Getting a guitar in the hands of a famous player is every luthier's dream. In 1989, when Minnesota guitar maker James Olson left one of his SJ cutaways in James Taylor's dressing room, he was still working a second job. Olson already had a great local reputation, but when Taylor called the next day, he got the break he had been waiting for.

Taylor loved the guitar, but he wanted a noncutaway version with the same neck dimensions. Olson wanted Taylor to take one of his instruments with him, however, so he allowed Taylor to buy the cutaway guitar on the spot with the understanding that he would exchange it when the new guitar was completed. Once the new guitar was finished, however, Taylor decided to keep the cutaway guitar as well, and while he was at it, he ordered an Olson dreadnought to round out his collection. All three guitars remain active in Taylor's stage setup, but he considers the guitar pictured here to be his main instrument and has used it on every CD he's recorded since he got it.

"The only parameter he wanted was the cedar top," says Olson. "James left the ornamentation and inlay up to me." Olson decided to use East Indian rosewood for the guitar's back and sides, and although the instrument is graced with an abalone rosette and purfling, it features simple fingerboard inlays and an understated look. The only thing different from Olson's standard SJ design is that the guitar's neck is laminated using rosewood instead of mahogany. "I don't really know why I did it," says Olson.

Taylor had the guitar set up with an L.R. Baggs LB-6 pickup (which replaces the entire saddle) and uses a custom set of John Pearse "slightly light" strings. Olson has had the guitar in his shop at various times for "minor tweaks and adjustments," but it has remained free of cracks and other structural problems.

 

Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, May 2002, No. 113.

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