When Leo Kottke plays his Taylor 12-string guitar, the audience isn’t thinking about the role that adhesives play in the music.
In fact, adhesives play a key role in the construction of the instruments, says Chris
Wellons, vice president
of production at Taylor
Guitars. Nearly all of
the 175 pieces that make
up a six-string guitar, and the
250 in a 12-string instrument,
are hand assembled using a
number of different glues.
Wellons says about 95 percent
of every guitar manufactured
at Taylor’s plant in El Cajon,
Calif., is assembled with yellow
aliphatic resin glue.
The Taylor Guitars factory in El Cajon is where raw wood is cut, milled, sanded, bent and finished to create the musical instruments.
Adhesives play a vital role in the construction of a quality guitar. A variety of glues are used in a Taylor Guitars instrument.
The company makes 80,000 guitars and 15,000 guitar cases annually, and 95 percent of all pieces are hand-glued after parts are cut. Taylor uses different adhesives for various applications, including Franklin Adhesives Titebond, Multibond 2015, Assembly High Tack, Titebond 50 and Titebond Melamine. The use of Franklin Adhesive products in Taylor Guitars goes back nearly 20 years, according to Wellons.
“Other than the industrial yellow/ woodworking glues that are commonly found throughout our factory, we also use double stick tapes/adhesives, UV cured glue, epoxies, cyanoacrylates and an ultrasonic welder for adhering plastic parts, as is the case with adhering our Expression System top sensors,” says Wellons.
Gluing the bridge to the guitar body. A six-string guitar has 175 separate pieces.
At the El Cajon factory, the process of constructing a guitar begins with seasoned, raw wood. Mahogany is the wood of choice for necks and pegheads. Once both parts have been milled, shaped and sanded to their final form,
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