Automated Luthier part 1

Some people will debate over what kind of guitars are the best. Of course, all of this is opinion oriented. One line of debate is whether or not handcrafted guitars are better than factory made guitars. There are some incredible luthiers out there. Over the years some of the old hand-crafted parts of the construction became automated. Even though some parts of the process requires a skilled craftsman. In this day and age we see an automation process. We see the automated luthier.

The word luthier comes from the French word luth, which also comes from the word lute. This term refers to those people who make string instruments. This is beyond my skill set but I can really appreciate all the talented people who build incredible instruments. One such skilled craftsman is Bob Taylor from Taylor Guitars.

Bob Taylor began working at American Dream in 1972. The company was sold in 1974 and the name was changed to Westland Music Company. During this time Mr. Taylor being a co-partner was in charge of design and production. In 1976 the company decided to begin selling their guitars through retailers. Today Taylor Guitars is one of the most respected guitar manufactures in the world. They produce instruments with very high quality.

Today a few of the hand-made processes have become automated. These processes have not affected the quality of the instrument in a negative manner. If anything it has improved their quality. So let us take a tour through the Taylor Factory and look at the modern technology that Taylor uses.

I just love the machines they use to bend wood. As you can tell the workers are skilled craftsmen. These are not jobs that anyone can do. This is much more than an assembly line. It seems that Taylor has not sacrificed craftsmanship in their automation process. One thing is evident as we take our tour through this factory. It is not an easy task to make a high-quality instrument.

In the last video, we saw the body being constructed. In the video above, The neck is constructed. There is just as much detail that goes into the neck construction. The amazing part is the fact that there is still a lot to do to complete the construction. We will talk about the rest of the process later.