Purchased my first Taylor in November...GS-Mini Koa. Have "heard" about Taylor's' off and on for years (my 40 yr old son's name, so naturally it gave me a "huh" moment). Never really researched them until lately; having retired I have a renewed interest in a long lost love...acoustic guitars. I probably had not picked one up but a dozen or so times in a couple of decades...well, you know, "life happens."
Have had many guitars over the course of 55 years...currently about 17 or 18 (nothing high, hell likely not even mid, level). I'm "exposing myself" (chortle) to a variety of body sizes, woods, etc. As I am studying "Luthiering" I plan to do setup/repairs and resell acoustics, mostly as an education/experience/labor of love endeavor. I have been a woodworker of one form or another (just retired from tree service, now that's primal woodworking experience) most of my life, along with numerous other enterprises; and ya' know what?...I'm still a darn rank amateur when I get a guitar in hand...lol.
My main guitar is a 1974 Guild D40 I purchased new, it and a 1970 something lawsuit Martin knock-off and my new Mini are my go-to instruments at present. I have learned an enormous amount about the design, construction and dynamics of acoustics over the last 6 +/- months, and have now via actual hand's (ear's?) on experience aligned my preferences with what my (potentially) ultimate guitar will be. Found a very interesting 'study' online: (
http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/hearing/the-guitar-experiment/online-tests/); absolutely mindblowing for moi'...I highly recommend it. I have labored under the delusion that my "ultimate, be-all, last I would ever want/need" guitar was...tada...HD-28!!! WRONG!!!! Almost mortgaged the wife to snap up a great deal on one, new, drive out, shipped free, FINANCED NO INTEREST 12 months....and 45 day 'no questions asked' return policy'. darn glad I could not justify it; wifey would have been pissed too :-). Anyway, back to my point...the "ears on" study was enlightening (you would'a had ta' bin' there)...I did their blind test run through and consistently picked two b/s tonewoods (all spruce top guitars used in the study), and they weren't Rosewood! I have since gone back thru the test(s) multiple times, refining my techniques and keeping copious notes; still dead on consistent with my top two choices, with one edging out the other for 1st place; 1 statistically significantly (say that 10 time fast) comes in third, while the other three flop around a bit for 4th thru 6th...but that's academic. After a few runs through, the position of the guitar presented becomes a constant, so some objectivity is lost, but I compensate by compressing my scoring and putting days/week(s) between exposure; I know I can say with confidence what I most appreciate in tonal quality from that experience and having listened to hundreds (hyperbole?) of online comparisons of these versus other tonewoods. I am purposely withholding my pick(s) as I hope some of you take the opportunity to experience the study, and we will have a whole new thread to pursue. :-). Keep in mind, there are only 6 different guitars, i.e., only 6 tonewoods, but they are the 'standards' of the industry and likely reflect (no pun intended) the tonal characteristics enjoyed by most "guitarophiles" (sic).
Ok, now what was the question? Right...how did I end up here...quite simply, researching the Taylor line. After purchasing one, then discovering my "tastes", I became more convinced that the Taylor resides at the top of the heap over all that I have experienced...albeit, I obviously have not played a fraction of the others, dare I say that would probably take more years than are likely allotted to me, but using my totally objective perspective (NOT...read TOTALLY SUBJECTIVE), the demos of the instruments I have managed to experience (Martins, Gibson's, Matons, Breedlove, Seagull high end, Yamaha hi end, Larrivees, BlueRidge, ...gasp...the list is far longer, but you get the point), Taylor has more than held it's own for my listening enjoyment, and I have played most of their stock models (sigh, love at first pluck).
OK, no one asked for a short story that was not Pulitzer worthy, but once I get on a roll, well..you see. I will end with an apology for this tome of a posting and ask your tolerance...I don't know the rules of the game here...don't do participatory forums (typically), but my passion for guitars and specifically Taylor's paragon of the art of guitar building has opened up a floodgate. Thank you folks for this forum, and I promise to at least try to be more succinct in the future...likely get my wrist slapped and be instructed to 'cop or drop' :-). Regards all...
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