Here's a video of the
Taylor Guitars factory tour. You can go to their factory any weekday at 1:00 p.m. and take the 2-hour tour. At 4:45 is the robot painting a guitar. It's my favorite part. At 6:15, the gray-haired guy asking the questions is Mike Broward, who sold Bob Taylor his first guitar. Mike sat in on lead guitar a couple times in my country western band.
Taylor uses a lot of high-tech machinery, including laser cutters and CNC machines. The finish work is done by hand, but the finish is applied by robot. This gives them consistently high quality. After watching the video of the Fender factory, it's clear why there is so much variability between their early instruments. Everything was done by eye, and there's no way any two instruments were the same. That's why I like modern-day CNC machined basses like Sadowsky, Lakland and Jerzy Drozd.
