BTW, Tacoma made some GREAT guitars and basses, really stood out, but somehow never found a niche in a brutal market. I've thought abourt doing that as a winter pastime myself.Īnyway, that's my understanding. And once in awhile you will run across a Tacoma for sale that's been refinished by someone. I was a member there while I owned tacoma, but haven't been there in awhile. There is a small but intrepid cadre of folks over on teh Tacoma forum who know more than I do. I have owned a DM9 with NO problems, a DR28 with NO problems, a PM28 with NO problems, and a PR40 with horrrible finish issues (it was a 1999), and if you go on Reverb you may see some Tacomas with bubbles and some 'air' in the finishes. Also, the Papoose, Road King, and Chiefs were satin I believe, and few to no problems there. Also, the ones that were satin-finishede seemed to have far fewer problems as well - to the 9 series, the 10 series, and the 14 series did okay by and large. This is important because it means that the 'post-Fender' guitars had a 'G' or higher prefix, and they are the ones who seem to have had far fewer finish-peeling issues. I believe it was 1998 when Tacoma began putting an alpha prefix on their serial numbers - 1998 was a Bxxxx, 1999 was a Cxxxx, etc. I figured that was sort of like the Martin folks saying all the 60's Martins wer better than the new ones - pretty subjective. Lots of folks say that the 'Pre-Fender' Tacomas sounded best, but I've owned both 'Pre' and 'Post', and I didn't see any difference in quality or performance (other than the finishes being more reliable). Also, Fender pretty much raided Tacoma's wood stocks - some beautiful aged wood went into Fender's processes, and disappeared. Then in 2003 I think, Tacoma was bought by Fender, who pretty much fixed the humidity problems, but by then the writing was on the wall. I don't buy that, because there were lots of other variables as well, but suffice to say it was a big deal. Anyway, this problem became pretty serioius, and some folks say it was the downfall of Tacoma. Sometimes you see a little peeling around the tuners, or sometimes on the waist, etc. I am not really sure if it was factory humidity problems, or maybe primer mix/adhesion (lots of different opinions on that), or what, but it's easy to spot. Well, kind of a story, but Tacomas have had a history of finish peeling, and in fact a significant number of their guitars really peeled badly.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |