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Excellent Guitar, But the ES2 Was a Dealbreaker
I had never owned or even tried a Taylor before, but seeing how many solo and gigging musicians use them made me want to give the 214ce a try.
The guitar itself is excellent. Build quality and quality control were flawless, it is extremely comfortable to play, and acoustically it has a very open, bright and clear sound. That is not necessarily my preferred tone, as I usually like warmer dreadnought-style guitars, but I could absolutely appreciate what the Taylor does. For fingerpicking especially, it sounds fantastic.
Unfortunately, the ES2 pickup completely ruined the experience for me.
I tried different settings on the guitar, countless mixer EQ adjustments and recommendations from other users, but I simply could not get a natural and convincing amplified tone out of it. To my ears, the ES2 sounds strange, thin and surprisingly artificial. Considering this is a guitar aimed heavily at gigging musicians, I expected much more from the pickup system.
Since I bought the guitar specifically for live use through a PA, that was enough for me to return it. I didn’t want to spend another few hundred euros replacing the pickup in a €1,200 guitar.
As an acoustic guitar, the 214ce is very good. But for me, the ES2 pickup was a complete dealbreaker.
The guitar itself is excellent. Build quality and quality control were flawless, it is extremely comfortable to play, and acoustically it has a very open, bright and clear sound. That is not necessarily my preferred tone, as I usually like warmer dreadnought-style guitars, but I could absolutely appreciate what the Taylor does. For fingerpicking especially, it sounds fantastic.
Unfortunately, the ES2 pickup completely ruined the experience for me.
I tried different settings on the guitar, countless mixer EQ adjustments and recommendations from other users, but I simply could not get a natural and convincing amplified tone out of it. To my ears, the ES2 sounds strange, thin and surprisingly artificial. Considering this is a guitar aimed heavily at gigging musicians, I expected much more from the pickup system.
Since I bought the guitar specifically for live use through a PA, that was enough for me to return it. I didn’t want to spend another few hundred euros replacing the pickup in a €1,200 guitar.
As an acoustic guitar, the 214ce is very good. But for me, the ES2 pickup was a complete dealbreaker.
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