Taylor 710CE Acoustic Guitar Review

Along with Martin, Taylor is one of the benchmark companies for acoustic, steel-string guitars. Sure, there are good guitars from many other companies such as Gibson, Guild and others, but almost every decent guitar is eventually compared to a Martin or Taylor. That's why, when I had the chance to spend some time with a Taylor 710CE, I jumped at it.  

Features

Tasty details abound on this guitar, including a solid spruce top, solid Indian rosewood sides and back, a mahogany neck topped with an ebony fretboard, a sound hole trimmed in koa (a mahogany variant from Hawaii) and beautiful Indian rosewood binding around the body.

The Taylor 710CE features gold-plated Grover tuners, a Tusq saddle for brightness and sustain, and pearl dots on the usual frets. The scale is 25.5 inches, typical of dreadnaught guitars, with an adjustable truss rod and a neck width at the nut of 1.75 inches.

The 710CE I played is fitted with the Taylor Expression System electronics package, with a pickup under the neck. There are three perfectly integrated knobs on the front curve of the body for volume, base and treble control. The strap button at the base of the guitar doubles as a 1/4-inch jack and there is another strap button on the heel of the neck.

The guitar that I had was beautifully made. The wood on the top was not absolutely perfect but well within the grain quality for a premium guitar. The sides and back had a rich glow from the rosewood, and the internal construction was spotless and clean. The truss rod is adjusted underneath a screwed-on rosewood plate on the headstock.

As best I can figure out the price of this guitar, it has a list price of around $3,200 and a street price in the neighborhood of $2,500, depending on the dealer.

Audition

There is a reason why every decent guitar is ultimately compared to Martins and Taylors. The 710CE is a very nice guitar that would make any player proud. The action is excellent, even with medium-gauge strings. If I owned this guitar, I'd put light-gauge phosphor-bronze strings on it, which would make the action even better - although it's hard to imagine action better than it already is on this 710CE.

The sound quality of this guitar with the bronze strings is warm. Maybe it has something to do with the real rosewood sides but the sound has a mellow, bass-tinged quality that to my ears sounds "warm." Playing a lead on the treble strings is loud and clear, but there is no metallic edge that I hear on some guitars and with different strings. The sound that this Taylor 710CE makes (with these strings) reminds me of the classic bluegrass guitar sound, with lots of clean projection, but without a lot of edginess. I assume that the sound will be brighter and edgier with the Elixir strings as supplied by the factory but I can't say without trying it.

I plugged the Taylor 710CE into a mono PA system to judge the quality of its electronics and was generally impressed. There was a bit of that "piezo" sound but by and large the 710CE sounded quite close to a natural acoustic guitar. I cranked the volume all the way up on the guitar and stood about six feet from my PA speaker - close to the limit of my volume tolerance - and did not get any feedback.

The cutaway of this guitar let me easily reach notes up to the 17th fret, play simple chords up to the 15th fret and get clean barr chords on the 13th fret. 

Summary

I know this is not a cheap guitar - it will never be a tossup between this guitar and a $400 Yamaha. The world needs $400 Yamaha guitars every bit as much as it needs expensive Taylors. But it is a real pleasure to play a guitar of this quality and experience the warmth of sound and the excellent playability. I certainly recommend playing the Taylor 710CE whenever you have an opportunity.