Recently I attended another Taylor Guitars Road Show here at World Music Nashville, my favorite music store in town. Those of you (still out there?) that have been reading this blog for a while know that I usually attend a few of these events every year. Last year in 2011 was no exception, as I got to go to one in Lubbock, TX in October, followed by this one in mid- November. In fact, to save you some time if interested, I have 4 links to my posts on some of the previous Road Shows I have attended below.
What was so special about this Road Show was a similar scenario to the first link above form the first one I attended in 2008. I was getting a new guitar. Only this one was custom made for me. As you can see in the photo above, I’m holding the guitar, which is a Custom BTO (Build to Order) 12-Fret. Taylor’s BTO program basically allows you to take a standard model and completely build it to your own specs from scratch, thus giving you the customer a completely custom, one off guitar that is uniquely yours. I’ll write another post just about the guitar, but for now, will just concentrate on the Road Show.
After seeing my BTO 12-fret for the first time, playing it and paying for it, I greeted my friends above in the photo. From L to R is Barney Hill, sales rep for Taylor Guitars; Brandon Heinzelmann, sales manager for World Music Nashville, and Marc Seal who is an artist and product specialist for Taylor Guitars. After catching up and chatting about the guitar for a bit, I settled into my seat with my friend David Ray, and we enjoyed the show. The Road Show went off without a hitch and Barney was extremely entertaining as usual, and Marc’s playing was fantastic. What made this show such a TAYLOR MADE event for me was not only receiving my guitar, but getting to hear Marc play it during the show after Barney talked about it during the BTO segment. He explained to the crowd how BTO orders worked and asked me to bring up my guitar. He talked about the build process as well as how the dealer works with the customers to achieve their dream guitar and then Marc played for a bit as seen here in the video.
When that was done, we had the “petting zoo”, where all audience members get to come up on stage or wherever, and play the guitars for about 20 minutes during the break. Barney and Marc had brought some fabulous Limited Edition and BTO guitars with them, so I tried to play as many of those as possible. This is what I did for 2 years at Road Shows to keep listening to tone woods to figure out what I wanted to do for my 12-fret. And after every “petting zoo”, I would make mental notes to myself about what I liked and didn’t like.
During the electric segment, Marc played a few songs which was fabulous as always and then we all got to go out to dinner after the show, which was also a treat. It was a really special night for me and one I will never forget. I’m already looking forward to this year’s Road Shows that I will attend once they are announced in the next several weeks. I have been to 8 or 9 now, and could seriously do them myself since I know Taylor’s guitars so well. It never gets old to me though, and I never tire of the repeated info I hear because these events are so fun to go to. So, until the next post about the next show, go here to see some picts of this one. If you want to see some videos of Marc performing a few of his songs on Taylor electrics, go here and here.
Thanks for reading. Stay tuned . . .
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