History Of The Taylor Guitar

The story of the Taylor guitar starts off in 1973 when 20-year-old Kurt Listug talked Sam Radding, owner of the American Dream guitar shop in Lemon Grove California, into hiring him. After awhile, a workbench opened for Kurt and he got a chance to do some finishing work on guitars.

A couple of weeks later a man by the name of BobTaylor also got a workbench job at the shop. Bob, who was 18 years old at the time, was hired because Sam saw some talent in him when he sold some guitars to Sam that he had made himself.

Listug and Taylor worked together for the first year building a few guitars but mostly just doing repairs.

In 1974 Radding decided to sell his shop and Listug and a co-worker by the name of Steve Schemmer were interested in buying the shop. When Listug told his father about his plans, his father asked him if he or Schemmer knew how to build guitars. When his son said no, his father said that it might be a good idea to have a partner who knew how to build guitars. Then he asked his son who the best guitar builder at the shop was. When Listug told him that Bob Taylor was, his father told him that he would lend him the money if he could get Taylor to sign on.

They did convince him of course and the trio purchased the shop and renamed it Westland Music Company. They also decided to name their guitars Taylor's after the most talented guitar maker of the group, Bob Taylor. Listug was the businessman behind the operation while Taylor looked after the design and production.

Taylor and Listug bought out Schemmer in 1983 and ended up expanding their small shop into a major guitar manufacturing company. By 2008 the company had more than 300 employees working for them in two different plants. One in El Cajon, California where the major line of Taylor guitars are made and the other in Tecate, Mexico where the "Baby" and "Big Baby" models are made.

After 30 years of hard work and determination, the Taylor guitar is better than ever. There are many famous and talented musicians who play Taylor guitars but unlike some other guitar manufacturing companies, these artists don't get paid to endorse Taylor guitars. Also the company doesn't give away free guitars to gain exposure. So when you see an artist playing a Taylor guitar, they are doing it because they love the instrument.