The Best 6 year old Birthday Party ever!

For my grandson Joaquin's 6th birthday (he's the one with the wild long blond hair) we hired a local group that provides a live reptile experience for the kids.  They get to handle all sorts of interesting reptiles and learn all about them.   Snakes, Turtles, Frogs, an Alligator, Spiders, Iguanas, and a bearded Dragon.  My comment to my wife when it was all over was simply..."I can't believe no one was bitten!" It was one of the most incredible parties I have ever been too that includes adult and kid parties!  Well anyway...heres a few pictures, ENJOY!

  

Working with good folks!

Every once in a while when we're working on a new guitar design at Taylor Guitars we run into someone who really impresses me as a good soul.   Tommy Shaw (Styx, Damn Yankees, Shaw Blades) is one of those kind of guys.  

Left to right...Tommy's guitar tech Jimmy, Bob Taylor, Tommy and I.

We're working on a signature guitar for Tommy so I've been working on a set of pickups that would really capture the legacy of his sound as well as offer him a new inspiring tone for his future.    

Styx was playing at the House of Blues here in San Diego last night so I met Tommy a couple of hours before the show to try out the final design through his rig.   

As much as I enjoy talking about guitars and invention I also really enjoy being with and working to compliment really great people like Tommy.    If there is an ego involved somewhere I'm sure it's such a small part of his personality that you might have to hit him with a bat to bring it out.   Artists like Tommy make you want to do nice things for him.  They make you want to inspire him with great guitars.  

It goes unsaid that not all artists are shall we say...easy to get along with even when your doing something nice for them.  Well this situation is nothing like that which is why I thought I would take a second and write about it.  

At our trade show in Jan this year he and Jack Blades (Night Ranger, Damn Yankees) came to our booth to do an acoustic version of their hits.  Again...not only was the performance truly awesome we had a really good time with everyone in their crew.  That in itself is an indication of the quality of folks that surround these guys.  

 

I won't go on and on so let me just say this....If your a Styx, Damn Yankees, or Shaw Blades fan or not....behind the music is the type of substance that is worth supporting.   Good people who love making good music... and it shows!

Quick Retrospect of 08

I was way too busy in 08 to write on my Blog or finish the instructions for building acoustic preamps and a Ray Gun!

It was a really busy 08!   

In Jan of last year we launched the Taylor Solidbody Electric guitar at 

the NAMM show in Anaheim.  Three of us from Taylor also flew to NY to do interviews with Guitar World and San Francisco to interview with Guitar Player.    

By late February I was on a plane headed for Europe for two weeks to begin planning the set up of Taylor Factory service centers in 3 different countries.  In March I headed back to Germany for 10 days to attend the Music Messe in Frankfurt and continue planning and training for the centers.  

In May I flew to Holland to work with the EDC where all the guitars ship from and then to the UK where we set up the first center in East Grinstead. 

 The Hotel I stay at in Breda Holland now sets up a small drawing and painting desk for me by the window in my room!  Great folks and a really beautiful city!

Below is a picture of the Service crew and Danielle the CS director for Europe.

In July I was off again for another two weeks where we set up the second center in Dusseldorf Germany and in September we 

set up the third in Gothenburg Sweden, another two weeks.   

By late September plans for the launch of our next product the T3 were beginning to take shape and the Taylor Tremolo was in it's first advanced proto stage.  As the year was winding down and we began ramping up for the launch I made a quick trip to Tokyo to begin setting up our service and sales support in Japan. 

Today is Jan 11th 09, in 3 days the cycle starts again with NAMM and the launch of the T3!   Checkout the Taylor websight for some great pictures of the new guitar and highlights from the NAMM show!  

Here's a shot I did with my phone of the first proto outside my office, sorry about the picture quality.  

What will this year bring?

I am sooooo excited!  And a little worn out......

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