While Taylor is primarily known for their
fine acoustic guitars, they’ve recently been
garnering a lot attention with their innovative electric guitar designs. Expanding on
and combining elements of the SolidBody
and the T5, the T3 is an ambitious instrument that offers a wide range of tonal
options to satisfy the demands of a diverse
group of players. Make no mistake, the
T3/B is not a “jack of all trades, master
of none,” but rather a well-thought-out
instrument that plays great, sounds fantastic and looks incredible.
The T3/B (“B” for Bigsby) is a semi-hol-lowbody electric constructed from sapele
rather than the traditional mahogany and
topped with a beautiful, quilted maple top.
The body is hollowed out, but leaves a
solid block in the center where the quilted,
bookmatched maple piece is laid directly
on top. The 21-fret sapele neck with ebony
fingerboard is styled in a very comfortable
and fast shallow C profile that is bolted on
with Taylor’s proprietary T-Lock. Though the
guitar uses a bolt-on configuration, it isn’t
chunky or obtrusive in any way, and it feels
rock solid, no doubt due to the design of
the neck joint. Both the T3/B and T3 (stop
tail piece) models incorporate a roller-style
bridge, which in the case of the Bigsby is
excellent for combating the tuning issues
associated with that style of vibrato. It
includes the standard 2-humbucker design
with 3-way toggle and a master volume
and tone control, but there’s a lot more
than meets the eye. The pickups are not
the typical PAF-style, but Taylor’s own Style
2 HD (high definition) humbuckers with
coil-splitting activated by pulling up on
the volume knob—and a tone control that
adds a second capacitor by pulling up. The
range of tones possible grows exponentially with these additions, but more on that
later. Finally, the whole guitar is tastefully
appointed with chrome pickup rings, knobs,
strap buttons, and Taylor’s own tuners.
The T3/B I reviewed came in a Honey
Sunburst finish (see cover), but that just
doesn’t do the finish justice. Not only was
the quilt top the most gorgeous I’ve ever
seen; the finish was so rich and deep I had
a hard time figuring out if I should play it or
just look at it! The good news is this guitar
plays as good as it looks, which was a nice
realization. The neck is instantly comfortable and fast playing, without feeling like
your hand would cramp due to lack of substance. It sort of combined the best of all
neck shapes into one, and lent itself to just
about any style of playing—always feeling
easy. The action was set up to be just a hair
higher than low, which was perfect for big
bends and chords that rang clean without
fretting out. The neck offers good access
to the 21st fret on the higher strings, but
was a little more limited past the 15th fret
on the fourth, fifth, and sixth strings. What I
found refreshing was the way the neck joint
felt seamlessly connected to the body, and
low profile, unlike some traditional designs.
Taylor clearly thought through these
designs when coming up with the guitar,
and it paid off big time. That wasn’t the
only area that stood out, as even the detail
of the volume and tone knobs is brilliant:
they look like art deco top hats, and they
feel better than any guitar I’ve played in
my life. The taper of both knobs is smooth
and controlled, and they exhibit a weight
to them that feels fantastic and deliberate
when rolling them up or down. The sum of
these details adds up to a solid feeling and
fun guitar to play.
If Taylor had stopped at the 2-humbucker,
3-way switch design they would’ve had a
winning guitar. But they didn’t, and I’m
really glad they decided to go the extra
mile, because there are a lot of fantastic
tones to be found. The Style 2 HD pickups
have a very clean and articulate sound.
I wouldn’t call them PAF-like… in fact, I
don’t really have anything to compare them
to. They’re incredibly versatile and worked
well through every amp I played them on.
But it wasn’t until I pulled the volume knob
up and split the coils that the real tonal
magic became apparent. Again, the coil-tap
wasn’t the familiar Strat sound of a single
coil, just a more articulate and less weighty
sound than the humbucker. It was very useful in a variety of situations and allowed me
to dial in just the right amount of heft or
leanness, depending on my needs. To top it
off, the tone control actually did something!
Rolling back the tone all the way sounds
like it shifts the mid frequency rather than
the typical dark tone, and pulling up shifts
the tone again by adding another cap to
the control, giving more versatility to the
shape. This is one of those rare guitars that
doesn’t necessarily have a stock setting to
it. Where I usually tend to go straight to
the bridge pickup with volume and tone
full-up, I ended up using every combination
of pickup, coil tap and tone variation. It
was amazing to hear one guitar shine in so
many different ways.
The Bigsby implementation is by far the
best of its kind that I’ve used. After letting
the guitar settle in and adjust to my climate
(Arizona is very dry—a great place to test
the mettle of any guitar) I never had a tuning problem. Typical Bigsbys tend to drag
the wound strings across the bridge and
pull the guitar out of tune. With the roller
bridge, just about all of the binding up is
eliminated, and the travel of the vibrato is
ultra-smooth and controlled. Even with the
roller bridge, it still feels like a Bigsby but
doesn’t carry any the negative side effects.
These types of vibrato units are designed for
a less dramatic effect that a Floyd, but they
are so very effective when used properly. It’s
just another example of a tasteful appointment to the T3/B that I really enjoyed. And
as an extra bonus, the weight of the tailpiece and the way it was mounted made the
guitar sound acoustically quite loud and surprisingly responsive. Big points for that.
I rarely come across an instrument that is
as beautiful as it is functional. Taylor seems
to have pulled out all the stops on the
T3/B, since it effortlessly excels in musical
styles ranging from rock to blues to jazz,
and yet never feels out of place. With all
the chrome, quilted maple and flair in the
design, it would be easy to create a garish
and over-the-top guitar—this is anything
but that. Somehow Taylor has figured out a
way to incorporate style, class and function-ality into the perfect package. I can’t think
of a single thing I would change, except for
the fact that it needs to be returned now
that I’m done reviewing it. Bummer!
Buy If...
You want beauty, brains
and brawn.
Skip If...
You’re watching your wallet.
Rating...
5.0
ONTHEWeb
Click the speaker button to download sound clips of the T3/B. For
descriptions of the clips,
head to
premierguitar.com
Taylor Guitars
MSRP $3198
taylorguitars.com
