From El Cajon to Cameroon: Taylor Guitars tackles ebony and elephant conservation

Taylor Guitars' ebony and elephants

El Cajon-based Taylor Guitars changed how the industry uses ebony after founder Bob Taylor bought a sawmill in Cameroon in 2011 and learned more than half the trees cut were wasted for lack of jet-black wood.

Key points Taylor Guitars' ebony and elephants
  1. El Cajon-based Taylor Guitars changed how the industry uses ebony after founder Bob Taylor bought a sawmill in Cameroon in 2011 and learned more than half the trees cut were wasted for lack of jet-black wood.
  2. The company put striped, variegated ebony on its guitars, and other makers followed, reducing forest waste.
  3. Taylor then partnered with UCLA biologist Tom Smith and the Congo Basin Institute on the Ebony Project, which has planted nearly 50,000 ebony trees and found that elephants are key to spreading ebony seeds.
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