2, and a Fishman matrix. The ES2 was still the closest thing to the microphone of all three. Yes, the microphone is the best.
Love you’re videos, you’re such a pro at your craft. Hey, in the past, I’ve re-wired battery and endpin jack leads into the little Taylor assembly. Could I ask the strategy of reaming out the plastic assembly instead of integrating into it? Is that just a personal preference or is there a technical reason?
Wish I could find superglue with the whip-tip here in Halifax. My local hobby and hardware places only seem to carry the standard tip bottles. Also can't seem to get the water-thin kind either.
They have water thin superglue with a super fine tip at Lee Valley out in Bayers Lake. It is the Hot Stuff brand that he mentioned. www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/supplies/adhesives/glue/20022-low-viscosity-glue-hot-stuff
the endpin jack setup was upside down! was that deliberate on the part of the customer i wonder? i could see where having the strap button part further back might let the guitar hang differently while allowing easier access to the battery box. also it would have been an easy matter to just wire to the existing terminals of that battery box so the customer could just pop it out and throw the battery in as usual instead of wrestling with a separate 9V clip hanging out of the hole
@@twoodfrd doncha love that? "here, i helped you by unscrewing/cutting/ripping out/losing the old stuff myself, that should make the job easier right? you should give me a discount!" if you pull the jack assy the outside of the 9V compartment has two flying leads to connect it to the rest of the guts, unless the guy broke them you should be able to solder right to them and give the customer normal use of the battery box (all respect in the world, this is a fantastic channel and i can't begin to touch your skillset! my repair world is in a big busy music store so i'm up to my neck in new and old taylors doing dumb stuff instead of the cool stuff you get to do)
*whoops* watching it again, at 11:06 i see that _all_ the connections are gone, including what would have been a perfectly good set of terminals on the outside of the box, making the job easier for you and better for the customer; didn't catch that before. oh well, nevermind
Seems to be the case with effects pedals I repair. For 3 weeks I was working on a bunch of Foxx stuff then the next month I received 3 rather obscure Korg pedals from 3 different people. Weird.
Nice job with the Anthem install. If you’re expecting to work on Taylors (yes, they tend to come in batches), you really should buy a neck shim tech kit from Taylor. You need to figure out the meaning of the numbers engraved on the shins and calculate the appropriate swap - I use an excel sheet. If your math is right, you can eliminate the trial error part. Just make sure you have some new saddles, or better yet, offer to make a new bone saddle.
Real easy job when you have all that around, but I found it took a bit to convince them to give me their shims since im not a shop, just some guy who works on his own instruments.
In my opinion, bone saddles make Taylors sound really brittle with high end overtones. I've never heard a Taylor that sounds better with a bone saddle than the Tusq it came with. I tried a handmade bone saddle on two of my Taylors. Total waste of $100 each. I couldn't get them back off and replaced with the originals fast enough. Bone is great on a muddy Martin or Guild.
Taig. Great little lathe, I use mine prototyping precision parts for my job. Lots of people get the tool rest like he has and do pens and other little woodburning projects. I think in England they're called Peatol.
Have you found a source for those nylon bushings? The best thing I've come up with is ordering super cheap chinesium imitation eBay tuners but they never show up timely. Do you have an honest opinion you'd share about talor guitars? I've played a bunch over the years and my opinion went from pretty good to not wanting to throw any money at one. Some aspects are decent but the sound and everything else is nothing special. They have a very high opinion of themselves that rubs me off too.
I'm in that boat as well. I had a 614ce for about 6 months. It sounded exactly as bland as the 214, 414, and 914 I tried. They're nothing if nit consistent across their range of full size guitars. I also had a GS Mini and it sounded better to me than my 614. Go figure. I guess for the Taylor purist, if you're touring and baggage claim delays your guitar, you can walk into any box store and get and pick up another that sounds exactly the same.
I've never tried sourcing the bushings, any time it's come up I've just pulled one from the parts pile. And... Taylors don't get me excited. They're fine but I don't lust after them. They seem to be really strong on the fundamental with not very much overtone response. Kind of one-dimensional to my ear.
You can buy the nylon washers in bulk at Thomann. There are two sizes. I actually use quite a lot, since they are often missing/damaged on old guitars.
