Taylor 618e Review

Wow. Just... wow.

The short version: This is an absolutely stunning instrument. I paid for a setup for my preferred gauge of strings, and so a near perfect guitar became perfect for me. The big leaf maple makes it absolutely sparkle. Think acoustic guitar equivalent of a grand piano. Fans of rosewood might be better advised to try this guitar's close relative, the Taylor 818e, but if you are a fan… read more of maple as a tone wood, then this instrument straight cannot be improved upon, for any amount of money. The V-Class bracing system produces a tone, sustain, intonation, sustain, and dynamic range that exceeds any guitar I have ever played. Highly recommend. I wish I could rate it six stars, it's that good. The long version: Ask any luthier why they use traditional style X-bracing for the guitar's top, the answer you will get will likely be some version of, "Because it's always been done that way". It's true, too. A traditional X-brace with a pair of lower bout tone braces and an upper bout transverse brace is a design that dates back hundreds of years. It's so old nobody knows who invented it. Martin does it this way, Gibson does it this way. The thing is, just because something is traditional does not mean that it's optimal. Master builder Andy Powers decided to examine how a guitar top vibrates using a very high speed camera- and the conclusion that he came to is that traditional bracing, which is asymmetrical, sort of divides the soundboard into four soundboards, due to the location of that X-brace. Each one kind of vibrates independently of the others, and so the overall effect was that the guitar top vibrates in a "very disorderly way" (Andy's words). This chaotic vibration lowers volume, projection, dynamic range, reduces sustain, and tends to cause harmonic overtones to compete in a way that results in intonation problems. So he redesigned the bracing from scratch with this in mind. Tone braces and the transverse brace were entirely eliminated. Instead of an X-brace, he uses a V shaped brace that starts at either side of the strap button, goes through the bridge plate, along both sides of the sound hole, and stops just short of the shoulders of the upper bout. This design allows the top to vibrate more as a single unit- for the first time, there was a design that allows the soundboard to get out of it's own way. Because it does not set up a system where individual parts of the top are competing against one another, all of the intonation issues in the harmonic overtones just go away. It's also a lighter bracing system- which makes sense, because we can cut bracing that is near perfectly flat in the modern world, and glue technologies have advanced significantly since the X-bracing design was invented. Ever experience a barre chord high up on the neck that, while not quite out of tune, was not quite in tune either? That's your bracing system behind your soundboard pulling your intonation out in the higher frequencies- and it cannot be fixed, because it's a design flaw. It has nothing to do with tuning or string length. The effect this new bracing design has on overall guitar quality was is so superior to traditional designs that Bob Taylor made Master Builder Andy Powers the third partner and co-owner of Taylor Guitars- and that is a serious testament to incredible advancement that the V-Class bracing system represents. It increases volume and projection, and it makes for perfect intonation no matter what chord position you choose. For me, the most stunning part was how responsive this guitar is to a light touch- any playing style will work with this instrument. Anyone who knows about guitar bodies will tell you that a grand orchestra style (jumbo) body is great for strumming heavily, but not so good for fingerstyle and light touch playing styles- and that is simply not true with this guitar. I strongly suggest that anyone in the market for a new instrument take the time to compare a traditionally braced acoustic guitar to a Taylor with V-Class bracing side by side, because the difference is obvious, and quite jaw-dropping. Sustain for days. Truly, this is one of the most superior acoustic guitars that money can buy, no matter how deep your pockets may be.

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