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I’m an older guy with a high-end model of both a Martin and Taylor. The Martin just sounds like what a guitar should sound like based on a lifetime of listening. I like the bright Taylor too, but it sounds like an alien that just landed on Earth - to serve man, as it were. I enjoy playing both.

As a person who feels resentment against this brand that I can't really back up with a lot of playing experience, I think some factors play into this dislike that have very little to do with sound or playability. I think the strongest factor that's not being discussed a lot is the Coca Cola, Apple, Toyota effect. When a brand dominates a market, it becomes easy to hate them, because sometimes it's almost like you have no choice. Additionally, in music people love to see themselves as individualists with a strong, independent style. I've seen many guitar stores with literally an entire wall of Taylors, next to a tiny room with all the other brands crammed together. Watch bands on TV, and Taylors are everywhere. Even here on RUclips, I bet you see no other brand of acoustic guitar in as many videos. It's not even close. We all know that they can't hold a candle to carefully handcrafted boutique guitars like Santa Cruz, Collings, Boucher or Lowden. They're the Levi's jeans of acoustic, enjoyed by many, shunned by those who want something a little less obvious.

I like my Taylor, but I like my Martin sounds a bit more. To me Taylor’s come from the factory with a more playable setup, a big plus. I also have a Martin SC which is very modern and very playable. Too expensive? Then don’t buy one.

I like my Taylor, but I like my Martin sounds a bit more. To me Taylor’s come from the factory with a more playable setup, a big plus. I also have a Martin SC which is very modern and very playable. Too expensive? Then don’t buy one.

ES2 pickups are fine for what they are - I have three Taylors, so I know. But I put a K&K in my Martin, and I'd take that over any ES2, any day, any time.

4:48 - 6:14 (and subsequent demos). love that. Yours?

Thanks for having me on your podcast!

I just purchased a new Taylor 117e Grand Pacific with the torrified spruce top I think it is a great sounding guitar and it looks nice too it is certainly not tinny I chose it over a Martin because I like the narrower neck and it just seemed like a better choice I also heard that Taylor guitars were a popular choice by beginners and professional musicians I am an intermediate player I normally play Fender acoustics I have a one year old Fender villager California series 12 string acoustic and I have been playing a Fender CD 60 -SCE electro acoustic dreadnought for the past 3 years I just wanted to try something different and I love my new Taylor 117e. I agree with one of the other comments If you don't like Taylor's don't buy it simple. Andy, Glasgow 🥰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I just had the strings on my GS Mini Mahogany changed from the original medium strings to D'Addario XT Custom Light strings (0.11-0.52). The truss rod was also adjusted accordingly. The old strings must have been on the guitar for about a year and I've played it almost daily for about 9 months now. So of course the sound with the new strings is different but I can't tell if it is just because of the fact that the strings are new, different brand, different coating or different gauge... the sound is still "big" and clear and it is so much easier to play now. I will try the Elixir Custom Lights with nanoweb coating next and probably stick with the custom light gauge.

I got a beautiful 424ce recently and it just has everything I love about a Taylor. Balanced tone, great playability, looks amazing and I like the pickup too.

Handle them with extreme care, very easily scratched!!

Ragtime = our new home! Great ep

"Tele" Guitars.

u missed the most biggest problem look inside fhere bilt like crap

there built like junk

tayller are junk

on every video that talks about these topics i say the same thing, it's all very subjective. i have six guitars at the moment, a 69 epiphone texan i got a couple of years ago, a 66 gibson J45 i bought in 1975, a maton ebg808TE, a larrivee OMO3 zebrano, a 2000's gibson j35 and a 2004 martin OOOX1. the OOOX1 blows them all away, and they are all really good guitars. the martin i think is a prototype, it's 2004, it is a made in the USA label so as they were meant to be budget martins made in mexico, and as it sounds so good, i think it was a prototype that went astray. it's so good in fact i bought another, this was a 2014 mexico made OOOX1 AE - the same but with a pickup. totally different, both are spruce top, HPL back and sides (i still have no idea how HPL is made) so they ought to sound similar at least, but no, the bass is different, the treble is different. admittedly there is ten years between them, but the back and sides being man made material would make them at least similar. i think you could go to any factory and watch two guitars of the same spec being made by the same guy on the same day from the same woodstock and they would sound different when played. all you can do is play as many guitars as you can get your hands on until one grabs you, i've had at least fifty guitars since 2013 and i've got six "keepers" that way.

I actually always preferred the sound of a Taylor over a martin. Don’t really care what anyone else thinks about it

I have owned 2 taylors. at 1st I was like ok good tone up and down the neck, nice action, fairly easy to finger pick, and they are lightweight. im good. over time i realized they use the least amount of wood possible so lightweight but i accidentally dropped one on a carpeted floor and it fell apart like a cheap lawn chair. . fell the hell apart. i have dropped a few guitars over 30 yrs. none ever broke like a matchstick. my 3 epiphones were built to last.

I am seeing a lot of horrible reviews. After having one, i see so many things i don't like. I plugged it in and was mortified. I hope I can fix this too. Thanks!

I have owned and played several high end Martins, Santa Cruz, Gibson and custom luthier hand made guitars over the decades. Never a Taylor. But when I was over at a friend’s and he played a fingerstyle composition of his on his new Taylor, I was gob smacked. The sound was gorgeous, articulate and balanced. I now own a Taylor (700 series x-braced) and it is my most played guitar. In fact my Martins and Santa Cruz guitars have been sold. The Taylor sounds and plays great. There’s a lot of disdain for Taylors out there but there’s also a lot of Taylor love, I can now attest.

Often with laminate backs you can pretty clearly see that the inside of the sound hole is not the same wood as the back veneer.

I didn't even watch your vid, just clicked on it from your title. yes they hate taylor guitars so much, that the Taylor GS Mini line outsells the whole Guild line on it's own. i have the mahogony, and it sounds better then most guitars 5 X's the cost. Taylor Lifer after using the GS mini

Yeah I gotta say my big baby Taylor sounds great. But my more expensive Taylor sounds like straight shit plugged in. And the frets wore really fast. The guitar just didn’t stand up to the test of time. Really over priced I’m not sure I would buy another Taylor.

I bought a Taylor 414 CE about 12 years ago for almost $2,000 and it was the best guitar I've ever had. I like it, it sounds great but I never felt totally comfortable with the neck. Why, I don't know. About 3 years later I bought a Martin 000-15m for $1,100 because I had started fingerpicking. When I play them one after the other I really noticed the high ends of the Taylor. The Martin definitely has a warmer sound for me. It's all I've played since then. I don't think I've spent more than 10 hours on the Taylor in all this time.

As a luthier, one of the reasons why Taylors sound brittle- and they do.-is the bracing system and the voicing of the braces. Wood have a big effect on tone, but it is the voicing of the top, the bracing system and the design elements that will determine the character of the voice. Some people prefer that sound, it's a matter of taste. But people with bad tastes need guitars too ;)

Here's how to setup the ES system; tear it out. While I use Taylor 6/12 string guitars faithfully; no amount of 'selling' will convince me that the ES system is worthy of anything, except tearing out of the guitar-and putting in a Fishman Prefix or Blender. Oh, you get the 'quacking sound' with the cheap ES system on their 12 strings. Taylor pickups suck on their 12 strings. Drop a Fishman Prefix Pro or Blender into it. Taylor stopped selling their guitars with 'Fishman systems', to cut costs and sell more guitars. The six's are barely tolerable with their ES pickups-but their 12 strings sound like garbage. Don't let ANYONE, including Taylor tell you otherwise. Doubt me? Go find an early 2000's Taylor 12(And six,)-and plug it into a p.a. system. (Not a guitar amp.) My 2004 855 sounds amazing, so why have a cheap, 'it'll do' pickup in it...Taylor sold out with the public; by dumping the Fishman systems, and pushing these horrible-sounding ES toys. (I don't mean to sound so negative; but I'm tired of listening to amateurs-push these horrible sounding ES pickups.)

Martins and Taylor’s are too expensive, at least Martin has a pretty good resale value. Taylor’s electronics are very lackluster I got a very nice Taylor’s not too long ago, very happy with it

Ha ha... my son plays about 18 gigs per month, maybe more. He has a D18 and a D28 and an 80s Takamine. He avoids Taylor guitars like the plague. On the other hand, the singer in a band I used to be in has a 1984 Taylor that I have gigged with and used in the studio and THAT is one of the best guitars I've ever played. If I had $$$, I'd get a Lowden.

The bigger a company gets the more hate it gets. This happens to pretty much every company out there. Just play the guitars you like/love, and ignore the miserable people.

Had a baby once. I like them all, I like the 322 with sloted headstock. Like a Gypsy jazz machine . Also, killer 12 strings.

Nothing sounds better than my 414CE with a set of medium 13 to 56 Daddario elixir strings. Absolutely nothing. This video is outrageous. And so many Taylor haters in the comments.

It is the piezo in bridge is damaged ！the original piezo system is not good Quality ! So you can change to the other piezo pickup

It’s all personal preference. Taylor is a good brand. I own a GS Mini that performs well. However, I’m otherwise a Martin guy.

I love my Taylors in different ways. My first Taylor is a 2012 710ce with the ES1.3. Best (IMO) sounding preamp/pickup ever! Reliability is questionable but it sounds incredible. My second is a 2021 that has the ES2.0. I love the guitar, hate the pickup. I asked for help from Taylor to help the thing not sound so, well, bad. They told me to buy an EQ. I told them I had one already and they said buy another one. I told them it would be perfect if it had the 1.3 instead of the 2.0 and they told me that I was wrong after some heated emails (from them). I then cut my losses with the terrible Taylor customer service, had the 2.0 disconnected eventually and had a Baggs installed. It’s not great but usable as a live guitar. Shame. I won’t go back to new Taylor guitars again.

I have a Taylor GS since 2006. Straight acoustic , no electrics. Its jumbo shaped but still has that Taylor treble tinnie sound. But the base notes are huge, like the say a piano sounding. But an annoying thing is , it has an extremely High pitched ringing drone behind all the chords your playing. Not sure where this comes from. I've tried changing all the individual parts, but its still there. Even tape under the nut slots . Funny thing was that I could just hear the same thing on the Taylor you did the pic up domo on. Previous video. This annoying sound wasn't alway there though. Have you any experience with this sound. Or am I going mad lol.

I owned a 714CE - had and played for 2 years, I had to be very gingerly with it and careful because Taylor tops are very thin and feel flimsy. Sounded great but over time I knew the top would wear out holes from strumming. Taylor makes the tops to thin, to sound and project better - but after spending $2,200 on a flimsy guitar - NO THANKS - went back to Martin!

Tried 12s on my mini. Nope. 13s went back on.

As a lifelong musician who has been searching for the perfect acoustic/electric sound, this was a very informative video.

"Good alternative pickup systems are incredibly "expensive"??? You obviously haven't tried either the K&K Pure Mini or the very similar Journey Tek EP001K acoustic systems. K&K just raised the price of their Pure Mini 50% for a total of $150 US, and even though they offer some of the purest, most transparent acoustic sound in the entire industry ( if installed & used properly), the huge price hike is ridiculous & unjustified, especially when it's closest competition is the Journey Tek EP001K that costs only $50 US, and most guitarists including myself feel that it sounds even better than the K&K Pure Mini. Both systems are passive ( no batteries or onboard pre-amps ) and sound absolutely amazing through a PA system OR a good quality acoustic amplifier. I installed the Journey Tek in all 4 of my Hsienmo acoustic guitars, and when played through my BOSS Acoustic Pro Singer amp, they have the best acoustic sound I've ever heard..........( aside from a good microphone ), and I've been playing guitar since 1973, and have been performing for decades.

I appreciate your thorough and well thought out presentation!

I went through a bunch of Taylors looking for one that wasn’t bright. They’re all bright.

New to Taylor and just bought the 314ce. The guitar was setup correctly to the Taylor factory specs, but the action is still just a little too high for my preference. So far that's my only complaint. Beautiful guitar otherwise. Glad I bought it.

Name some all time great songs recorded on Taylors?...

Taylor is using better woods than Martin in the lower cost models and i don't feel my Taylor is too bright.

We try many Taylor. Without electronic, it were one of the best. With electronic? Nahhh….. too artificial and Taylor sound engineer need to do research on this. Martin, however, not on better position.

Taylor seems like the PRS of Acoustic Guitars. Both make some very nice instruments, innovate, but are subject what might be an excessive amount of criticism.

That gs mini is not rosewood. Its mahogany or (more likely) sapele veneer. Maybe you shouldnt be lecturing on this stuff.

I have a Taylor gs acoustic with no electrics. I agree it does sound a bit treble bias and tiny. Sounded great though. But has developed a tendancy to belly bulge and has sympathetic High pitch ring overtones on strumming any chord shape. Quit annoying really.. Martin , Gibson and even the Australian maton jumbo kills my Taylor GS. In hindsight. Cheers from australia