Video of Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars Discussing ebony

[Barry Richardson]

Pretty enlightening video about the situation with ebony. Interesting if you are a guitar nut or a wood nut, or both, like mehttp://www.finewoodworking.com/item/...dbye-to-ebony/ I toured the Taylor Guitar operation a couple of times when I lived in San Diego and met Bob once. It was awsome BTW...

[george wilson]

A former journeyman of mine was running the neck making department some years ago. I'm not sure what he is now doing. Maybe he's still there.

[Barry Daniels]

Bob makes it sound like he is doing this for the benefit of all luthiers to have a reliable supply of ebony, even if it isn't pure black. But my impression is that he is cornering the market which will obviously have economic benefits for Taylor. Not that there is anything wrong with making money.

[Matt McColley]

Bob makes it sound like he is doing this for the benefit of all luthiers to have a reliable supply of ebony, even if it isn't pure black. But my impression is that he is cornering the market which will obviously have economic benefits for Taylor. Not that there is anything wrong with making money.

I've followed several news stories about the EPA raiding Gibson, seizing tens of thousands of dollars worth of wood, never pressing charges.... never giving the material back.... stonewalling Gibsons legal appeals...

The Feds have NO accountability to anybody.... organized crime and pure theft is what I call it!

And the law is so warped and twisted, that it allows finished components from rare woods, but not the wood itself... which of course means that the entire Luthier industry in the US is being forced to outsource much of their work (and jobs) to Asia.

But that's o.k., because I'm so sure that China has the world's tightest controls and restrictions on their industry that all the wood used is certified sustainably harvested. ..... yes, the same country that can't keep melamine out of their baby formula..... SARCASM!!!!

[John Coloccia]

Bob makes it sound like he is doing this for the benefit of all luthiers to have a reliable supply of ebony, even if it isn't pure black. But my impression is that he is cornering the market which will obviously have economic benefits for Taylor. Not that there is anything wrong with making money.

He doesn't have to sell the "lower grade" ebony to corner the market. He cornered it when he and his partner company bought the supplier. What he's doing is selling he non-black ebony. It makes me wonder if he'll sell the jet black at a premium price, which would completely negate everything he's doing. I really applaud his efforts. Luthiers, especially, are incredibly wasteful. Personally, I try to make the most efficient use of materials I can. That means I use scarfed headstocks (which are stronger anyway), separate heels, headstock wings, multi-piece bodies etc. I don't want to be the generation that sees all of our traditional guitar woods disappear. It's already becoming incredibly difficult to find Honduran Mahogany for making necks. I have to pick through hundreds of board feet to find maybe one or two boards I can use. That tells me they're coming from small trees.

Anyhow, I really applaud what he's doing.

Personally, I think jet black ebony is boring anyway and I really dislike it when fingerboards are dyed black, covering up nature. It's a shame so many consider the cosmetic perfection of natural materials something that should be strived for. Generally, I only apply some sort of paint or other "covering up" to my work when *I* screw it up and I have to cover up a mistake. For example, I have a guitar I'm building now that will have a black back. I made a boo boo that I won't be able to fix invisibly, so I have to cover up my own mistake. I don't have anything against dyes and things like that but I really hate that whenever we use woods like poplar, alder, basswood, etc that it's immediately assumed that it will be painted because they're ugly.

That's just my own aesthetics. I'll stop rambling now

[george wilson]

Violin makers have been dying ebony for hundreds of years to make it blacker anyway. You can buy(or could buy) black dye"For insuring the blackness of ebony" from violin suppliers.

The best way to tell the best quality of ebony is to select the stuff that has the very smallest pores. That,and the color make the best ebony.

[John Coloccia]

Violin makers have been dying ebony for hundreds of years to make it blacker anyway. You can buy(or could buy) black dye"For insuring the blackness of ebony" from violin suppliers.

The best way to tell the best quality of ebony is to select the stuff that has the very smallest pores. That,and the color make the best ebony.

Is that different than the leather dye?

[Barry Daniels]

It's similar to leather dye. Basically analine dye in an alcohol base. I used to work for a luthier supply place and the stuff was called Ebonholzabize (probably wrong spelling).

[Barry Knier]

Pretty enlightening video about the situation with ebony. Interesting if you are a guitar nut or a wood nut, or both, like mehttp://www.finewoodworking.com/item/...dbye-to-ebony/ I toured the Taylor Guitar operation a couple of times when I lived in San Diego and met Bob once. It was awsome BTW...

It seems such a waste to use ebony when all that is required for a fingerboard is a hard surface that won't get gouged by the players fingernails. Pure black ebony ebony doesn't even look like wood--no grain; nothing--so why use it? What Bob should be recommending is not the use of off color ebony but rather an alternate material.

[John Coloccia]

You may be surprised how much different fingerboards contributes to the sound and feel of a guitar. That said, we do use alternate woods but ebony happens to be a very traditional acoustic/archtop fingerboard material. My personal favorite fingerboard is Pau Ferro, and I use it wherever I can.

[Greg Peterson]

Hard to argue Taylor's logic. We can harvest the remaining inventory of black ebony until there is no more or adjust our expectations and use the available inventory.

John - I have come around to the conclusion that the neck, specifically the fret board, is a significant contributor to the character of the instruments tone. Much more so than just about any other single aspect (finish, electronics, body wood...). The bridge is more or less a constant whereas the neck can have spots that resonate more/less freely with the frequency of the string. There is no fix for a 'dull' fret board. All other matters being equal, IMO it is the fret board that distinguishs one guitar from another.

Acoustic instruments are even more sensitive and therefore dependent on quality necks and fret boards.