Taylor T5z Standard - Honey Sunburst Review

Lovely, excellent-playing hybrid guitar that does exactly what you need a hybrid to do

I've had my T5z Standard Honey Sunburst for roughly a month now, so I might update this later after I've had time to live with it for a while. However, here are my impressions so far. I bought this guitar to serve in situations where I need to get between really good acoustic guitar tones and *respectable* electric guitar tones quickly, without switching guitars. This happens… read more to me a lot in worship-team situations; you're coming out of an acoustic-guitar song and in like ten seconds you have to intro more of a rocker. Part of the reason I bought the spruce-topped version is that I thought that might "bias" this guitar's tone a little more toward the acoustic end, which is what I wanted. Because of the Covid situation I haven't had as much playing-out opportunity with this guitar as I'd like, but so far I can say that this guitar fits the above-described bill extremely well. The acoustic tones in switch position 1 are excellent--if one closes one's eyes you would entirely believe I'm playing a Taylor dreadnought, and you can get a very Martin-like tone out of it also with a bit of tone shaping. Switch position 2 gives an entirely respectable solid-body neck pickup type of tone. It definitely doesn't sound EXACTLY like, say, a Strat neck pickup, but it gives you enough of the *character* of a Strat neck pickup that it works just fine in the situation I described above, and you can get to it with a flip of a switch and without throwing guitars all over the stage. With some additional tone shaping it does a nice jazz-box tone. Switch position 3 gives excellent rock-and-roll or country twang, Tele-like--again, not a perfect replacement for a Tele but a good enough emulation for many situations, and again you can get to it in about a second with one switch and two knobs. Switch positions 4 and 5 are only slightly different from each other, but they do have differences that you can accentuate with the tone shaping and I think they'll both end up coming in handy. I hear no audible pop or anything like that when flipping the selector switch. I did try swapping the T5z for my Strat during a recent recording session, and I was amazed at how good it sounded. It was a smidge brighter than the Strat, but really warm and fat and it fit really well into the mix overall. One consideration with the T5z is that you do need to remember what to do with the tone-shaping knobs to get to the various sounds you might want. If you don't like fiddling with knobs then this guitar might frustrate you. For me, that means I have to practice the transitions between tones and program into my head where those knobs are supposed to be for each song. Not a huge deal, but something to be aware of. The playability has been absolutely superb, and the fit-and-finish are outstanding. This guitar feels very good in my hands. It's very lightweight, too--I think mine is just a smidge over 5 lbs. It does need retuning more often than some of my other guitars, but it's not to the point of being a problem, and like I said I haven't had it very long yet so it's still "settling in". For me personally, the one downside has been that this guitar is REALLY small. If you are coming to it from solid-body electrics, then this is a fantastic choice, but my main axe is an Epiphone Joe Pass and the T5z feels *tiny* compared with the JP, to the point at which it does take some getting used to. (The T5z has a bigger brother, the T5. I picked the T5z over the T5 because the z model has a smaller fingerboard radius, which I prefer.) To sum up: if what you are looking for is a single hybrid guitar that nails the acoustic tones and very respectably and usefully emulates a wide variety of electric tones, with top-notch craftsmanship and playability, then the T5z Standard is definitely a candidate for you and I'd highly recommend it. Last but definitely not least: I did a ton of research when trying to decide whether this guitar was right for me, and Robby Resnick was a fantastic resource every step of the way. Robby and Sweetwater definitely get customer service right, and that's a big part of why i keep coming back.

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Nigels new Taylor

The T5z is not meant to be played without an amplifier as it is a low projection instrument. But plug it in and WOW, this Guitar is amazing. Very Tele/Strat Acoustic sounding. 5 position switch gives you everything you need to satisfy any taste in music. Highly recommend this instrument. I feel like I'm playing my low action JS24p.

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T5z

Amazing fit and finish. As a Cabinet maker, I can truly appreciate the fine Craftsmanship that went into this instrument. Sweetwater contributed to the experience by setting up this instrument with the knowledgeable technicians who worked on bringing this baby to life.i wouldn't buy a guitar anywhere else but Sweetwater. Thank you.

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Taylor T5Z spruce top

More great service from Sweetwater, got a spruce topped T5Z, beautiful honeyburst. Taylor build/fit/finish is outstanding, in the same league as my Collings and PRSes. I can get great acoustic sounds from this even plugged into my electric amp head, not yet tried it with a PA or acoustic amp but expect great results as well. Even more playable than my electrics. It gets a 4.5… read more instead of a 5.0 for one small preference of mine, the thickness of the neck. I'm into the PRS wide/fat neck and this is more of a C shape, like my Collings, than the D shape of my PRSes. The guitar would probably be neck heavy if it had a beefier neck. I wanted to try this before I started down the rabbit holes of trying to electrify my acoustics. I've stayed away from Taylors in the past because of their long scale and flat fretboards, glad they are starting to deviate from that.

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