Taylor

review
TAYLOR ACADEMY SERIES 10E & 12E
106
Guitarist april 2017
Sounds
It’s soon apparent that neither of these
guitars are lacking Taylor’s spruce top
hallmarks – bright and resonant trebles
with assured projection. The low action
on both is extremely welcoming across
the ebony ’boards, too, and will help open
boundaries for aspiring players. Combined
with the response of these instruments, it
creates an immediately enjoyable playing
experience. For softer players, they sound
impressively detailed and nuanced at low
volumes. The grand concert’s pronounced
high-mids have a wonderfully choral
quality in chord work in conjunction with
the treble resonance – and it’s positively
addictive when playing rhythmic Celtic
melodies in DADGAD and E modal – but
take things down and the sensitivity to
subtlety is inspiring. Keeping the noise
down in the lounge at night certainly
becomes less of a problem.
Taylor’s vision of the dreadnought as the
flatpicker and strummer, with the grand
concert as the guitar for fingerstylists, is
understandable but not a hard and fast
rule. The 10e offers lower mid presence
alongside the deeper bass response, but
the 12e’s higher range energy is distinct
for chord work, too – even adding some
mandolin sweetness when capo’d high. It
will come down to personal preference for
players, with shape and tonal balance, but
both guitars fare very well as all-rounders
at either end of the spectrum for delicate
picking, and their projection doesn’t lose
its clear definition under heavy strummed
playing, either.
So far, so reassuringly Taylor. But plugged
in, we wonder if a compromise has come in
the shape of the ES-B piezo system last seen
on the Baby and Big Baby electros. The good
news is the ES-B represents the qualities
of these two guitars well, but with notable
differences. The grand concert sounds more
organic to us through our acoustic combo,
with plenty of treble on tap for holding
your own in a band setup. Thankfully, it
never becomes too brittle or plastic-like in
character like some piezos, and we found
the flat 12 o’clock tone setting just right for
solo fingerpicking. Though the subtler bass
allows those jangly high-mids and trebles
to continue shimmering, it should be noted
with the streamlined Academy approach
to EQ there’s no effective way of boosting
low-end from the guitar – the tone control
is a treble roll-off.
Our larger-bodied dreadnought
model immediately sounds like a hotter
proposition. Its definition and richer
low-end qualities are still present, but we
find ourselves dialling back the tone more
than the 12e model as the high-end sounds
punchier here lower on the tone dial. And
for some players, the frequency-shaping
advantages offered from EQ control via a
PA’s mixing desk or pedal unit could come
into play more to mellow things out.
For softer players,
both guitars
sound impressively
detailed and
nuanced at
low volumes
1
1. For the model 10
dreadnought shape,
Powers drew from
the slightly smaller
15/16-size footprint
of the Big Baby for
comfort, opting for a
body dimension that
was 0.75-inch deeper
for greater low-end
response
Video demo http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT418.rev_taylor.indd 106 2/22/17 3:12 PM