Anyone own a Taylor T5?

[leeasam]

CoChese - I am very aware of the balanced set up on the ES system As I have been using them for years. I was saying that in any Taylor video they were running through A/B/Y box to get split signal- not running through K4 or anything just ABY then out to acoustic amp and electric amp.. When I ran the T5 I tried into a passive DI box thenm to snake it did not have enough signal strength to get a proper signal. I had the board gain maxed and just barely got a signal. I had to use a Baggs para DI to get enough signal strenth. Probably over 90% of people using these as a hybrid are running ABY boxes. So in doing this it renders the balanced signal out of the T5 useless.

I ran my P22 through same passive di box into same board and it had more than enough signal strength.

Interesting that if the ES on the T5 is balanced then it does not act like the acoustic ES. there you set the volume at 12:00 then set signal at board.( those who max out volume on the acoustic ES do not know what they are doing and will have a harsh tone) But for best signal from the T5 for running an electric amp you run volume full like most any electric. Marc Seal does this. you can`t get decent OD tones unless you do. this however may be because the signal is no longer balanced.

BTW I run the PA also at our church.

MAYBE the battery in the T5 I tried was about dead? Through the Para DI it sounded OK and had good signal then.

[Cochese]

Originally Posted by leeasam

CoChese - I am very aware of the balanced set up on the ES system As I have been using them for years. I was saying that in any Taylor video they were running through A/B/Y box to get split signal- not running through K4 or anything just ABY then out to acoustic amp and electric amp.. When I ran the T5 I tried into a passive DI box thenm to snake it did not have enough signal strength to get a proper signal. I had the board gain maxed and just barely got a signal. I had to use a Baggs para DI to get enough signal strenth. Probably over 90% of people using these as a hybrid are running ABY boxes. So in doing this it renders the balanced signal out of the T5 useless.

I ran my P22 through same passive di box into same board and it had more than enough signal strength.

Interesting that if the ES on the T5 is balanced then it does not act like the acoustic ES. there you set the volume at 12:00 then set signal at board.( those who max out volume on the acoustic ES do not know what they are doing and will have a harsh tone) But for best signal from the T5 for running an electric amp you run volume full like most any electric. Marc Seal does this. you can`t get decent OD tones unless you do. this however may be because the signal is no longer balanced.

BTW I run the PA also at our church.

MAYBE the battery in the T5 I tried was about dead? Through the Para DI it sounded OK and had good signal then.

Possibly it was a battery issue or there was just an intermittent connection. You can't let that one experience be the deciding factor on a guitar that many use without issue.

A DI is used to accomplish a number of things but the main reason it is used is to match the impedance of a High Z signal (like with a bass guitar etc) with a low Z input on a mixing board. A guitar with passive output won't work properly into a mixer. You can always run a Low Z signal into a high Z input the only exceptions being certain vintage guitar effects that need to see a guitar's high Z signal to work properly. Germanium fuzz tone and treble boosters usually fall into this category.

The T5 is active and always low Z. It doesn't have super high output running unbalanced but then my single coil guitars don't have high output either. I'm still able to easily get high gain tones form the T5 with my various amps and pedals.

I'm not sure what your issue is as I was just trying to explain that the guitar does work properly into a PA running balanced or unbalanced.

To give you the benefit of the doubt I just ran the T5 unbalanced into a true bypass looper pedal A total of 95' feet of cable. T5 to 5' cable to the pedal, 4' cable to a Mackie mixer and in the loop, 6 TB pedals all turned off with as much cable as I could connect including a coil chord for a total of 95' feet. This is a good way to run the test as you can instantly switch from the 9' of cable and looper box to mixer and instantly engage the loop to hear the difference with the extra cabling, and loading that the TB switches and jacks will create.

Going back and forth the signal strength remained the same and there was no tonal loss.

Listen man, I'm not trying to give you a hard time. Obviously the T5 isn't the guitar for you which is cool. I just wanted to correct your statement regarding the guitar working with a mixer as I know it to be false. I'm not sure you totally understand the difference between low impedance balanced and unbalanced. The guitar has less output because of the way it is being used with an unbalanced cable. If you want it to have the same amount of signal strength or gain running balanced or unbalanced you need to connect an inline transformer with a 1:1 ratio.

[leeasam]

Originally Posted by Cochese

Possibly it was a battery issue or there was just an intermittent connection. You can't let that one experience be the deciding factor on a guitar that many use without issue.

A DI is used to accomplish a number of things but the main reason it is used is to match the impedance of a High Z signal (like with a bass guitar etc) with a low Z input on a mixing board. A guitar with passive output won't work properly into a mixer. You can always run a Low Z signal into a high Z input the only exceptions being certain vintage guitar effects that need to see a guitar's high Z signal to work properly. Germanium fuzz tone and treble boosters usually fall into this category.

The T5 is active and always low Z. It doesn't have super high output running unbalanced but then my single coil guitars don't have high output either. I'm still able to easily get high gain tones form the T5 with my various amps and pedals.

I'm not sure what your issue is as I was just trying to explain that the guitar does work properly into a PA running balanced or unbalanced.

To give you the benefit of the doubt I just ran the T5 unbalanced into a true bypass looper pedal A total of 95' feet of cable. T5 to 5' cable to the pedal, 4' cable to a Mackie mixer and in the loop, 6 TB pedals all turned off with as much cable as I could connect including a coil chord for a total of 95' feet. This is a good way to run the test as you can instantly switch from the 9' of cable and looper box to mixer and instantly engage the loop to hear the difference with the extra cabling, and loading that the TB switches and jacks will create.

Going back and forth the signal strength remained the same and there was no tonal loss.

Listen man, I'm not trying to give you a hard time. Obviously the T5 isn't the guitar for you which is cool. I just wanted to correct your statement regarding the guitar working with a mixer as I know it to be false. I'm not sure you totally understand the difference between low impedance balanced and unbalanced. The guitar has less output because of the way it is being used with an unbalanced cable. If you want it to have the same amount of signal strength or gain running balanced or unbalanced you need to connect an inline transformer with a 1:1 ratio.

yes I know the difference between the Hi and Low Z. The point I made is when I plugged in a certain T5 like they have shown in many Taylor videos it did not have a decent signal at board. Only after running it. through my baggs DI did I get sound. Had I known that it was a balanced low Z system ( which no where does Taylor elude to this or have ever mentioned it in any of their videos) I would have tried my balanced cable I use with my acoustics. But then that does not work for how Taylor was touting the T5. They show it and advertise it as a hybrid that can be switched on the fly via ABY box and two different amp systems to get your acoustic and electric tones or even both at same time(which it can not) Even MArc Seal was using it in the way I described and never during that road show was it never mentioned that the T5 was a balanced Low Z preamp.

So that is where I was coming from. I tired using it in that way and it did not do it. Yours drives enough signal so I am concluding that the battery on the one I tried was about dead- but it did work when using Para DI.

The guitar I tried may have had a dead battery. But all I know is that one did not drive enough signal without using the para DI. But then funny that the Para DI made it all work if the onboard was dead.

The other issues with that guitar may have been he had it strung with the wound G string and acoustic saddle for that. He was using the next gauge up for strings too. So all that with a maple top may have been the reason it was lack luster in sustain. I have played the T5 Classic at store unplugged and it has a nice acoustic ring and sustain.

you are right maybe I should not have made a judgement on one incident but I was thinking of buying one and a friend had one to try so I could try it in real world situation. He was running short cable into an acoustic amp so even with a very week battery of dead he would still get signal but I did not while running it as Taylor was touting it to do and that is where my judgement was. Not to mention the noisy switching or sloppy on many T5s I have tried out at store or another one where the pots felt funny as the detent was not in same spot every time. So ya I guess I got soured on them pretty easy. I also had a Tayulor Solid body electric I sold as it was the most unstable guitar I had ever seen. I love hte acoustics but have had bad luck with their electrics

To those who have them and work great for you-- awesome! I had high expectations as to how Taylor was touting them and pushing them with all of their videos but found there was more to it then simple plug and play. Marc seal used a TON of pedals to get the tones he used.

[s2y]

I know Marc processes the guitars a lot. If you've ever seen his clinic rig, it's pretty small and a Boss digital system, which he makes sound really nice.

I've never had any issues with making my T5 sound good. I'm running a Carr Rambler, which can make darn near everything sound amazing. Positions 2-5 never disappoint me.