2000 Taylor 510 Acoustic/Electric Dreadnought Guitar

Taylors are very popular and I see a lot of 510s around these parts. They're fairly common workhorse guitars and while I'm not a fan of the undersaddle pickup sound, the active preamp makes easy tone and volume adjustment possible at even the loudest gigs. This one was in for some repairs (fret level/dress, setup, top crack cleats, cleaning) so I figured I'd snap a few shots and mic it for posterity.

The serial number places it right at 2000 and as a D-18 competitor (spruce over hog, ebony board and bridge, understated appointments) it's not a bad choice. Compared to an average D-18, though, I wouldn't want to be bluegrassing this guitar. It's a much better full-on chord/singing instrument as it doesn't have quite enough of the midrange punch for straight band lead use.

The trim is nice on this fella, though. I like the look of "red tortoise" on spruce. The koa rosette detail is a good choice as well.

The one thing that never caught on with me on Taylors are the pseudo-Knutsen-style bridges. Something in my brain circuit identifies these as belonging to Hawaiian guitars...!

The standard-issue hairline dryness top crack has been cleated and is good to go.

During setup on Taylors I always make sure that the two neck bolts are nice and snug. Taylor (like Martin) puts obnoxious little paper labels over their bolt access and so when you remove it to get at the bolts it always leaves this ugly label residue.

My thinking: leave them visible! Personally, I would be proud of this nice bolt-on setup that let me get the neck snug and stable and the action spot-on with two turns of a socket.