815ce - am I nuts?

[roadbiker]

As I was readng this I wondered if you tired playing a dreadnought...

Jim

[Doug W]

Roadbiker -

Good question.  Didn't really spend much time looking at the x10 Taylors on this go round.  I do still have a dreadnought - the plywood Samick from my college days that I mentioned in the first post - which I know really provides no frame of reference for what a Taylor would sound like.  That said, I've just never gravitated toward the feel of a dreadnought when I'm playing it.  There is something about the more accentuated curves of the other guitars that makes them feel more right to me, and no matter how good a guitar sounds, it isn't going to do me any good if I don't feel like picking it up because it isn't comfortable to play.

Obviously, lots of other people feel differently, which is why its great that there are so many different designs and body shapes available.

[Go Navy]

I say buy it!  You've found a guitar you love.  So buy it.  Don't feel bad:  I have a special order 812ce with a western red cedar top I'm waiting on. I could have  researched around and bought a perfectly good used Taylor a tad bit further down the food chain that would be a fine instrument.  But I wanted an 812ce. 

If you're nuts, then all of us are nuts!  In fact, we might just be!  Or, maybe guitar players are normal and everyone else is crazy???

[michaelw]

hi doug,
i don't know
aren't we all, maybe just a little bit

seriously, i don't think you're nuts for getting the
guitar that sounds, plays & feels the best to you ... congrats

thanks for sharing how the 815ce found you & for the pics too

i'm pretty sure that the return of the redesigned jumbo was mentioned in the current W & S, page 15,
close to the bottom of the paragraph that mentions the 12 string models, but we heard it here first
http://www.unofficialtaylorguitarforum.com/index.php?topic=786.msg5646#msg5646

[Doug W]

Michael -

Thanks for the pointers to the info about the revoicing.  It provides some interesting food for thought, relative to Taylor's stated rationale:

"With the emergence of the GS as a big, rich acoustic voice that balances power and balance, we’ve decided to temporarily remove the Jumbo from the Taylor line for 2012 (with the exception of the Leo Kottke Signature Models) in order to explore voicing refinement ideas in our design studio. Look for its spirited return next year."

I wouldn't see the GS as replacing the kind of sound the current jumbo model produces.  I personally found the GS I tried to be in between, but closer in tone quality to the GA than to the Jumbo (all were sitka/EIR models, albeit not all 8 series, so at least that variable was somewhat controlled).  But if Taylor is planning to revoice jumbos to take them further away from the GS in the big, powerful and bassy direction, then I'm pretty glad I got my hands on a 2011 model.  Any more shift to big and boomy and the jumbo might cease to be playable as an all around instrument (some already probably think it is, anyway).

Of course, this is 100% speculative interpretation on my part, and Taylor may be going in an entirely different direction.