Pretty undeniable
 

...at least in this video...

This guy is a genuine dude as far as I’m concerned, and I personally cannot agree more...It’s worth a watch, even for the hard core v classers...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep1AloImC3g

I agree. A great comparison video. Definitely worth watching.

Good video, thanks for sharing. I did have to speed past some of his rambling though. :) The sound quality difference was noticeable.

In my tests of Taylors, anything below the 500 series just sounded flat, like both guitars he's testing. Once at the 500 or 700 series, I felt they started sounding like something I would like to take home. I've got some studio monitors on my PC, so it's not that I am not hearing fully. I just didn't like either guitar.

He does okay sometimes but here - far too much jibber jabber and not enough guitar information.

What were the Eastman models in the video?

I am an unabashed Taylor fan.

That 314 sounded awful. Like something was seriously wrong with it.

That does not change the fact that the Eastmans sounded GREAT. But something was seriously amiss with the Taylor as well.

Yes there was, and it starts with the letter “v”

Lol:D

In all seriousness, it is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out long term. All I see are references to this Andy powers guy being a genius and all that. Is he? Is he really?

Somebody with zero experience with guitars could watch this video and many similar ones out there and see it easily. Case in point, my wife. It was blatantly obvious to her that the 900 pound Eastman (less than half the price of that Taylor in the vid) blew the doors off of it...

This is a bizarre time in Taylor’s history. I know this is controversial.

I hate it a bit because I still consider myself a Taylor fan despite the fact that I would not purchase any of their current offerings. As a company, and what they stand for, I am a fan of Taylor. Their design language? In my opinion, some of the absolute best out there. I actually find the current direction very frustrating as a consumer. I want to buy a Taylor but I just can’t look past what this v class nonsense is doing.

They’ve made it so that it will be harder to compare v class to non v class within their own line. They will never stop the comparisons with other brands and bracing setups...This is going to be a problem for them...

He gets that complaint from a lot of people. At the end of the day though you can tell he is a pretty genuine dude that means well, prides himself on keeping it real, etc...That’s what I see when I watch his vids anyway...My kind of guy...

You can really tell that people around here generally don’t want to touch this topic with a 10 foot pole...It’s a bit comical...Inconvenient truths can tend to have that effect...

Bob

He does seem like a real genuine guy and likeable. The rambling didn't bug me but when you see the video is 20 plus minutes I was compelled to get to the point. I have a hard time watching any video over 20 minutes unless it's a movie. Lol!

Well thanks for that Bob...That was very useful. lol

I know what ya mean...There is a bit of that for sure...Yet I still find myself watching all the way through because for anyone that cares, the guys actually does have something to say...

I quite like Richard. He seems like the sort of chap that I'd buy from him.

Yes he rambled. I ramble on my videos too - perhaps it's just an old Englishman thing !? Funny thing is , people write and tell me that they enjoy listening to my rambles ... which is nice, but I try to keep my videos to around ten minutes now.

What he is saying is that Far Eastern made products are now as good as , shall we say, the budget end of American made products and far better value.

There are exceptions of course, and the Chinese made products are NOT made in "sweat shops" or by forced labour. Their current cost of living and standard of living makes them more competitive than the US equivalent.

This is what business competitiveness is all about.

The important message, is that Eastman generally make pretty good products.

I run an acoustic music club, and attend others, and I see a lot of people come to play with a large variety of guitars.

There are three or four regulars who are rabid budget guitar buyers who seem to be collecting guitars under a certain value.

With my knowledge of their playing it is very interesting to hear the quality of the various budget brands played by them.

One guy has two modern Gibsons, two Taylors, and two Eastmans, and a Yamaha with some awful "built in" reverb electrics.
The Eastman that he brings along mostly now is a small round bout jumbo with a cutaway that looks suspiciously like a Taylor - not my style of guitar at all, but, it is the best sounding guitar he owns in my opinion.

In a common duo - the lady plays a now pretty mature Blueridge Gibson Jumbo style guitar - which sounds beautiful.

Other makes that consistently impress are Faith and Ayers (Indonesia?)

Sigma, Recording King and "Vintage" guitars all tend to fall below the bar.

We also see higher range Martins and Taylors and they show their price levels as far as tonality and projection.

This is all just my opinion but based on some careful listening experiences.

The video yet again illustrates how you can't rely on videos or sound clips to accurately compare guitars. All you can get is a general idea. You have to play them.

Here's one I did a while ago. The first guitar sells for about $2,200 (Larrivee OM-05) and the second for about $800 (Guild D-120c)