Yesterday I had a day that will be hard to top. I visited the Taylor Guitars factory tour and I had three root beer varieties I’d never experienced before. For me, that’s a pretty awesome day. You know what? For anyone that should be a pretty awesome day. I mean, how often to you get to do all of this in one day?
- Visit the manufacturing location of an iconic guitar brand
- Take a free working factory tour of an iconic guitar brand
- Play as many of those iconic guitars as you can at the end of a free factory tour
- Purchase heavily discounted guitars direct from the manufacturer (I didn’t do this, but I could have)
- Purchase awesome promotional items (this I did)
- Unwind with a selection of your favourite beverages (for me … root beer)
My answer? Probably once. I lapped it up! I even took pictures.
Once you’ve arrived at the Taylor Visitor Center (I’ve got to say as an Australian I struggle to write Center and not Centre) you check in for the tour. Just make sure you get there at tour time. You can’t just rock up whenever it suits you. This is a working factory after all.
The tour involves safety glasses, a visitor lanyard/badge and headphones so you can always hear your tour group leader. The last part is incredibly handy in a factory environment. It also means that even if you can’t see the tour group leader, you can still hear what is being explained as you take in the sights of the guitar factory.
The tour itself is incredibly informative. I’d say it was exciting, but non-guitar-lovers might not understand that. To heck with it … it was exciting! You are taken through the various stages of guitar manufacture and you are educated in the woods used, the processes used and the technology used in the manufacture of a Taylor Guitar. I was personally impressed with the way the tour openly shared information regarding the unique features of a Taylor Guitar.
At the end of the tour you can play any of the guitars that are hanging on the walls in the Visitor Center and you can even purchase selected items from the store area. I was so tempted to buy a Baby Taylor. I just couldn’t work out how I’d get it home (international flight) and how I’d survive once I’d made it home (wife).
What did I take away from the tour experience? Physically I took away some T-shirts, plectrums and promotional magazines. Mentally I discovered I love the Taylor Guitars T3 and the Taylor Guitars T5-X. They’re sexy guitars.
If you like colour photos (which you’ll never see on this website) I did take a few and they’re located here and here on my photography website.
So for me, the tour was awesome, but it had to end. Luckily, when I returned to my hotel room I discovered there was a bucket of root beer on ice waiting for me. My bucket had some Virgil’s Root Beer and some Stewart’s Root Beer in it. I’d never tried these brands before, but they’re both awesome. They are root beer after all.
I did also have a Barq’s Root Beer during the day with my lunch.
There you have it. A perfect ending to an almost perfect day. If you’re in San Diego or El Cajon one day, I suggest you attempt to have an equally impressive day. No … I challenge you!
