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The Birth of Builder’s Reserve

Taylor is excited to introduce its Builder’s Reserve program, in which Bob Taylor taps into the company’s private wood reserves to design a series of extra-special, ultra-limited guitars using wood that he has been accumulating over the course of 30-plus years.

For our inaugural Builder’s Reserve collection, Bob and his design team are celebrating the launch of our SolidBody electrics by crafting a very small quantity of exotic SolidBody Customs, which feature a neck, body and top of exquisite Bastogne walnut. (Bob wrote about the wood in his “BobSpeak” column in the summer 2007 issue of Wood&Steel and is pictured atop a section of the log.) Bob personally supervised the cutting of the log at one of our longtime wood suppliers, Pacific Rim Tonewoods.

The walnut was flatsawn, and the body was made from a single piece of the beautiful wood. The top boasts our nicest walnut burl and incorporates a gorgeous pickguard made entirely of solid, genuine pearl, which was hand-inlaid into the top by guitar designer Larry Breedlove. The fretboard inlay is a mother-of-pearl gothic vine motif.

Each SolidBody features a customized chrome back panel that is laser-engraved with our Builder’s Reserve logo and its individual number in the building sequence. The guitars come with a deluxe guitar case of walnut-colored suede with black, crushed velour interior.

Each Bastogne SolidBody will also include a specially designed collector’s book featuring glossy photos that chronicle the entire spectrum of development, from the tree’s growth to the guitar being built.

By design, each Builder’s Reserve collection will be completely unique, from the type of guitar to the quantity produced to the aesthetics to the price. This gives Bob and his team the ultimate freedom to let the wood inspire the guitar.

Thank you for reading.