Vintage Tacoma Guitars

Tacoma Guitars is a guitar manufacturer in Tacoma, Washington. It is currently a subsidiary of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

History

Tacoma Guitars began as a division of Young Chang America that made piano soundboards for export to Korea. In 1996, it was decided that they would create an American acoustic guitar company. In 1997, production of the unconventional Papoose model began. Since then, they have developed ranges of guitars, some with conventional round sound holes, others with the paisley sound hole introduced on the Papoose.

A recession in the Asian economy caused Young Chang to sell the division to a local concern in Tacoma.
The company was purchased by Fender in October 2004 and is now a division of Fender

Design features

Tacoma has incorporated unusual features in many of its guitars, notably its paisley soundholes and, unusually for acoustic guitars, its bolt-on necks.

Paisley soundhole

Several of Tacoma's models feature an unusually shaped soundhole, called a paisley soundhole, on the left side of the upper bout. The purpose of this was to move the soundhole to a relatively low-stress part of the top, thereby increasing the strength of the top, reducing the amount of bracing needed, thereby making the top more resonant.

The group of Tacoma guitars that currently use the paisley soundhole are referred to as the Wing Series.

Voiced Bracing Support

Tacoma guitars utilize their Voiced Bracing Support system to various extents. The theory behind the system is to minimize bracing to what it needs to remain stable, such that the tone of the guitar is sacrificed as little as possible.

The full extent of this philosophy is applied to the Wing Series guitars, which use A-frame bracing instead of the more traditional X-frame bracing of conventional acoustics. A modification of the traditional X-frame bracing is used with their models with conventional sound holes. Two cross-braces are added to the outside of the X to improve the stability and rigidity of the sound hole while allowing the edges to be more flexible and resonant.

The braces are contoured such that they are thinner but wider near the edges of the top and thicker but narrower near the center of the top.

Bridge

Bridges on Tacoma acoustic guitars are asymmetrically shaped to improve the response of each string. The bridge is curved rather than flat and has no sharp edges. This is done to improve the transmission of the vibrations from the bridge to the top.

Bolt-on necks

Most Tacoma guitars have bolt-on necks without visible screw plates.