Thoughts on Taylor Nylon String Guitars

[SprintBob]

I’m interested in giving nylon string guitars another try. I’m looking at it solely from adding another tonal possibility to the fingerstyle music I currently play. Taylor’s design mission with their nylon line as crossover guitars seems to be a good fit and I’ve had good experiences with their steel string products.

Anyone here have any experience with what they have offered in the 300-400-700-800 lines over the years?

[Rudy4]

If you're going for a Taylor you might think about picking up an Academy nylon. I played one of these when they were first released and thought it was a pretty nice introductory crossover.

Taylor Academy Nylon String Guitar

To be really honest, I think that Taylor's higher level nylons are over-built, which causes them difficulty in producing a rich & vibrant tone. I base that on playing only one example and also listening to the many Youtube demos out there.

[Mortimer Nelson]

Taylor nylons pretty much need to be plugged in to get a good sound, in my experience.

[rmp]

I have a 514NY-ce,
IMHO, it does NOT need to be plugged in to sound good. But hey.. just my exp.... I've been playing 50+ years, and play solo acoustic professionally eg: I'm NOT a noob, far from it.

but I'm NOT a traditional classical player either. So take it for what it's worth. I will tell ya, I went thru a # of nylons till I landed on the 514.

the intonation on the others drove me insane. The taylor is clean, and rings true up the neck.. something the other 4 or 5 I had, lacked woefully.

Takamine, Manuel Rodrigues, Yamaha, tried em all,, none of them were any where near tight with intonation, even after setups.

the necks are chunky, and wide,, but 've small hands, was not a good fit for me.

the 514 was a game changer.. the neck isn't as narrow and fast as my other two taylors, (814CE Vclass and a Grand Symphony) or Sj200 a bit bigger there, but it's very comfortable for my hands.

I'm not NUTS about the Taylor pickup system in their nylons, but I can make it work with a bit of EQ'ing.

I work with the music director at our roman catholic parish, it is perfect for that stuff,, lots of finger playing and you need to be very dynamic in the approach,,Over playing is not a good thing here. But it's pretty much dead on in that setting.

I get a lot of + feedback from the director and people who are actually listening.


see if you can find your way to try one.. I love mine.

[Rudy4]

Wasn't going to offer a suggestion, but my Cordoba Orchestra Fusion (crossover) has no intonation problems and has a very nice presence and resonant bass that is chock full of all the harmonics that make a lightly built classical so appealing.

I don't play classical music, but it has more of the tonality that we're used to hearing from Trigger, Willy's trusty companion, but doesn't need to be driven hard to produce that tone.

It amazes me how super-light it is, too. The curly maple wood binding is also beautiful.

[Taylor814]

I bought a Taylor NS62c in 2002 with the maple B/S substituted with cocobolo. At the time I thought it was a pretty neat guitar, but eventually my opinion changed for a variety of reasons. It was overbuilt, in my opinion, and the tone was kind of dull. I had it built without amplification but eventually put a K&K Pure Western pick-up in it, but that didn't help. I'm basically not a big fan of nylon crossover guitars. I think they're a bit like crossover bikes: they try to be two different things at once and end up being neither. In my opinion, a 1 7/8" nut is too narrow for nylon strings as I was often pulling the high E off the fingerboard. Obviously the original NSX2ce series no longer exists, but I imagine what's being built today is similar under the hood. My recommendation is get the best standard 50-52 mm classical you can afford. It will sound better and probably be easier to play than a crossover.

[Bear Davis]

I do like Taylor nylons, and have owned several. I let me last one go because a little birdy I know at Taylor said they are being redesigned.

That being said, the current Taylor crossovers are fairly overbuilt and lack dynamic range compared to a lot of other offerings. I am sure the redesign will be addressing this.

Crossover guitars have a number of benefits: The cut-a-way allow easy high fret play, the electronics enable competitive volume within electronic settings, and the crossovers enable steel string players the tonal qualities of nylon. But there is a price to be paid.

The cut-a-way steals an important part of the guitar's lung capacity. In my estimation the more elaborate electronics ground the body and mute tonal and projective qualities.

The only hybrid guitar that I've found that works with nylon is, ironically, the Blackbird Savoy, a steel string guitar that adapts well to nylon strings. That assessment is not just based on my experience.

A player on this forum, Jeff Farr, like many steel string players, decided to try nylons on his steel string guitar. I don't think that ever works, but he found that it works well. I had to test his observation and purchased a Savoy.

I played the Savoy for one week with the steel strings it came with. and then I changed to Martin hard tension nylons. I was amazed. In my experience the good classical guitars have an openness of sound that produces lush and precise tonal qualities with powerful projection--the Savoy has that openness.

I've generally compared my nylon string guitars with my brother-in-law's Ramirez and when I next visit I'll be putting the Savoy to the test. So far the only thing I don't like about the Savoy is the narrow nut width, it has the benefit of forcing me to more precision in my play but would not serve a good classical guitar.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by EvanB

Crossover guitars have a number of benefits: The cut-a-way allow easy high fret play, the electronics enable competitive volume within electronic settings, and the crossovers enable steel string players the tonal qualities of nylon. But there is a price to be paid.

The cut-a-way steals an important part of the guitar's lung capacity. In my estimation the more elaborate electronics ground the body and mute tonal and projective qualities.

The only hybrid guitar that I've found that works with nylon is, ironically, the Blackbird Savoy, a steel string guitar that adapts well to nylon strings. That assessment is not just based on my experience.

A player on this forum, Jeff Farr, like many steel string players, decided to try nylons on his steel string guitar. I don't think that ever works, but he found that it works well. I had to test his observation and purchased a Savoy.

I played the Savoy for one week with the steel strings it came with. and then I changed to Martin hard tension nylons. I was amazed. In my experience the good classical guitars have an openness of sound that produces lush and precise tonal qualities with powerful projection--the Savoy has that openness.

I've generally compared my nylon string guitars with my brother-in-law's Ramirez and when I next visit I'll be putting the Savoy to the test. So far the only thing I don't like about the Savoy is the narrow nut width, it has the benefit of forcing me to more precision in my play but would not serve a good classical guitar.

Your points are well-taken.

My Cordoba crossover (Orchestra CD/IN) has no cutaway and no electronics.

This one shipped with B Band electronics, but mine is totally acoustic:

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Cordoba...ical-Guitar.gc

It has the sound of a nice classical without any of the perceived negatives from many of the crossover styles.

Rudy;

That's a very nice guitar. Cordoba makes great instruments and yours, without the electronics and cut-a-way, probably excels hybrids in terms of tone and projection. Nice selection on your part. I would not call it a hybrid.

[SprintBob]

Thanks for the feedback folks. This was very helpful.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by EvanB

Rudy;

That's a very nice guitar. Cordoba makes great instruments and yours, without the electronics and cut-a-way, probably excels hybrids in terms of tone and projection. Nice selection on your part. I would not call it a hybrid.

Thanks!

I first did a conversion of an old classical to crossover before committing to purchasing the Cordoba.

There's some information about that, as well as a photo and a review of my Cordoba crossover and some general information on crossover guitar at the internet archive of my old website:

http://web.archive.org/web/201604060...Crossover.html

Rudy;

Thank you for an informative site. I've never considered the narrow nut width, radiused fret board, shorter scale or hard tension strings as hybrid--but from a purist perspective I can see that they are.

To me the biggest features of hybrid guitars were the cut-a-way and the electronics--those are the features that I see as primary sound-changers. The problem I have with the purist point of view is that it doesn't offer any possibility of development for the classical guitar. If I was king I would make tone and projection to be the determinates of what's consider classical or Flamenco.

Interesting conversation. Thank you for taking me out of my limited point of view.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by EvanB

Rudy;

Thank you for an informative site. I've never considered the narrow nut width, radiused fret board, shorter scale or hard tension strings as hybrid--but from a purist perspective I can see that they are.

To me the biggest features of hybrid guitars were the cut-a-way and the electronics--those are the features that I see as primary sound-changers. The problem I have with the purist point of view is that it doesn't offer any possibility of development for the classical guitar. If I was king I would make tone and projection to be the determinates of what's consider classical or Flamenco.

Interesting conversation. Thank you for taking me out of my limited point of view.

You're entirely welcome, but I don't see it as being a limited point of view.

The nomenclature of "crossover" and "hybrid" seem to have a lot of carryover, and this type of instrument is new enough that there's truly no consensus as to what constitutes either.

There's way more rigidity for most that consider themselves classical purists, with former steel string players much more willing to tailor an instrument purely to meet their needs or ideas on what they want to see in a nylon strung instrument.

In any case, it's good to have an open mind about what innovation can be applied to the form, whatever it ends up being called.

My Cordoba ended up checking off all the boxes for what I was looking for, with the exception of the short fret board extension and accompanying frets that project into the sound hole area.