Great Guitar for the Money
I love Taylors, and have owned and/or presently own a total of five of them. This one has the 1 11/16 nut, which I need because I don't have big hands. The neck is fine, although I don't like it quite as much as my 20-year-old 410, which is shallower and flatter on the back.
The tone is bright, with excellent note definition and a lot of air. You could argue that it's a bit thin. This is not a warm sounding guitar, but it depends what you like. I like a lot of jangle, and this guitar has it. The bass notes are strong, too, and when I want mellow tone I can get it from how I use the pick.
I play a lot of up-tempo rock on acoustic, and that works best on a guitar that has a bright sounding bass strings, which this has.
I also love the Taylor electronics. To my ear, Taylor guitars sound as good plugged in as anything out there, and they're not using a mic, so that's pretty amazing. You get three tasteful knobs, Bass, Treble and Volume, on the shoulder of the guitar, which is so much easier to look at than a big square hunk of plastic with an LED display with a tuner and all kinds of switches and cr*p. Yuck! As you can tell, aesthetics are important to me.
Another great feature of the Taylors is the battery compartment by the end pin, which makes for no-hassle battery changes. Love it!
I do have one complaint, which is that with the neck set with just the right amount of relief, the action is too high. I'm probably going to have to get the saddle shaved down. I could return it and make them send me another one, but who knows what you'll get as a replacement, and I'd rather deal with the hassle of paying a guy to adjust it than take on the bigger hassle of the vagaries of shipping and returns and all the back and forth.
Still, minus points to Taylor for this; they never should have let it out of the shop.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: New