[Lamenramen]

Hi, 2017 Taylor 314ce here in physically near mint condition to my eye.

I've been playing for about 5 years, but stopped playing for years. Recently resumed playing about 30 minutes per day on average over the last 9 months.

Over the past 4-6 weeks I've been diligently working on hand strengthening exercises (scales, slapping the index finger, pinky stretches, hammer ons, pull-offs) like every single day. I've been playing for 2 hours per day on average this past month to six weeks.

I still find that I can't seem to press hard enough. For regular cowboy chords it seems fine, but barre chords besides your A and E shape usual suspects are harder to nail down. My fingers do seem stronger, but it does not seem like they are strong enough. I recall a year ago (before I started getting back into practicing regularly) I dropped by a store and played a new Eastman AC322 and in my memory it was definitely easier to play, and that was before I even bothered trying to strengthen my fingers.

How long should I wait before I see if I need a new setup vs just practicing even longer in order to get stronger (it doesn't seem like I'm getting any stronger now)? I've done the pressing the E string down at fret 14 and fret 1 and then seeing the height at fret 7. There's not much room, about a dime's width. I should add that the humidity is 75% outside year-round but inside it's around 50% with AC on.

Bonus question: I'm very hesistant to take the Taylor in for a setup because I live overseas in Asia, where I don't trust the techs. Not all, but in general, seem to be less detail-oriented and unable to answer any questions (it's cultural, as in they are supposed to be the experts, to ask questions for some reason seems to be interpreted as high maintenance or questioning their authority or I wouldn't understand it anyway so what's the point). There are a few authorized Taylor dealers, but I don't know what that means. Does it mean their techs can be trusted as well or is a Taylor certified tech a totally separate thing? A setup is only about $25 here (yikes?)