~ Tao Guitars ~

"We've always thought that the exercise of explaining our work or the philosophy behind what we're doing could be a somewhat frustrating experience, so the sentence here is what seems to be just the right words for us:"

"The machine is not master & tyrant, but willing servant and helper, and the products do not take their physiognomy from mechanical technology but from the spirit of their artistic originator and from the dexterity of artistically skilled hands. It is better to work ten days on an article than producing ten articles a day, this is the ruling principal. Style as identity."- Joseph August Lux

First & foremost, all Tao Guitars instruments are fully hand made one by one by the Tao team in their Brussels workshop. They approach every project as unique. That's why they don't make guitars in series or batches. Every instrument has its own character, its own body contour or neck shape, custom color & hardware.

THE WOOD CHOICES FOR THEIR BODIES ARE:
- lightweight swamp ash
- red alder
- Spanish cedar
- African limba
- Honduran mahogany

All Tao Guitars necks start with quarter-sawn wood. For the maples they use European maple, mostly used in violins & other bowed instruments. It is lighter in weight, whitish in color & has some gorgeous flamed appearance and a more open airy sound than its North American counterpart.

Tao Guitars necks also feature their trademark asymmetrical shape (round on the bass side, a little flatter on the treble side) and super rounded frets & fretboard edges for a cool "fits like a glove" feel. Their fretting job is also customized in the way that they start with a regular jumbo wire to the 12th fret & then continue on with smaller ones toward the end of the fretboard. This helps allow pull-offs up where the space between the frets becomes too close!

They've also developed their own single bar, double action with spoke wheel truss rods which are machined by a custom race car parts workshop. They call it "the carbon flex," influenced by Steve Klein's design. It consist of a multi-layered wood/carbon heart for a larger push or pull than normal truss rods. This prevents necks from twisting & other problems related to standard designs. It also makes the neck curve evenly through all his length. Tao Guitars necks are also flanked with 2 carbon bars running from the 9th fret to the end of the fretboard, this helps get rid of those annoying fretboard end bumps and allows low action settings. The neck joints are as tight as possible & hand adjusted. The Tao team performs their own little magic trick to give their bolt on necks the same sustain as their glue-on sisters (it is a trade secret & will not be explained!).

Regarding finishes, they try to keep the layers as thin as possible to let the wood sound and express itself to the max!

THE TAO HARDWARE CHOICES INCLUDE:
- GOTOH 510 vintage H.A.P tuners, or Stealth (as on the Pheaton)
- GLENDALE Half Plate bridges with Intone Cutting Edge compensated saddles
- COMPTON compensated bridges (as on the Phaeton)
- CTS pots which are selected for the best taper, customized for smoother action & then polished for a classier appearance
- Russian N.O.S capacitors
- Electro-socket outputs

Tao also makes custom hardware parts, like their BUCKET bridge and custom knobs, control plates, and decorative "jewels" as on their El Mirage model.

For their pickups they enjoy an ongoing collaboration with Mr. Dave Stephens of SD pickups. After nine long years of research Dave has created what could be the most touch sensitive and best sounding humbucker known to mankind. He also makes his own incarnation of the Tao Guitars chicken strut neck pickup to which he adds some special magic in order to bring it to a new level of sophistication. Tao Guitars' custom SD pickups come with their trademark custom made "front grille" nickel covers.

Tao Guitars is always open to new projects, special features, or crazy ideas in order to make creative and beautiful tone machines. As they say "play a masterpiece, wear an attitude."