In February of 2000, the idea to start a forum guitar project was born. Jake Kurdsjuk spearheaded the process, spending untold hours on it; the FG#1 would have never materialized without his efforts. Forum members had much discussion on the subject. In the end, Terry offered two proposals, both proposals being variations on existing designs with cosmetic input from the forum. The options were: (a) an all mahogany guitar with specially-designed pickups; or (b) a mahogany body and maple top platform with a specially tuned semi-hollow but non-ported body – essentially a Royal II with no port.

After much debate, the forum members voted and the second option won out. Each person ordering a guitar had the choice of flame or quilted maple top, Standard or ‘57 neck carve, and several premium finishes at no up-charge. Gold hardware and Sperzel locking tuners were additional to the price, which ended up being about $2350 street. The guitars were produced in October through December of 2000.

Shortly after the FG#1, people started talking about a second forum guitar. In August of 2002, the Forum Limited Edition guitar was announced. This time it was a single cutaway design based on the Taurus platform, but with several key differences. The first was that the maple-topped body was going to be made of swamp ash, a wood not previously offered by TCM. Second, the pickups were to be the newly-designed Tree of Life or “TOL” humbuckers, which, coupled with the swamp ash, would give the guitar a slightly higher output and rounder tone than that commonly associated with the Taurus Standard -- split coil tones as well.

Four finish options were available: gold top (another first for TCM), black opaque, supernatural, and tobaccoburst. One FLE even showed up in Sea Foam Green. Members also had their choice of a Tone Pros locking fixed bridge or the TCM Vibe bridge, and the Standard, ‘57, or Mild V neck carve. Some FLEs made it out the door with custom neck carves as well, including the Taurus Custom carve. The FLE also featured a rosewood headstock overlay along with rope inlays and a special 12th fret “sun scene” inlay. Sperzel locking tuners with ivoroid buttons rounded out the specs. Street price was $2650, with gold hardware (and presumably custom neck carves) being a $100 upcharge. Some thirty FLEs were made (give or take – there was also a prototype or two) in batches of 10, the last of them being delivered in the fall of 2003. They remain a unique TCM creation.

The  Picture Page features images of the FG1 and FLE guitars.