Paniolo Tonewoods is a collaboration between America’s foremost guitar company and the leading tonewood producer. Taylor Guitars and Pacific Rim Tonewoods came together because they share a mission: to ensure a future for their businesses while caretaking the forests and nurturing the trees that make the music.

Now in Hawaii, Paniolo is working with various local individuals and organizations, including Haleakala Ranch on Maui, Nick Koch of Forest Solutions, Nick Dudley of the Hawaiian Agricultural Research Center, and the Native Nursery on Maui.

Additionally, Pacific Rim Tonewoods and Paniolo have commissioned research from a number of universities, including Purdue, Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Sustainability in Germany.

TAYLOR GUITARS

was established in 1974 by Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug, and is now one of the world’s leading manufacturers of acoustic and electric guitars.

Headquartered in El Cajon, California, Taylor Guitars employs over 900 people and currently produces hundreds of guitars per day. The company maintains an active dealer network with Taylor guitars available in over 800 retail locations in North America and international distribution to 60 countries, including a distribution warehouse in the Netherlands.

Renowned for blending modern technology with a master craftsman’s attention to detail, Taylor guitars are widely considered the best sounding and easiest to play in the world. The company was a pioneer of the use of computer technology, lasers and other high-tech tools and machinery; Bob Taylor is widely recognized throughout the musical instrument industry as a visionary.

Playability, craftsmanship, and aesthetics are just a few of the reasons that many of today’s leading musicians make Taylor their guitar of choice. The company’s artist roster numbers in the thousands, and includes the likes of Taylor Swift, Prince, Jason Mraz, and Zac Brown.

PACIFIC RIM TONEWOODS

is a specialty sawmill that has been supplying wood to the makers of fine musical instruments- mostly guitars for over 30 years. Located in the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Rim Tonewoods focuses on excellence in our tonewoods; responsible environmental stewardship in our practices; and satisfaction in our client relationships.

Tonewood is more than lumber: it’s wood carefully chosen for specific properties, milled to precise specifications and expertly treated so that the instruments built from this wood will look good, sound good, and endure. Pacific Rim Tonewoods’ longstanding mission is to provide luthiers with the best available soundboards for guitars and other musical instruments.

PRT recently teamed up with a university geneticist to devise a means of propagating desirable lines of maple. PRT’s sponsored research project—the only one of its kind—will, it is hoped, result in the cultivation of a tonewoods forest, filled with figured maple. Lessons from the maple lab will pave the way for similar studies of koa.

HALEAKALA RANCH

encompass nearly 30,000 acres rising from the southern shoreline to the beautiful heart of Upcountry Maui. Incorporated in 1888, five generations of Haleakala Ranch families and employees have worked hard to preserve the open, natural vistas of Upcountry Maui for the benefit of current and future generations. As one of the island’s large landowners, Haleakala Ranch is deeply committed to stewardship of Maui’s water, land and other natural resources. Pastures at the ranch support more than 1,100 breeding cows, 2,000 nanny goats and 350 ewes. As partners in Maui Cattle Company, the ranch supplies the local community with healthy, natural grass-fed beef. Holistic grazing management is used to control invasive species.