I own martin, taylor, lowden, marc maingard guitars, they all have their own personalities and unique sounds and I like them all very much, but I also have some dislikes for the bright sound of Tyalor.

Simps gonna simp hard for a brand, regardless of the brand. Easy as that.

I have to disagree with you on the ES2 pickup. Yes, it's better than the undersaddle pickup we had in the 1990s and better than the first ES system. But it's not a patch on the best pickups of the last ten years. You might say that that's a matter of taste, and it is. But what's not a matter of taste is that it's almost impossible to replace the system. You hear better pickups, you try to install one, and you're mostly left with three unwanted holes in the bridge and another three in the side beside the neck. You've paid a small fortune for your guitar and are stuck forever with a sub-par pickup. My advice (too late for myself) would be to only buy a Taylor with no pickup. And even then, only if you really like the guitar's acoustic sound - I wouldn't say they're too toppy, rather that they're not always very warm, which can be an advantage for recording. But even if you like the sound, there's always a risk in getting a pickup installed yourself. It might invalidate your lifetime warranty. It might leave you with an unbalanced, difficult-to-rectify sound. And maybe you'll just be disappointed in the sound, despite the days of Internet research you no doubt did. The best thing about a Taylor is the neck joint. Not just for neck resets, but for keeping a great action throughout the life of the guitar. It means you no longer have to keep shaving bits off the bottom of the saddle when the neck moves a little. Once you've done that a few times, you find yourself having to file down the top frets. Over the years, this can be a never-ending nightmare on some guitars. You end up paying out large amounts of money to luthiers in exchange for a guitar with a saddle so low you've lost half of the tone of the guitar. Not on a Taylor. Pity it's not really "plug & play".

I have a seagull and a Simon and patrick both solid cedar top with laminated cherry/wild cherry. Proper quality 3 layers of solid wild cherry. No junk middle layer like other manufacturers tend to do. Durable and sounds great.

I’ve owned a couple of Taylor‘s and it’s hard to get a deep bold sound. They’re always very bright and in actuality the best Sound I ever had was from the GTE urban ash which is a smaller body guitar.

For me its the fact that at over a thousand dollars you still get laminated back and sides lol thats insane to me and ill take a pass people try to sell me some pile of shit saying laminate back and sides can sound as good or better than solid and i just dont buy it😂😂😂

I recently purchased a 414ce and have struggled to get a decent sound out of it. I am having serious buyers remorse. I am thinking about dumping it and trying to recover most of my money and pulling my Epiphone DR500mce refitted with a K and K pure mini back out of the closet which sounds a thousand times better. Taylor may be built more solidly but their pickups sound horrible unless buried deep with a mix.... A 3,000 guitar should not have issues like this.... I have tried 3 Taylors of the last 10 years and have not been happy with any of their plugged in sound. More expensive is not always better.... Sometimes the Brand Name tax exceeds the actual value. Taylor is way over hyped in my actual experience. Coming from someone who has been playing over 40 years...

I have a taylor 412...and guild d120. Different as night and day...love both. Guild makes awesome affordable guitars

No soul

This is super helpful thank you! I didn’t realize that I could tweak the electronics. I have an 814ce with the ES2. You got it sounding great. I honestly liked the dry sound you ended up with (before the modeling, etc…). I’d probably stick with that and just add in a little nice reverb. Thx!

I think a lot of the “too bright” woes are a simple fix…strings. Taylor ships their guitars with Elixer coated things that are super bright, and stay that way for a long time. Swap on a set of phosphor D’addarios and play it for a few hours-it changed my perceptions. The second thing, unfortunately, is time. I bought a 414CE in 2010. I bought it over similarly priced Martin and Breedlove offerings because of how it played and, at the time, the ES1 sounded superior to the Fishmann electronics (to me). The Martin sounded better acoustically, but 90% of my use was plugged in. Fast forward about 5 years, and after a bit of a hiatus, I could not believe how much the unplugged tone of that guitar blossomed. It sounds phenomenal, and maybe not as noticeably as that first few years, sounds even better today 9 more years on.

Bought a Taylor 224CE DLX. Loved the look, the feel of it, the acoustic sound of it. Took it home and went to my next 2 gigs. Absolutly hated the sound of the ES2. Even recorded with it and hated it. Took it back and bought a Martin GPC16 with a typical pup in it.

Over 25 years of playing live I've been lucky to use and own a lot of brands of guitar. My take on guitars is this, use the one that sits best in the mix (even if its a solo thing). I guess it depends on your target sound. Each guitar has its own character and most can be used to great effect. Right now I use Gibson, Martin, Eastman, Cole Clarke and Taylor acoustic guitars. They all have a place in my music. Enjoy them all, try them all, have a great journey 😁

I have wonder how many of the people in this section dogging on the ES2 think their Martin with a junk Piezo is the pinnacle of plugged in tone. At the end of the day, very few systems compete with the Anthem for tonal quality and diversity, including most of the junk they put into Martins these days or any ES system that's ever been on the market.

I like Taylor just don’t love them. I cut my teeth on a Taylor and progressed in my eyes to Martin which pleased my ear better. I find Taylor cost to feel unreasonable, the mandatory pickup system rather than giving option to choose what works for them, and while I love Andy Powers as a guitar maker and personality, they just seem so unbelievably hooked on marketing mumbo jumbo. Taylor is super playable though, work great in a mix, and the used market is really really good cause there’s so many out there they can’t be resold anywhere close to what they cost new. Which is good and bad.

These days, unless you're well-heeled enough to pay for the hand-built masterpieces of individual, shop-of-one luthiers--Olson, Monteleone, Beneteau-what you are really getting from the top-tier factory guitars (Gibson, Martin, Taylor, even Larrivée) is CONSISTENCY. CNC machines and other so-called advancements standardize everything, which means you're going to get far fewer lemons, but you're also going to get far fewer unlikely hidden gems. My go-to acoustic from 1996 until it got semi-retired about 2012 was a spruce/rosewood Yamaha built in a Korean factory in the 1980s. It sounded as good as any Gibson or Martin acoustic I ever picked up that wasn't a pre-WWII museum piece worth thousands more than I could ever afford. Part of the reason I hung onto that guitar, and still have it, is because the reasonable sale price for that model is around $400. There is NO WAY a guitar built at that level is supposed to sound that good. It's like winning the lottery, and that's part of what I like about the old ways of building, even if they do produce more "best for around the campfire" guitars-and maybe one or two "best for IN the campfire" guitars. Case study #2, I needed a 12-string acoustic while living on the West Coast, and again I was on a budget, so I picked up the Epiphone DR-212 you can hear on "Desolation Sound" for around $200. Again, I found a diamond in the rough. It also punched far above its weight. But given the low price of it, and the cost of moving it back to Ontario, I reasonably thought it would be more efficient to sell it locally around the same price, then buy the same model locally 3,000 miles to the east. It's an incredibly common guitar, and it wasn't hard to find another. The difference? Nobody ever wins the lottery twice with the same numbers. The new DR-212 sounded like mud, like you took a cigar-box guitar and stuffed it full of socks. Taking the time to set it up properly helped a little, but not much. I sold it soon after because it made me sad to have one that looked so much like the "Desolation Sound" twelve, and sounded so inferior. (At the $200 price point, it probably was more typical of the model.) I'd give it a solid C grade against the A- of the other one. That's a big difference for a $200 guitar. What Taylor has done, more or less, is standardized Grade A- quality with very little wiggle. Maybe at the 214 level you'd get a B+; maybe at the 914 level you might find an A. But more or less they're all within one letter-grade of each other because machine-generated consistency is now the secret sauce of producing fewer duds. Face it: you can't find a solid-wood Taylor that's absolute garbage, not anywhere. But you also no longer "get lucky" the way you did with the old-style handcrafted factory guitars, like the Gibsons made in Kalamazoo before they left the state. Here in Canada, Larrivée is another case study in point. He was (and is) a master luthier of my parents' generation, actually a little bit older: he's now 80 years old. When he started making guitars in 1967, he made them in his own shop in Toronto (though he still has a lovely trace of his Québecois accent). From 1977 on, he spent a few years in Victoria, BC with a staff of five or six people, producing up to one guitar a day between them. His wife Wendy did the exquisite inlay work on the guitars he made himself. They rarely leave Canada, and they're priceless treasures. As the brand took off, he moved to a larger factory in Vancouver and took on more and more workers. In the course of my lifetime, his name transitioned from being a luthier's signature to being a brand name: a hundred years later, I guess I know how Gibson fans felt when Orville Gibson's own company left him behind and took over manufacture. The Vancouver period saw 45 staff members producing 32 guitars a day. Then, he opened a shop in Oxnard, California, and left his Canadian shop in the hands of his son. In 2013 the Canadian office closed for good. The new Larrivées (which are now produced in a massive California factory, where Jean finally ended up) are still very good guitars, and they've preserved most of his design features. But while the best "manufacturing" may approach the the level of decent "luthering," it'll never reach the peak of all those artisans who were such great artisans that they became a brand.

I’ve had Taylor’s and I’ve had Martins. I’ve never had an issue with the binding coming off of a Taylor……..

hi! I added the software to my applications folder, and it allows me to open it, but the options "send to device" and "get from device" are still greyed out. Any tips?

My Martin after 40 years. i sold it. just never came around. D-28 one guitar does not mean they're all that way. my 00017. very old is alive and amazing. 6 Taylor all sound different. and are great and sound amazing bright is what you need when you record honestly recording wise never with pickups. just mic it up record it naturally own a 1962 Gibson. aged... like all my guitars depends on my mood and the weather

Many are here for gear acquisition syndrome before it kicks back?!! 😅😊😊 Honestly this is me watching 😅😂

I wonder if the sound would change much if you played through built in pickup system (not sure if your older one has it).

How about taylor 110ce that no three pins adjusted..how it fix

The short answer is because it’s not a Yamaha.

So, I dont see or have any of the send to device options? what should I do?

I sold my 114ce after a few months. I tried to make myself like it but it always felt off; maybe I got a dud. However, I've never gotten a dud yet from yamama. The fgx 5 plays better than a martin 18

I own a Taylor 310 CE and just bought a Martin dreadnought special and while I love my Taylor and the ES two pick up system, there is no comparison to the soft tone of the Martin guitar.

Thanks for the advice, great vid. On a general note, I've found the Fishman Aura spectrum really helpful and I'm going to try silk steel strings on my maton to tame those higher frequencies.

14s where on my Taylor and it was unplayable for me. So hard to press. No fun to play, now with 10s, I love my Taylor.

Taylor’s are a “ modern voiced” guitar . They don’t try and make a j45 which is dark and mellow or a Martin that is soft and less attack. Taylors suit the stage and studio because they are great guitars for shaping via eq etc. there pickups also are designed to make the guitars sound modern . And studio like-ie lots of tonal options.

Taylors are braced heavy

Had a taylor 12 fret electro acoustic with this system fitted and it was bloody awful!

If it’s plugged in, it hardly matters at all. If it’s being played entirely acoustically, the guitar with laminated back and sides will have noticeably less bass response. My local luthier built two guitars identical in all respects except these, just for demonstrating the difference.

Wow... I switched out my ES2 almost instantly to an LR Baggs Anthem, and now I'm not sure that I gave the ES2 enough chance that it perhaps deserved. Great video!!!!

Why can't you just plug it in and it plays for us computer dum dum

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 KZbin, 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