Review of the Taylor 210 Acoustic by The Man in the Jar This is a big complex Dreadnought with a lovely pale face... ...
Review of the Taylor 210 Acoustic by The Man in the Jar
This is a big complex Dreadnought with a lovely pale face...
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Features of the Taylor 210 Acoustic
Tuners - Unbranded sealed mini tuners with large knobs, very smooth and accurate.
Headstock - The headstock is quite long so it makes the guitar look a lot smaller than it is in the photograph. It's faced with a dark slice of mahogany and this feeling of class is enhanced by the mahogany truss rod cover.
Nut - Cream plastic nut is clean and accurate.
Neck - The tropical American mahogany neck is a creamy brown colour with a tight grain. The many-tongued joint between neck and headstock looks indestructible and a barely perceptible asymmetry in the shaping indicates hand-finishing takes place in production.
Fretboard - The ebony fretboard is smooth and close-grained and its dark richness is offset by the flat white pearloid dot markers.
Frets - Thin and highly polished.
Action - Low and very playable from the box, exactly what you'd expect at this price range.
Body - Big-bottomed and thick-waisted, a typical dreadnought shape. The top is a vanilla blonde sitka spruce which has more creaminess than the photo suggests. The back and sides are sapele, the colour of which blends in really nicely with the mahogany neck. Black binding finishes off both front and back.
Bridge - The bridge is ebony to match the fretboard and the saddle is made from Tusq (the guitar world enjoys inventing new names for plastic). The saddle is staggered at the second string to aid intonation. Bridge pins are standard black plastic.
Pickguard - A very swirly mock tortoiseshell in an attractive variation of the classic teardrop shape.
Strap-buttons - Two large strap buttons, one on the bottom of the body and one affixed to the lower face of the heel.
Finish - Satin varnish lends a lovely feel to the whole instrument. The build quality is excellent throughout.
Sound of the Taylor 210 Acoustic
I was immediately impressed by the open and complex nature of the tone delivered by the Taylor 210. There is a strength without stridency in the treble and a depth without muddiness in the middle. The bass response lends a honeyed drone to strummed chords and a tight authority to single note runs in the lower register. Sustain is very impressive. The more I played this guitar the more I looked for complexities to add to my playing technique to more fully explore the tonal arsenal of this lovely acoustic.
Overall Impressions of the Taylor 210 Acoustic
At £600 the Taylor 210 represents a significant investment, although that does include an excellent fitted guitar case. But such an investment is certainly worthwhile for the player that values exceptional tone in a beautiful instrument that displays the highest levels of guitar building workmanship.
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