Taylor 314ce and my old Yamaha

[Cool555]

Originally Posted by ctvolfan

I completely get what you’re saying. I was a huge Taylor fan. I’ve had several Taylors in that same grand auditorium shape. Then I bought a used Yamaha FG800 dreadnaught just for the heck of it. I was shocked at how good that inexpensive guitar sounded. I loved the fullness and bassy sound of that bigger body. I then realized how thin sounding my Taylor’s were. I’ve still got my first Taylor 214 which now called a 314. But I have four dreadnaughts now and prefer to play them. I’m just a dreadnaught guy now. If you can send it back, I’d be looking for a better quality dread like an Eastman E10 or E20 or a Yamaha LL16 or FGX5. I don’t think you’ll ever be satisfied with that Taylor now.

Hi ctvolfan, how does your FG-180 compare to your FGX5? Which red label do you prefer?

[Cool555]

Maybe you prefer the tone and loudness of a dreadnought. You could change, return or sell the Taylor. Then get a Yamaha LL16, LL16M or FG5 as an upgrade. Yamaha guitars are great. I own a Yamaha FS5.

[baw3]

I had to smile a little bit when I read your post. I owned a Taylor 414ce about 10 years ago. Not to long after that I bought a Yamaha ac1m. I would play them back to back a lot and tried to tell myself that the Taylor sounded better then the Yamaha. I finally admitted to myself that it didnt. I sold the Taylor and have never missed it. I would actually play them for other people who could've cared less about the name on the headstock, and every person I played them for said the Yamaha sounded better then the Taylor. I know what your saying about dull sounding, mine just sounded like there was something missing. I just recently bought another A series Yamaha, the AC3M. It is a great sounding guitar. It would easily put my Taylor 414 to shame. The sad part is the Taylor was almost 3 times the price. If you can send it back I would. You might want to trade it for one of the Yamaha AC3M that Sweetwater has in stock. Thats where I just picked up mine. I had them do a set up on it and it plays like butter. The pick up is really good too. For 900 bucks I challenge any body to find a better sounding guitar than this. I didnt really like the pick guard so I removed it and there was no tan line at all. I have ordered a clear one from stew mac. The body depth on the AC3m is the same as most dreads. So you dont lose so much of the dreads volume and low end like you would on a regular OM body size.

[AndrewG]

Originally Posted by 619TF

Give it some time. Guitars need to open up. Your Yamaha likely didn't sound exactly like it does now at the time you bought it either. Taylors are highly consistent as has been said and all the new ones need some strumming time before they come into their own AFAIC.

That's all very well, but personally speaking if a guitar doesn't grab me on first strum I'm not about to wait until it might begin to appeal more!

[ctvolfan]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

That's all very well, but personally speaking if a guitar doesn't grab me on first strum I'm not about to wait until it might begin to appeal more!

I agree. I have bought some that I tried to convince myself that it sounded great to me but I was in denial. I’ve found that you should almost always go with you initial gut feeling in life and that has more often than not been the right decision for me.

[ctvolfan]

Originally Posted by Cool555

Hi ctvolfan, how does your FG-180 compare to your FGX5? Which red label do you prefer?

Good question! I much much prefer my FGX5 over the FG180. The FGX5 is the best guitar over ever owned and I’ve had some Taylors that cost twice as much and more.

I bought the FG180 off of Facebook. Probably paid a little more than I should have for it but I wanted it because of all the comments about them and how they are similar to a Martin sound. I’m no Martin expert but I don’t really see the comparison at least with mine. True to everything I had read about them, it did have high action. My guitar guy did an incredible job of sanding the bridge down and he was also able to tweak the truss rod in which I’ve heard is very difficult on those old guitars. I don’t know if he got the action too low or what but when I play it, the neck feels really flat to me and throws me off. It may be the light gauge strings he put on it that I don’t like. He didn’t want to put anything heavier for fear of it possibly bowing the neck again. But I always put medium gauge strings on all my guitars and think that’s the the issue.

[ctvolfan]

Originally Posted by Cool555

Hi ctvolfan, how does your FG-180 compare to your FGX5? Which red label do you prefer?

Good question! I much much prefer my FGX5 over the FG180. The FGX5 is the best guitar I’ve ever owned and I’ve had some Taylors that cost twice as much and more.

I bought the FG180 off of Facebook. Probably paid a little more than I should have for it but I wanted it because of all the comments about them and how they are similar to a Martin sound. I’m no Martin expert but I don’t really see the comparison at least with mine. True to everything I had read about them, it did have high action. My guitar guy did an incredible job of sanding the bridge down and he was also able to tweak the truss rod in which I’ve heard is very difficult on those old guitars. I don’t know if he got the action too low or what but when I play it, the neck feels really flat to me and throws me off. It may be the light gauge strings he put on it that I don’t like. He didn’t want to put anything heavier for fear of it possibly pulling on it and bowing the neck again. But I always put medium gauge strings on all my guitars and think that’s the the issue. I’m going to try some mediums on it soon.

As far as how the FG180 sounds? I think it sounds really good for what it is. It may sound better once I get those medium strings on it. The feel of it has turned me off a bit and little things like that’s can affect the whole guitar to me to where I don’t really get into it enough to focus on the sounds of it. I think it distracts some. As silly as it sounds.

I’ll probably keep the FG180 regardless. I just think it’s cool to own a nearly 50 year old guitar that’s in such great shape visually. Only a couple of dings on it but overall it’s in incredible shape for its age. And I still didn’t really spend a lot for it. Good conversation piece. I had a 1919 Gibson L3 that I had gotten from my dad after he died. He’d only had it for 20 years or so. Talk about a conversation piece! It was horrible to play and needed a neck reset. Really didn’t sound that great either. It was a great conversation piece for the several years I owned it but ended up selling it because all it was, was a show piece to me and figured it would be better for someone else to own it that might fix it and play it and appreciate it more than me. It needed somebody to love it so that was the right thing to do.

The FGX just sounds so full and woody to me. It’s pretty balanced and loud enough. The playability is wonderful to me. The only knock I have on it is that a couple of the strings, especially the low E string, goes really sharp when I use a capo. I’ve had my guitar guy set it up but it didn’t really help. Not sure if it can be tweaked any better but I may have him or someone else try again. It’s not the end of the world. I just have to do some tuning after I put the capo on. I’ll take that knock on it because everything else makes up for that.

[Dru Edwards]

Nick, Welcome to the AGF!

Perhaps humidity is playing a factor? Do you know what the humidity is like in the room where you keep your Taylor? High humidity will impact the tone. Also, have you put new strings on?

Once you have those two questions answered then I would return the Taylor if it still sounds muddy.

[Cool555]

Originally Posted by ctvolfan

Good question! I much much prefer my FGX5 over the FG180. The FGX5 is the best guitar I’ve ever owned and I’ve had some Taylors that cost twice as much and more.

I bought the FG180 off of Facebook. Probably paid a little more than I should have for it but I wanted it because of all the comments about them and how they are similar to a Martin sound. I’m no Martin expert but I don’t really see the comparison at least with mine. True to everything I had read about them, it did have high action. My guitar guy did an incredible job of sanding the bridge down and he was also able to tweak the truss rod in which I’ve heard is very difficult on those old guitars. I don’t know if he got the action too low or what but when I play it, the neck feels really flat to me and throws me off. It may be the light gauge strings he put on it that I don’t like. He didn’t want to put anything heavier for fear of it possibly pulling on it and bowing the neck again. But I always put medium gauge strings on all my guitars and think that’s the the issue. I’m going to try some mediums on it soon.

As far as how the FG180 sounds? I think it sounds really good for what it is. It may sound better once I get those medium strings on it. The feel of it has turned me off a bit and little things like that’s can affect the whole guitar to me to where I don’t really get into it enough to focus on the sounds of it. I think it distracts some. As silly as it sounds.

I’ll probably keep the FG180 regardless. I just think it’s cool to own a nearly 50 year old guitar that’s in such great shape visually. Only a couple of dings on it but overall it’s in incredible shape for its age. And I still didn’t really spend a lot for it. Good conversation piece. I had a 1919 Gibson L3 that I had gotten from my dad after he died. He’d only had it for 20 years or so. Talk about a conversation piece! It was horrible to play and needed a neck reset. Really didn’t sound that great either. It was a great conversation piece for the several years I owned it but ended up selling it because all it was, was a show piece to me and figured it would be better for someone else to own it that might fix it and play it and appreciate it more than me. It needed somebody to love it so that was the right thing to do.

The FGX just sounds so full and woody to me. It’s pretty balanced and loud enough. The playability is wonderful to me. The only knock I have on it is that a couple of the strings, especially the low E string, goes really sharp when I use a capo. I’ve had my guitar guy set it up but it didn’t really help. Not sure if it can be tweaked any better but I may have him or someone else try again. It’s not the end of the world. I just have to do some tuning after I put the capo on. I’ll take that knock on it because everything else makes up for that.

Thank you for your very interesting reply! I enjoyed reading it! "If it's a good conversation guitar but doesn't play well, let it go"...I like your practicality in how you view and treat your guitars.

[j3ffr0]

A few thoughts:

Trust your ears. A 314 should need no excuses. It has a 16" lower bout same as a dreadnaught. No reason for it not to be loud and sound good. It IS a big guitar.

However, some beat-up, old guitars can have some magic in them... again, trust your ears. I'll bet that old Yamaha actually smokes a lot of more costly guitars if you took it into the local store and did some A/B testing. Guitars don't know how much they cost, and you might actually have a really good one there.

So your particular 314 may or may not be a dud (probably not, but it could happen). I bought a 714 once that was indeed a dud (bad intonation) I'd suggest seeing if there is somewhere around where you can do some comparisons. However, it is also true that the 314 will "open up" and sound better over time. You also might come to appreciate the different sound of the 314. I would never want two guitars that sounded the same! Guitars that are balanced and less boomy can often be beneficial when recording.

[CoastStrings]

Trust your ears and your personal preferences.

If you like your Yamaha better, then just return the Taylor. There will be another opportunity to upgrade.

Also keep in mind that the environment in which you play a guitar will affect your perception of how it sounds. You will only get a good A-vs-B comparison when you play the instruments in the same room.

In my small home office, there can be six acoustics hanging on the hard flat walls. Even after I've finished playing a piece and muted the strings of the guitar in my hands, you can still hear the other six guitars vibrating and "humming".

[Jamolay]

I am also a beginner and have noticed a phenomenon where I play a guitar in a store and love it, but when I go back and play it again I don’t as much. Something about something new and a little different maybe.

I feel like I have to play a guitar several times to feel like I like it or not and only 1 or 2 (where I have done this) have had the initial wonder remain. These were a Larrivee (which I now own) and an old guild f30. Although there are some nice guitars I liked and haven’t gone back to try again, so who knows.

I personally seem not to bond with Taylors, or Martins, but haven’t play the nicer ones. Breedloves I thought were fantastic at first but many tries later of entry to midrange Breedloves haven’t gelled with me either.

My thought is that I really need to play a guitar several times before I know I will like it. At least at this stage of general cluelessness.

Part of it is being a beginner and being inconsistent probably.

Maybe there is a set up issue and the new Taylor needs a little adjustment? Strings also matter, as mentioned, as well as time for both the strings and the guitar.

[mawmow]

Did you try other sting types ?
Which strings do you have on the Yamaha ?
Maybe the coated Elixir are not for you...
Some D'addario EJ-16 or Ni/Br or ernie ball Al/Br could help.

I once owned a Yamaha LS-16 ARE : I finally got fed up of its cristal clear tone.
I love my Taylor 322, 412ce and 510 but none is wearing Elixir strings anymore.
I tried former basic Martin 140, but now use ernie ball Al/Br on the 322 and
D'Addario Ni/Br on the 412 and Dragon Skin on the 510.

One should always try different string types when the tone does not meet expectations.

[rllink]

I too had a try it before you buy it fail. I went looking for a guitar with a 25" scale length and found a Yamaha FSX800c at my local music store. I played it for five or ten minutes, I liked it and figured it would do fine. When I got it home I just never connected with it. I don't know why and I'm not one to sit there and try to analyze it. I have better things to do than buy strings and hope I can make myself like it. I traded it three months later for a Guild drednaught. Sometimes it is best to cut you losses and move on.

[rollypolly]

Put on some $8 D'addario silk and steel lights and tell us what you think.