Taylor Guitars Reviews 14

I bought a Taylor because I thought they were good guitars. After 6 months the bridge popped off along with a piece off the face.
When I called customer service they told me it has been a cold winter and I probobly had my house heat turned up to high. I could drive 2 1/2 hours to the nearest authorized dealer to have it evaluated with NO promise of repair. Seriously.
Mind you I live in Pennsylvania and the customer service rep is in California.
The customer service was nothing more the lip service. Be very very careful if you decide to buy a Taylor guitar. I don't think they are what the use to be.

Owner of two Taylor Doyle Dykes Models, a steelstring and a custom Nylon string guitar. Beautiful instruments made with high technics. Thre third one was a Baritone model, a 6 string model. I always looking for expermintal sounds on guitars what is my profession. So i bought on advice of TAYLOR a 12 string model , the 254ce Plus to customize him to a 9 string with double basstrings and single high strings. Strange enough it wasn't Taylor who customized this, they won't do it after they let me buy one, even so every dutch speaking person in the Netherlands were suddenly gone strange enough. After a year we sold the 12 string model after we spoke with Taylor Amsterdam where they told me to order a custom 9 string if i want to go to a higher level guitar, than it should be okay.
I went to a Dealer, there are a few left in the Netherlands and we made a complete list from the custom department of Taylor to order a 9 string with the setting above. Taylor who always is busy with development told me it was impossible to make such a guitar. The story about the CNC machines and some other "reasons" were told me.
How in the world is it impossible to do a mirror drill on the Headstock/peghead, just turn the headstock/peghead around and do the wiring procedure and you have the right setting in the headstock/peghead. There is already a 9 string set-up for the Thomann GA-9 model. No, impossible they said. Why do you have a custom department if this is the way of thinking? So we think the passion has gone. Mr Powers is always busy to find new things but this problem is to big.
Taylors are expensive Guitars made with a high quallity, but the mind of make custom instruments for players who wants to develop their playing and want to spend serious money for their targets are on the wrong adres at this manufactor. It is a shame. What's rest are the factory guitarmodels.
Even the newsletter give you the wrong information, read the lines: "Inspired to create something all your own? Your favorite authorized Taylor dealer can help you bring your dream guitar to life". It could be the president who said that.........

I bought my guitar from UK supplier. Richtone guitars. This is what happened to me.BUYER BEWARE!! I had the misfortune to buy a Yamaha FS3 guitar from Richtone. I bitterly regret it. It played very nicely in the shop. When I got it home I discovered that the nice action had been achieved by sanding the saddle down almost to the bridge meaning that next time the guitar needed any attention to the action It would require a very expensive neck reset! When I took the guitar in, the manager (who's name unfortunately I never discovered; his staff wouldn't tell me) agreed that this was true. However he said it was a second hand guitar (it cost me £575)!! and once I left the shop this was my problem. This company is an AUTHORISED TAYLOR DEALER (unbelievable I know, but true)!
The anonymous manager was quite agressive in his manner and point blank refused to take the guitar back unless I paid a 20 per cent "restocking fee". (In fairness he later reduced this to £75, which I paid just to get away from this horrible shop and its 'customer service').
Rather than customer service, the manager showed open contempt for his customers, conveying the opinion that many of them spent their time lying to him if they had a problem with their purchase. Unbelievable I know but true.
To compound my woes I had spent around £2000 on a Taylor from Richtone at the same time which I found had also had the low saddle shaving treatment (although not as extreme, but still much lower than Taylor's own lowest specified reference point of 1/16" minimum saddle height above the bridge). To be fair the action of this guitar was fine. When I asked for reassurance that this guitar had not had a neck reset, the manager told me his opinion that it most likely had not, despite me pointing out to him flakes of finish near the neck guitar body joint, which the manager said was 'putty' from when Taylor built it. I have owned many Taylors and have never seen this 'putty' before. I have no way of knowing without getting a professional Luthier to remove the neck; I certainly would not trust Richtone with doing this! Fortunately Taylor's neck resets are pretty straightforward so I decided to cross this bridge when I come to it (the guitar is beautiful, a high end 818e). When I got the guitar home I found that the 'putty' was actually varnish that had flaked when the neck was removed. In other words pretty strong evidence that the neck had indeed been removed at least once. The manager assured me twice that he had not carried out any work on the guitar and it was exactly as he had received it in part exchange. Is it plausible that he (a Taylor trained technician) had not noticed this. Apparently yes.
So in summary it cost me £75 to buy a horrible guitar (the yamaha) from this shop. Time will tell what condition the Taylor is in. I am relating this distressing experience exactly as it occurred today. My downfall was that I let my enthusiasm for the guitars and misplaced trust in the integrity of the manager and his shop (and indeed Taylor) prevent me from checking the guitars carefully, much as historically you had to check a second hand car in the seventies for flaking paint etc. (Oh, and watch out for the trick the manager does with the truss rod. He did it on both the guitars, leaving a little bit of relief on the neck so that he can then lower the action further to mollify the unsuspecting customer (me)! Again, I have no way of knowing if this was a coincidence or a deliberate ploy. I also do not know if other customers have had this terrible experience from this manager and this shop, but his remarks lead me to believe that, sadly, my experience of Richtone is fairly commonplace. I also have no way of knowing at which point or by whom the guitars had been set up in this manner.
I will be contacting Taylor UK to give them a copy of this review and ask them their opinion of my experience.

My AD12e-sb is the best sounding guitar that I've ever played, I love it. Before purchasing it, I compared it to instruments from other manufacturers, some costing two to three times more. It surpassed all of them. The guitar isn't as easy to play as my old Fender acoustic, but it feels comfortable.

However, the finish on the guitar is a little sloppy, and I didn't receive the best service from Taylor. (The guitar initially didn't come with a case, and it took quite a bit of work to obtain one. Although it was brand new, it wasn't setup. I paid guitar center to set it up and unfortunately, they sanded down the saddle and also scratched the guitar.
Next, I took it to a Taylor authorized repair center for a setup, and they damaged the pickup by removing the saddle incorrectly, so now I do my own setups.)

That being said, I recommend Taylor. They did make the best guitar I've ever played. And their service is likely on par with other manufacturers.

I have over 20 guitars that include builders such as Collings and custom builds

I am the proud owner of several guitar models. I perform the acoustic guitar as a touring singer songwriter professionally, not always with the Taylor instruments but the playability and sound quality is not why.

These guitars are great. They offer a great playing experience, a terrific tonal quality with impressive overtones. I love em'.

Taylor offers quite a few guitar models. One most likely has your name on it. I especially enjoy the Grand Pacific 517 builders edition. I can play it for a long time. I does what it does just so well.

A friend of a friend who has a few high end guitars and the budget for another very expensive instrument, contacted me to see if I'd go with him to McCabe's Guitar shop in Santa Monica, and assist him as he was deciding between several guitars in the $10,000+ price range.

He played a couple for me and they were okay. I asked if he had ever played or heard of the Taylor 517, and this was before I got my own. He hadn't. We located one, he put it in his lap played for a few minutes and bought it. It cost him $3100 at the time and he loves it.

He and his girlfriend took my wife and I out for a nice dinner and between the two of us, we couldn't stop talking about that guitar. I finally bought one several months later. I have a Taylor 12 and 3 other models.

The Taylor 12 string makes so much incredible music with so little effort, I feel as though it is on autopilot. So much fun and so much music!
I had the 12 string guitar "tweaked" by their service department while doing tour dates in San Diego. Talking about impressive. Just to watch what and how they work through the glass window was pretty amazing.

It was that visit when a service tech asked If I had a chance to demo the 517 Builders edition. He directed me to the showroom where all of their guitar models are displayed for people to play. I picked up the 517 and two hours later, i was sill playing it gaining quite a bit of attention while doing so.

I would not say that the guitar is better than my other guitars, but like each guitar, it expresses my music differently providing a different approach as to how the music lands and does it so well.

Andy Powers does a fine job of designing and engineering the construction of these guitars. If you have the opportunity, visit the Taylor factory in El Cajun California, located near San Diego. What a great experience that is.

Purchashed a 224ce k deluxe($2000). Solid koa top 3 layer laminate on the sides and back. Outter layer koa, other 2 ,??. The "kerfing" on the interior does not fully wrap up to the butt stock leaving top and sideglue joints in these areas unsupported....? Believe the glue in these areas is enough to keep the lid on?The case, two of the clasps had their guide tabs totally bent over making it difficult to line up and latch. I corrected this qa failure. The side outside laminate of koa in the cut out area shows signs of separation covered by the finish. Will this delamination continue,I guess I will see. Taylor says their 100&200 series have shown this condition. So, I have a 94 814c, 97 555 both American made. In conclusion it is obvious that the quality standards used by taylor guitars in America are not followed in Mexico, no matter the hype. For 2000 dollars, it's quality of construction is less than comparable to the 350 dollar sigma setting next to it. Hope that Koa top was worth it. Final thought don't let the name on the headstock influence your decision. We are living in the age of affordable quality instruments. Sincerely, floyd Lake

I recently experienced a second disappointing interaction with a CSR at Taylor Guitars. The first was a few years back and I did not report it. Anyway, I called in to Taylor Customer Service to ask about availability of a 'feedback suppression' soundhole accessory for my Taylor NS acoustic guitar. Many guitar soundholes are a standard 8 cm. or 10 cm. diameter. However, the soundhole on my Taylor NS guitar is 9.5 cm. So, I called to ask if Taylor could suggest a source from which I could acquire a feedback suppression soundhole accessory for the guitar. The Taylor CSR quickly suggested ... and I kid not, 'Just stuff the 10 cm. rubber disc into the guitar'. Wait! What? When I rebutted that this might not be the most effective or elegant way to accomplish what I was trying to do, he went on, 'Sir, I have a few other calls I need to get to.'. That was the end of it. Bob Taylor, what on earth are you doing in terms of post-sales support for people who buy your guitars? Therefore, this net TP rating of '2' is for the overall quality of the Taylor guitar build -3 for Customer Support - since you clearly care little about that aspect of the business. It is likely that my last Taylor guitar has now been purchased; there are many other beautiful guitars in the marketplace to consider.

Taylor EU performed magical repair on my 912, best repair experience I've had!

Do not cut corners with bolt on necks to save time and money and claim its for repairs or bows in the neck and adjustments. I thought taylor was better than that.
You literally have to be touring around over frequently for those kind of repairs. Random necks on Random bodies. Bye I sold mine 2 days after purchase.

In terms of build...the guitars are excellent, and play very well indeed.

However, I recently (just before the pandemic) bought a 317e. After a few months a number of white spots showed up on the finish. I couldn't take the guitar back as the store was closed. I later wrote to Taylor and asked for their opinion. One of their 'experts' told me that he thought I had knocked the guitar against a wall and got paint on it, after I told him that it was below the final finish and definitely not paint. The dismissive tone of the email was quite striking and he clearly did not believe me.

I took the guitar instead to a local maker of (very) high end bespoke guitars, and was advised that the problem was almost certainly due to a sloppy application of finish, which was not given time to dry before a new layer was applied. I found the same advice on a number of guitar forums.

Taylor told me to bring the guitar to their centre in Amsterdam so they could review it. I live in the UK. To get the guitar to Amsterdam I would have to pay insurance and shipping at my own cost.

I was also told that there is no Taylor agent in the UK who can both verify that I am telling the truth and correct the shoddy finish. The tone of the Amsterdam team was similarly disinterested and when I expressed disappointment I was just told 'I am sorry you feel that way' (the very definition of passive aggressive disinterest).

I only really wanted some advice and perhaps some sympathy.

My guitar is now a great advertisement of what you get when you buy Taylor...a great build which is let down by a sloppy finish and zero customer service.

They seem to have expanded too quickly as there is apparently no longer any pride in their craftsmanship.

Only buy Taylor if you don't care what your guitar looks like and have money to burn.

Awesome guitars .. just read a comment below, totally agree, don't have to tune this beauty as the quality is just superb.

Wanted a Taylor Acoustic for years, decided to splash out as not cheap .. so glad

It sounds incredible

I have had a Taylor 114e for over a year now and the quality of the guitar is amazing in every way, you barely ever need to tune it because of how well it is made, sounds amazing, I have played so many times and people come up to me from far away and say how amazing the guitar sounds! It costed £700,worth every penny. Thank you Taylor.

One of my favorite brands of prestige guitars. Good acoustics; no need for plug ins when in a large room, since the sound dispersion is very good. Recommending Koa Series Guitars!