This is a guitar to get excited about. Here are some major features of the Taylor Academy 12e Grand Acoustic Guitar: Body. BA1 1UA. Our expert team will guide you with gear reviews, lessons and advice to help make your guitar life a little easier and more enjoyable. Our Verdict. As for craftsmanship, there’s no faulting it. With the Academy Series, Taylor caters to the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed aspiring guitarists looking to make their start. What the preamp lacks in versatility, it makes up for in simplicity, and will be appreciated by first-timers. Even though it’s one of Taylor’s entry-level models, it’s superior compared to most other beginner-friendly guitars. There’s also an essential built-in digital tuner, keeping you reliably in tune. Genuinely, as much as this guitar costs, it provides beginners with a seriously good playing experience – smooth, comfortable, lightweight, sturdy, and fast. It offers you … Please refresh the page and try again. For more beginner acoustic guitars you might like, click here. The body sticks to Taylor’s design brief for this guitar to be easy to hold, as well as durable and ‘not too precious’ as it’s made from a quality sturdy sapele laminate on the back and sides, and a beautiful solid Sitka spruce top. There is no binding or purfling anywhere, and the only visual decorative elements are the three-ring rosette, 4mm Italian acrylic dot fingerboard inlays, and Taylor name on the headstock. © Receive news and offers from our other brands? • An armrest bevel in the lower bass bout provides enhanced playing comfort for players who rest their picking arm on the guitar’s top. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. For more info check our Affiliate Disclosure page. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, program designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. There are probably more good new acoustic guitars in the $500-and-under street-price range now than ever before in history (after adjusting for inflation, of course). Taylor Academy 12e Review. The Academy Series models are not “dumbed down” budget versions of Taylor’s more expensive models, but rather entirely new designs developed to deliver the maximum potential for an acoustic guitar in this price range. As a result, more “plain Jane” instruments built by companies that specialize in acoustics often get overlooked by inexperienced buyers. Companies that primarily specialize in electrics and overseas mass producers often try to seduce first-time buyers by offering acoustics adorned with lots of flash and glitz like colorful finishes, shiny inlay work, and fancy electronics system with lots of knobs and flashing lights. Serge from . Choosing a guitar and learning how to play can be overwhelming. Hefty price tag? Taylor’s smallest full-scale shape, the Grand Concert, is the perfect size for a ‘classical’ nylon-string. While we aren’t always keen on electronics on beginners’ guitars, the Taylor pickup and preamp impress and certainly give beginners a reason to improve – imagine performances on this baby! Academy 12e-N Nylon String Reviews Sort By Date Sort By Rating Write Your Review. ‘It doesn’t sound like an acoustic guitar for beginners’, you may cry. £659; €649; By Rob Laing 25 April 2017. I can also attest that 20 years ago it was impossible to find a new guitar under $1,000 with tone as sweet as the 12e. Taylor Academy Series 12e review Have new players ever had it so good? It offers you the extra comfort a compact Solid Sitka Spruce body can give. We are your new best friend when it comes to guitars, gear, lessons and everything else that goes with the greatest musical instrument in the world! In short, the A12e is an uber-stylish 24.87” scale length Grand Concert acoustic. The bass isn’t quite as boomy or big, but many players will consider this a bonus as the midrange is also slightly more prominent and sweeter—perfect for rock rhythm playing on stage without needing a bass cut filter. Review. Pros Inspiring high mids and trebles. The body sticks to Taylor’s design brief for this guitar to be easy to hold, as well as durable and ‘not too precious’ as it’s made from a quality sturdy sapele laminate on the back and sides, and a beautiful solid Sitka spruce top. • Both the 10e and 12e have a 24 7/8-inch scale, 20 frets, 1 11/16-inch nut width, and slim neck profile with just a hint of a rounded “v” shape. The 24 Best Bass Guitars In Today’s Market – What Makes a Good Sounding Instrument? Perhaps the tone of both models isn’t quite as harmonically complex or richly resonant as guitars costing five to ten times as much, but even discriminating players will certainly find the core base tone of both compellingly attractive. In designing these instruments, Taylor’s luthier, Andy Powers, stripped the guitars of their nonessentials to arrive at designs that are not only rugged and cost-effective, but handsome in their simplicity. Elsewhere the A12e comes with a good ebony bridge, a micarta nut and saddle, a set of light Elixir strings, and a Taylor padded gig bag, which is functional and protective. Materials include a solid Sitka spruce top, layered sapele back and sides (a three-layer configuration consisting of sapele veneer on the outer edges and a poplar center layer), ebony fingerboard and bridge, Nubone nut, and Micarta saddle. In addition, the wood pairing is made of a very strong spruce top. Taylor’s new Academy Series makes a bold case for why the name on the headstock should be a buyer’s primary consideration. July 18, 2020 Music Background: Self taught guitar player. A touch of mahogany features on the top too, as the A12e sports an ergonomic arm rest, making it an exceedingly comfortable guitar to hold. As wonderful as this development appears on the surface, it also means that finding a truly great acoustic guitar in that price range may actually be a bigger challenge than ever. With the exception of the different body dimensions and neck material (the 10e’s neck is sapele, while the 12e’s neck is mahogany), both the 10e and 12e share almost identical features. Bath All rights reserved. Part of the iconic brand’s Academy series – designed to offer beginners a more affordable way to enjoy a Taylor – the A12e is a mouthwatering prospect. Taylor has a name for itself in making high-end guitars made for the seasoned professional. It looks pretty cool too. The 12e-N falls, slightly, into the ‘crossover’ style, not least with its ES-N under- saddle and small-footprint … Once again, the tone is typical Taylor quality and sounds amazing. And, while we don’t usually recommend beginners bother with electro-acoustics, the Taylor Academy A12e is one of those guitars we just couldn’t leave out. The A12e is an entry-level guitar for Taylor, but it’s head and shoulders above even some higher-end models for other brands. Your email address will not be published. The Academy 12e Grand Concert is designed to be one finger style guitar like no other. Taylor Academy Series 12e Grand Concert Review. The 12e-N falls, slightly, into the ‘crossover’ style, not least with its ES-N under- saddle and small-footprint basic preamp, lightly cambered fingerboard and relatively narrow neck. LIST PRICE: $798 MANUFACTURER: Taylor Guitars, tayorguitars.com. FEATURESThe Taylor Academy Series currently consists of three models—the steel-string 10e (dreadnought) and 12e (grand concert) flattops and the nylon-string 12e-N. For this review we looked at the steel-string models. This neck sports a genuine African ebony fretboard, with 20 frets. This is a real honey for fingerstyle players with rich midrange, surprisingly voluptuous treble, and disciplined bass, but it’s also a great rhythm guitar for solo singer-guitarists. It was in 1974 when Bob Taylor founded the Taylor’s guitars, and the products instantly made a wave in the music industry due to its superior sound. They’re also brilliantly designed for maximum playing comfort under the knowledge that the first-time players who are most likely to buy these instruments will also be more likely to keep playing a guitar that’s easy to play and sounds good. The 10e delivers classic dreadnought tone with a powerful, assertive voice that is surprising considering its shorter scale length and that the guitar was strung with light-gauge strings. I walked into one of my local guitar stores yesterday intending to buy another brand name acoustic but ended up walking out with this Taylor… Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? Required fields are marked *. Both the Academy Series guitars have understated aesthetics that some might call austere but one could also call elegantly simple. Virtuoso nylon string guitar. There was a problem. why not the Taylor Academy dreadnought version, the 10 (e), as a recommendation? Issue #48. In short, the A12e is an uber-stylish 24.87” scale length Grand Concert acoustic. In another unusual departure for a Taylor acoustic-electric, the new ES-B pickup/preamp system features a built-in digital chromatic tuner in addition to the usual volume and tone controls. The playability is incredibly comfortable, and the tone completely outshines anything else in their class.