Thin neck?

That's amazing!

It's got this, that, even start up gif of your own but the most important: *It doesn't accept program changes!* What a disappointment ... I was so happy to get it here in Brazil - and now all my concept ideas are wiped away.. Very sad... WHY is this not communicated all over the place? Why must I buy it first to see that it hasn't got the most self - evident feature in the world? I am with midi since 1986 and I NEVER came across a midi unit that cannot change its patches...😢 what a disaster.

I have the same guitar my favourite guitar by far it sounds so good 😊

Thanks very much for reviewing these guitars. A small nitpick; cons doesn’t need the apostrophe of possession.

Could this be a fake? Wowser- seems super budget or worse. I mean some Taiwan/ Indo/ Chinese instruments are built pretty well nowadays- this guitar was built to fail

I bought a Taylor 214 CE DLX - all looks and no go. Sounds bad through both of my PAs as well as my bud's. Even through my Boss Singer amp which makes all my guitars sound great. Not happy dropping all that cash. I do, however, have the Taylor T5 which sounds and feels great!

Taylors are awesome.

I have a fairly recent GibsonJ45, lovely looking guitar but with the same belly problem, it is almost unplayable.

Slab cut bridge plate ! Also the nasty binding strips and the braces were burnt by laser cutting so there was no sanding or shaping on those short braces.

Pickup?

Of Terry and the idiots fame as well.. check them out ,greatest punk band ever...

None of em sound to good for the high price

I’ll stick with my Seagull like the lowly CHUD I am! 🤣

I had a Taylor 614. The standard series Martins cost less, and are better. I like the way Taylor does nylon string guitars. The neck is perfect.

Good thing I bought a 2010 Taylor 814ce.

I don't know why I didn't run across this video until now. When I was researching Dowina to buy one I thought I had watched every video on KZbin. I have a Dowina Amber Road. There was only one retail store in the US at the time I was looking so I went directly through Erika. Couldn't have been easier.

What a crock

Would you say this is better than the Yamaha F280?

I’ve had Taylor guitars for years. If you don’t cheap out they are great. Saying Taylor guitars suck based on a cheap example is painting with a very wide and false brush.

FINALLY, someone brave enough to address the elephant in the room.

Yeap, bought a Taylor around 10 years ago, it had the exact same problem, not acceptable at all.

I have the utmost respect for Bob Taylor. His Guitars are world renowned as some of the best quality & most beautiful stringed instruments on the planet. Imagine the vast number of people who own & enjoy playing their Taylor Guitars. I am extravagantly grateful for my beautiful Taylor Guitar.

Even my yamaha f310 has the braces going into slitted slides

And this is why I've bought a Dowina guitar over mainstream branded... if you don't have 4k for a taylor or Martin don't bother.

You should mention you are looking at Mexican built Taylors that sell at a lower price point. American built Taylors built of solid wood have a much higher build standard. Still thanks for posting as it was eye opening. What year was this guitar?

I've been gigging my Taylor 814 for over 20 years. I got it refretted with stainless steel frets and plekked about 6 years ago. It is the best playing guitar I've got overall, action is perfect, even 6 years after the setup, even with the previous 14 years I played it before. I've made tens of thousands of dollars playing that guitar. He is looking at a model that is closer to the bottom of the line than the top, so that is a big difference. It is braced differently than my 814. Taylors provide a top notch playing experience overall, so before you say no to this brand, do a little research, get a second opinion. I'm not saying this tech is wrong, that he is not seeing what he is seeing, I'm not trying to dismiss his evaluation but I WOULD say this has not been my experience, at all (and again, the 814 model is about as good a Taylor as you can get). You get what you pay for, and if you can get a better guitar for the same or less money , then by all means do so. One last thing...my Taylor 814 was bought so I didn't have to beat up a custom guitar I own. After 20 years of gigging, the Taylor, although road worn, is the superior sounding guitar. These things, when played, will grow from a good guitar into a great guitar and that is not true for every guitar out there.

This comment section will, no doubt, be occupied by both sides of the argument, so I thought I might as well chip in. Over the years I have built a number of guitars ( not from kits ) both acoustic and electric so I kind have some knowledge in this area. As a caveat, this is always assuming that the Taylor is a real one and not something like a Chinese knock off. Firstly, the price. For the money this Taylor should be a lot better than it is. Ignoring the humidity debate and the belly up condition, internally it`s a mess. The kerfing is crap, the end block is inadequate and the bracing is a joke. It is not difficult to create an X brace from two equal length "interlocking" pieces of wood. Having one long piece and two smaller pieces butted up to the sides ( as appears to be the case here ) is a disaster. In fact if you spent £250 on a Yamaha you would get a much better built guitar. The brace less back is less of an issue as it is probably built the same way as my low end Furch in that it is a laminated panel that has been steam bent into an arch to provide rigidity. It works fine on the Furch so there is no reason it can`t work here. Both the top and back on an acoustic guitar, despite being referred to as flat tops, will have an arch built in to provide some strength. Mine were built with a 25` radius on the top and 15` radius on the back. I do own a Taylor 312e which I got cheap as it has some playability issues and some damage, and internally it is constructed to a much higher standard than the Taylor inspected here. But I suppose it should be as the full price is pretty high. Over £2000 I think. One thing I will say in favour of Taylor is that I contacted them about my issues with my 312e and they sent me a selection of neck shims for free, which I thought was pretty cool. I will get around to sorting it out one day.

A low end Taylor

Yup. It's a relatively inexpensive Taylor. I'd be more interested if he found these problems on a Taylor 300 or above series guitar. Still, it does appear that Taylor could have their Mexican luthiers take better care. I have a GS mini and a 150e 12-string. They're not top of the line guitars, but I still think I got value for what I paid.

Belly appears pretty normal @ 0:48. How 'bout swapping the neck shim? Yes it has a neck shim. Taylor will happily send you extra shims if you need them. Awesome company.

This is a brilliant review and critique. I’ve played guitar for 41 years and I very nearly bought a $7500 Taylor (a different model to this one), but found a more beautiful and stunning TAKAMINE, which remains in perfect tune to this day after 25 years of hard playing. Prior to this video I held very high regard for TAYLOR BRAND guitars based on my experience of playing many of them and liking them all. But I am utterly shocked at this appalling example of shoddy workmanship. I saw the title of the video and assumed it would be junk. Instead, WM is clearly a very accomplished and well qualified Luthier. I feel he has been very fair to TAYLOR here with his voiceover. If it were me I would have gone even harder. But one thing is certain. My next guitar WILL NOT BE A TAYLOR. They should have given this customer a full replacement of a model of his choosing, along with a QA Certification and they should have honoured their Warranty - the fact they didn’t is my main concern and that’s the reason I will never buy one because they clearly cannot be trusted to stand by their own promise, and their QA process is catastrophic. Cheap junk from China would probably play better. Very poor form TAYLOR GUITARS. 👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎 Great video WM Guitars 👍 You’ve won a new subscriber.

It is impossible to argue with the factual information he's showing with a camera. This cost nearly a £1,000 and is a Taylor guitar but is effectively cheap junk.

If that isn't a knock off, somebody better get they're act together. At that price, I don't feel guilty about calling that a piece of junk.. It's made like a cheap tourist guitar . Cigar boxes show better craftsmanship. That was not even a poor excuse for a neck block. Thanks for the warning.👍

This has been up about two weeks and I'm intrigued. Did you actually get stuck in to try and repair it? I have real trouble believing it's a bona fide Taylor and the warranty schtick from Taylor is meaningless. All your customer has to do is send photos to Taylor USA head office. Any executive seeing that would be absolutely livid and want to know what's happened - they'd certainly ask for the guitar to establish where it came from - maybe a really drunk employee in Mexico or chronic quality control in their plant - if it's not a knock off. How would you feel if you were a honcho at Taylor and got pictures of it? There's no way an exec is going to tell you to buzz off - no way. They have skin in the game. I hope you haven't tried to fix it. That belongs with Taylor execs and your buddy has no problems at all - they'll sort him out straight away if it came from their Mexican factory. In their shoes, that's what you'd do and so would anyone else. Taylor have a good name. Let us know how it went please?

Obviously an entry level model but even high end Taylors I’ve played seem characterless, IMHO.

My 14 ce was crap not impressed at all fit for a chipper if not for the metal

I would not own a Taylor their beginners price point an minis not impressed. Flat is you like that!

Not a fan, either - they do/their design is relatively thin tops with a BIG, r'wood generally,bridge-plate so as to get a certain sound, but they historically have had prob's(which are documented on forums etc) -which I found out with the one I had, 412 - due to changes in humidity as they are set up low which can change dramatically when the top deforms ...just my 3 pennyworth...but this model is a cheapie so no surpise it's a problem on it , too...

Even my $200 Yamaha, made in Indonesia, is better made than that. 😂😂

Didn’t show whether the others bowed. Ignored the gap in the neck in the Mayson. Called the end plate ‘the neck block’ repeatedly. Called the Tanglewood ‘Taylor’ struggled with the camera. Not really a credible review1

Most people seem to be happy with their Taylor guitars ; it's not because one is not fit that the whole line should be thrown away to the dust bin. A guitar that is not good should be sent back to their Customer's repair service in Amsterdam (for Europe), for refund, exchange or repair...

Wow! Faugh! That is SOOOO STINKY! I know nothing about Taylor except that their repeated attempts to make electrics are laughable and my friend's Taylor acoustic sounds like shit but he insists on super-light strings and low action............ so.......and I prefer Gibson J 35s, 45s, 50s and Epi Texan-type stuff anyway because I don't much like the modern 25"-plus scale length and the "piano-ey" tone that gives but are you sure that isn't a Chinese knock off? That is SOOO STINKY! I don't think your friend needs to worry about "warranty" - if Taylor really made that pile of shit, the small-claims court will sort that out. That's nowhere near what it needs to be to comply with a trade description, half the structural guts are absent and warranty exclusions don't cover such shoddy work on what little there is. But to be honest - I know nothing of Taylor except that I didn't like what I read about the "revolutionary and wonderful" neck joint (which loads of makers are using) but, even so, I doubt they could be putting a valuable name on such a p.o.s. as that. If that's a real Taylor.........WOW! STINKY! STINKY! STINKY! That has to be a knock off?

Yikes, I agree looks like a pile o Crap

The number 1 reason Taylor Guitars SUCK is due to the fact Taylor Guitars is a member of WISE, World Institute of Scientology Enterprises!

That "neck block" is the tail, isn't it? See the wires and electronics? That's not the neck end of the guitar you were looking at if I'm not mistaken.

About 10 years ago I inherited some money and decided to buy a 'decent' acoustic guitar. I went to a reputable local dealer and asked whether he had a Martin within my price range (I wanted to spend about £500 at the time). He advised me against buying a Martin in that price range, and instead sold me a Tanglewood TW1000-SR. I have never regretted it. It's a fabulous Dreadnought, high quality materials and workmanship, and has an amazing tone (even better after ten years of playing!).

A 114 is a low end guitar. No excuse, but I think this one's a lemon.

Whats going on at 21:51? What is that gap under the fingerboard block?

I had a 114-CE for a few years. It was perfect on all levels. It had perfect action and it sounded beautiful (considering it is what Taylor considers their entry-level guitar). But, in all fairness to your video, I never went inside the body with a cool little camera to pick it apart construction-wise like you were able to. Also, in my 50 years of playing guitar professionally, I never really even thought about doing that because I was so completely thrilled with the instrument as a player's guitar. It kept nicely up with my 4 other Taylors. 2 of them (314-CE and 315-CE) 25 and 18 years old). Frankly, your video demonstrates more that you are over-thinking something here. It seems like you are not a fan of Taylors to make such negative sweeping generalizations about them. Stick your camera into the body of any guitar and you will most likely find some cosmetic flaws. Also, anything could happen to a guitar in 6 months. Maybe it's the lighting, but it looks to me that the owner of this 6-month-old Taylor hasn't even bothered to peel the protective plastic off the pickguard yet. Could it be that they have just generally neglected this guitar because of lack of connection or bonding with it. Maybe left it out on a guitar stand sitting beside the fireplace. Who knows? Do you? Anything can happen to a guitar in 6 months to dry it out or and warp the wood (top) from being too damp if it is left neglected. I used to be the guitar setup guy at a Long & McQuade in Canada and I too can say a few things about guitar quality and construction. You really seem to have it out for this Taylor. This video would be quite enough for me to stay away from going to you as a guitar setup guy. I guess I was just lucky. All 5 of my Taylors were top-shelf in every way. The ones I still own still are perfect. They have aged well. My 50+ years of playing have me loving Taylors. I don't think I have ever played one that wasn't consistently excellent. But, then, I didn't over-think them. I just played them.