Any love for the Taylor T5?

Niallseroreilly

Any one use one of these? I was thinking maybe using one with an acoustic amp and a good modeller like an atomic amplifire for a good array of sounds for a two piece acoustic act.

Funkfingers

The needs of acoustic and electric guitar sounds demand discrete amplification. The electric guitar voices benefit from plenty of mid range. The acoustic guitar voices want it reduced for the sake of clarity. The piezo HF "horn" found in some acoustic guitar amplification would probably induce howling feedback if used for overdriven or distorted electric guitar sounds.

Dominic

Not when used with an FRFR cab or PA ….so long as your modelling device is set up properly -it is exactly what they do
An acoustic amp on it's own would not sound so good as a full frfr set up

richardhomer

In short - no.

I like the Taylor company - they have probably done for the acoustic market what PRS has with electrics. Great quality/consistency. 

The T5 concept really appeals - unfortunately, the implementation is flawed. The necks are ridiculously small - even for most electric players.

The biggest issue is that there aren't separate acoustic and electric outputs, which would greatly increase its flexibility.

Really a guitar I'd love to like - but ultimately can't. 

ICBM

I agree with richardhomer - I really wanted to like the T5, I'm a big fan of hybrid acoustic-electric sounds, and one of my favourite artists sometimes uses one. But I hated the ones I tried. The sounds were artificial and neither good traditional electric or acoustic sounds, or anything I found very usable in their own right, and the necks are very flat and thin (which I hate)… and so is the body - they just feel awkward.

They're also expensive new and don't hold their value well used, so I would strongly recommend not buying a new one...

guitars4you

I agree with @ICBM and @richardhomer ;- they are neither one or the other - The physical aspect of an electric and acoustic are so far apart that the hybrid option just doesn't work - The tone is just not right - I know an electro acoustic never nails the tone of an acoustic but T5's are further away IMO than many good electro acoustics  - Agree with @Funkfingers thoughts on the amp format

I don't like the feel and again as @ICBM states resale value is poor - I think they try to be the 'Holiday Inn' virtuoso/solo cocktail jazz players  guitar, but fail - I use a PRS Hollowbody with a piezo and whilst it is more electric than acoustic I think it does a better job

If you are going to go down that line then go used and try it out and if it doesn't work out hopefully you can get your funds back - Go new and you'll loose big money in only a few days

TonyR

A mate of mine had a T5 thinking it would cover his gigging needs of an acoustic and electric.

He didn't get on with it, it was neither acoustic or electric enough.

Consequently he sold it and has bought separate acoustic and electric guitars again.

Niallseroreilly

Seems fairly conclusive 

olafgarten

I agree with the above, the whole thing is a bit of a compromise. 

The guitarist in my Cousin's band has a pretty cool setup though. He has a 335 with a Piezo, and 2 outputs, he also has a 3 way switch that selects which ones output sound. 

He runs this into a Helix with 2 chains, an acoustic and an electric and he can control which sounds he wants just from the switch on his guitar, even running both at the same time.  

Cabicular

I'm the other voice. I love mine
i think the trick for me was to put acoustic strings on it and focus it on that. Then the electric capability is a bonus
Ive fired it through some pretty hot amp setups and it actually sounds pretty sweet.
my only complaint is the pickup selector isn't obvious so it is difficult to work out what you are switching too 
I treat it like a high end live acoustic and it is excellent

Dominic

I agree with @Cabicular - the electric sounds are perfectly ok ,it's very competent all -round ……..the acoustic sounds are good but only as good as any Piezo set-up which is never brilliant  to begin with …….If you play around with  DI box and EQ you can get it to sound better and perfectly decent…….
BUT,BUT,BUT - THERE IS A VERY SIMILAR GUITAR FOR A FRACTION OF THE PRICE THAT DOES THE WHOLE JOB 99% AS GOOD …..it even looks very similar and has a better neck and very good playability
- the CRAFTER TMV -there is also the blend facility which T5 does not have
good youtube footage of these in action………..£200 should get a used one …..job done

Niallseroreilly

Im intrigued @Dominic they definitely look the part, theres also a nylon string version which looks interesting

ICBM

Dominic said:

I agree with @Cabicular - the electric sounds are perfectly ok ,it's very competent all -round ……..the acoustic sounds are good but only as good as any Piezo set-up which is never brilliant  to begin with …

Except that I'm pretty sure the T5 doesn't have a piezo pickup! It just does a passable impression of sounding like one…

It has 'Expression System' type magnetic body sensors, fingerboard pickup and the visible magnetic bridge pickup.

Dominic said:

BUT,BUT,BUT - THERE IS A VERY SIMILAR GUITAR FOR A FRACTION OF THE PRICE THAT DOES THE WHOLE JOB 99% AS GOOD …..it even looks very similar and has a better neck and very good playability
- the CRAFTER TMV -there is also the blend facility which T5 does not have
good youtube footage of these in action………..£200 should get a used one …..job done

I don't agree they're very similar, other than visually. They're a far less innovative and cruder solution - they do use a traditional piezo bridge pickup and associated electronics, plus a 'lipstick' magnetic pickup. I do like them, better than the Taylor in terms of feel and certainly for value-for-money, but really they don't sound as good except for the plain magnetic pickup on its own.

Although it has to be said that if you ripped out the cheap piezo electronics and fitted something better, the acoustic side could become a lot more passable.

Teyeplayer

Surprised by the loathing for the t5 neck. It feels like a strat neck, maybe that is the problem?

My experience of the t5 is that it's a great writing tool for passing around and getting ideas down quickly, I agree though that it is not a replacement acoustic for gigging solo singer-songwriters, it'll need to be lower in the mix.

richardhomer

Niallseroreilly said:

Im intrigued @Dominic they definitely look the part, theres also a nylon string version which looks interesting

There can't be a nylon string equivalent - magnetic pick-ups are part of the T5...

Niallseroreilly

Youre right @richardhomer it only has piezo

ICBM

Teyeplayer said:

Surprised by the loathing for the t5 neck. It feels like a strat neck, maybe that is the problem?

The ones I've played felt nothing like a Strat neck - more like a Superstrat. Wide-ish, thin, flat radius. Probably my second least favourite type after baseball bat. I like Strat necks a lot, especially the much-derided Modern C profile.

Teyeplayer

ICBM said:

Teyeplayer said:

Surprised by the loathing for the t5 neck. It feels like a strat neck, maybe that is the problem?

The ones I've played felt nothing like a Strat neck - more like a Superstrat. Wide-ish, thin, flat radius. Probably my second least favourite type after baseball bat. I like Strat necks a lot, especially the much-derided Modern C profile.

I have admittedly only tried the one, but that one was what I'd term a very generic neck -in exactly the same way as I find most modern strat necks to be generic and bland, pleasant and easy to play but bland.

Danny1969

Although it can't replace an electric solidbody guitar entirely the T5 is handy for wimpy non acoustic players like me as it really does play like an electric guitar, low action, smallish neck etc. Last year I played Victorious Festival acoustic stage with a T5 and I think it flattered me.  I don't like the switching system though and it's a lot of money

Whitecat

It's a smallish neck but if you're familiar with the Taylor acoustic carves then it's not far off those. I have a T3/B (which has a T5 carve) and I get on just fine with it despite normally preferring larger necks given a choice. It's not as bad as some people make out, but YMMV obviously. 

Dominic

ICBM said:

Dominic said:

I agree with @Cabicular - the electric sounds are perfectly ok ,it's very competent all -round ……..the acoustic sounds are good but only as good as any Piezo set-up which is never brilliant  to begin with …

Except that I'm pretty sure the T5 doesn't have a piezo pickup! It just does a passable impression of sounding like one…

It has 'Expression System' type magnetic body sensors, fingerboard pickup and the visible magnetic bridge pickup.

Dominic said:

BUT,BUT,BUT - THERE IS A VERY SIMILAR GUITAR FOR A FRACTION OF THE PRICE THAT DOES THE WHOLE JOB 99% AS GOOD …..it even looks very similar and has a better neck and very good playability
- the CRAFTER TMV -there is also the blend facility which T5 does not have
good youtube footage of these in action………..£200 should get a used one …..job done

I don't agree they're very similar, other than visually. They're a far less innovative and cruder solution - they do use a traditional piezo bridge pickup and associated electronics, plus a 'lipstick' magnetic pickup. I do like them, better than the Taylor in terms of feel and certainly for value-for-money, but really they don't sound as good except for the plain magnetic pickup on its own.

Although it has to be said that if you ripped out the cheap piezo electronics and fitted something better, the acoustic side could become a lot more passable.

A bit less innovative but I have gigged both in a band -I strung a wound g ,pissed around with EQ and got the Crafter sounding every bit as good as the Taylor -the T5 sounds more "clicky" than a Piezo on the acoustic
I did actually put a better Piezo strip in the Crafter in the end but there was little difference
 Maybe I was lucky but after good tech work the Crafter played brilliantly - as good as the T5 ,maybe even better