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2023 - James Olson SJ - Western Red Cedar & Brazilian Rosewood
Serial: 1705 CONSIGNMENT
Weight: 4 lbs 12 oz
Add to Cart$48,250.00
James Olson Acoustic Guitars — The Guitar James Taylor Plays
In 1989, James Taylor bought three guitars from a luthier in Circle Pines, Minnesota that almost nobody outside the acoustic guitar world had heard of. He has played almost no other guitar since. That relationship, now spanning more than thirty-five years and eight custom builds, is one of the most enduring and visible endorsements in the history of acoustic lutherie, and it tells you everything you need to know about what a James Olson guitar is.
Jim Olson began building acoustic guitars full time in 1977, combining backgrounds in woodworking and guitar playing into a vocation he has never stopped pursuing. National attention came first in the mid-1980s when Phil Keaggy commissioned the first cedar-topped Olson SJ and began playing it almost exclusively on his acoustic albums and in concert. Taylor's visibility brought the name to a global audience. Leo Kottke, Sting, Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues, Graham Nash, and Kathy Mattea followed. Paul McCartney has visited the Circle Pines shop. The reputation has never needed advertising because the guitars have always done the talking.
Jim builds every guitar himself, entirely by hand, in a workshop behind his home in Circle Pines that luthiers who have visited describe with something close to reverence. He produces around forty instruments per year and has maintained a waiting list for decades.
The SJ
The SJ, or Small Jumbo, is the model most associated with the Olson name and the one James Taylor has played on virtually every tour and recording since 1989. It is a body shape Jim developed himself, a slightly smaller and shallower profile than a standard jumbo that produces a tonal balance, sustain, and dynamic range that players consistently describe as surpassing far larger instruments.
The SJ is built around a five-piece laminated neck in rosewood, maple, and mahogany, paired with an ebony fingerboard and bridge, tortoiseshell binding, herringbone top purfling, and a three-ring abalone rosette. Cedar and Sitka spruce top options deliver distinctly different tonal characters: cedar is warmer, more immediate, and extraordinarily responsive to light fingerstyle touch, while Sitka offers more headroom and projection for players who dig in harder. Indian rosewood and Brazilian rosewood back and sides are available, with the Brazilian instruments representing the pinnacle of what Jim builds and among the most collectible custom acoustic guitars available anywhere.
The SJ Cutaway adds a Florentine cutaway for full upper register access without compromising the body's acoustic integrity, and remains one of the most elegant cutaway designs any luthier has produced.
The Dreadnought
For players who need more power, projection, and bass presence than the SJ delivers, Jim builds his dreadnought to identical standards with the same tonewood, neck construction, and appointment options. The Olson dreadnought is not a departure from the brand's character but an extension of it: a bigger voice built with the same obsessive care.
The James Taylor Signature Models
In 2002, during his 25th year as a luthier, Jim collaborated with James Taylor on the specification of a limited edition series of James Taylor Signature Model guitars, each bearing a label personally signed by both James Taylor and Jim Olson visible through the soundhole, with the neck head block laser-engraved with the James Taylor Signature Model designation alongside the serial number and year of construction. Jim committed to building 100 JT models in total: 80 standard JT models and 10 each of two Special Edition variants. These instruments are among the most sought-after custom acoustic guitars ever made, and examples that come to market are acquired quickly by collectors who understand what they represent.
A Guitar That Earns Its Price
An Olson guitar is not inexpensive, and the wait is real. What you receive at the end of that wait is an instrument that players who have owned guitars at every price level consistently describe as the best acoustic guitar they have ever played. James Taylor put it simply: Jim makes a guitar that is very stable, very reliable. All of my Olsons have lasted. He is around to fix them, and that is a crucial relationship we have.
Browse our available Olson inventory. These instruments are rare at any price, and the ones that come to market do not stay available for long.