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Old 08-17-2012, 09:02 AM
Wade Hampton Wade Hampton is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Chugiak, Alaska
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Default James Taylor, Olson guitars and John Pearse strings

Yesterday when I logged onto the forum I read a thread about James Taylor, Olson guitars and Adamas strings. Since there was some conflicting information from different posters on the thread about the brand of strings that JT currently prefers, I decided that before I posted any response, I would call both the Breezy Ridge/John Pearse strings office and the custom guitar builder Jim Olson himself. I wanted to make sure I had the correct information before I posted anything. In the process, I spent about thirty minutes or so on the phone with Jim Olson. (We have several mutual friends and the conversation was wide-ranging, not just about JT's string preference.)

Okay, just for what it's worth, as a guitarist myself it doesn't matter much to me what strings any famous player happens to use. At most, if a guitarist whose playing I admire expresses a strong preference for a certain brand of strings, I might give them a try. I think most of us are like that.

Give 'em a try? Sure. Slavishly follow whatever preference the famous player expresses? Nah - not hardly.

As it happens, I have my own strong preference for strings - I'm a John Pearse artist endorser, but was using Pearse strings almost exclusively for years before achieving that status.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

First, the short version: James Taylor used Adamas strings for a brief period in the early 1990's, for two to three years maximum. Since then he has used, preferred and endorsed John Pearse strings.

Jim Olson is a little vague on the exact time frame of when JT had those Adamas strings, since he himself was not directly involved. But what happened was that around 1991 Adamas/Kaman Corporation made up several dozen sets of strings in the gauges JT prefers: .011, .015, .022, .030, .040, .050. JT liked the Adamas strings well enough, and those were what he happened to be using when he was interviewed for the 1992 magazine article that is quoted on Jim Olson's website.

But Jim introduced JT to John Pearse strings shortly thereafter, and JT loved them. Since at least 1995 JT has used John Pearse strings exclusively. I spoke to Todd at the Breezy Ridge office just before talking to Jim Olson, and Todd told me that they send shipments of 4 dozen sets of the John Pearse 550 Slightly Light phosphor bronze strings to JT's guitar tech every time JT and the band tour. Just the middle of last month Todd sent them another shipment of 48 sets.

Todd also mentioned that JT's brother Livingston Taylor uses the same set. As it happens, it was James Taylor's preference for that set of gauges that inspired the Pearse "Slightly Light" set in the first place. Another string company might market them as the "James Taylor" set, but Breezy Ridge doesn't do that.

I looked at the page on Jim Olson's website that was cited as the source for the information that JT uses Adamas strings:

http://www.olsonguitars.com/taylor.html

To be fair it's hard to read. Immediately after the mention of the Adamas strings there's another paragraph that says that the information is from an old magazine article and is out of date, but that disclaimer is not in another typeface or all that easy to see, much less read.

But in our phone conversation yesterday Jim repeatedly emphasized to me that JT is using John Pearse strings exclusively, and has been for at least the last 15-18 years.

Jim also repeatedly asked me to post the correct information in a public response on the forum. So here's that post.

I have no intention of giving the original poster of the Adamas thread any kind of hard time, either via personal message or in a post. He posted what he thought was correct information. It's just outdated, that's all.

Anyway, it's not a big deal, but I thought it might be worthwhile to double check, so I did.


Wade Hampton Miller
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