NGD: Taylor AD27 American Dream

grayn

I remember going out to get my first "really good" acoustic guitar, must've been around 25 years ago.  I'd had some decent Yamahas and Crafters and even an American Ovation but I'd got fed up with playing in rock bands and wanted to go acoustic.  So I went over to Leeds, which had a lot more music shops back then.  Went to most of them and played a lot of guitars but nothing in my price range, approx £900 (well it was a while back) grabbed me.  Dissappointing but I remembered a folk shop on the way home, called Dave Mallinsons, in Cleckheaton.  Long gone now.  The guitar I came home with from there was a Martin 000-15.  My first Martin, which seemed a big deal at the time.  It was all mahogany and had a lovely tone, with an earthy, woody look and sound that really appealed.

Over the years and many many other acoustics, I had also owned a Martin 000-15S and an all mahogany Tanglewood, that also shared that same type of tone and feel.  A sound I have missed and desired again.  Looking to see what guitars were available in my area, one shop had a Martin D-15 and a 000-10e that would fit the bill, being all solid mahogany or a Mahogany/Sapele mix.  But Reidys in Blackburn had on Sale, a Taylor AD27 American Dream.  My recent experience of Martins, is they come with stupidly high action, whereas Taylors almost always come very well set-up and are easy to play anyway.

So I went to Blackburn this morning, to try the AD27.  I compared it to another Taylor spruce/rosewood dread and of all things, a Cort all solid mahogany dread, which was a quarter of the price of the Taylors.  All 3 guitars had strong tones but to my ears, there was no doubt that the AD27 was just what I was hankering after.

  

The AD27 is a no frills, American made Taylor, in their Grand Pacific (round-shoulder dreadnought) design/size.  It comes with chamfered edges and Taylor's V-Class Bracing.  The top is  Neo-Tropical Mahogany, whilst the back & sides are Sapele.  The fretboard and bridge are, rather unusually, Eucalyptus.  The neck is mahogany.  As expected, it came well set up and with some beautiful tones.  A lovely warm and well defined bass, those smooth and strong mids, you'd expect from mahogany and some very well balanced highs.  This is a lightly built guitar that is very responsive and has a lot of sustain.

I mainly use acoustic guitar for accompanying vocals and the AD27's full yet well defined tone, is ideal for that.

It has no binding, a single black line of purfling, and a simple, 5 concentric circles of brown and cream, rosette.

The other thing it lacks is Taylor's rather good, Expression pickup system.  As I'll be using it for songwriting and possibly recording, that is not a problem but it would have been nice to have, nevertheless.  If I do ever take it out to perform, there is always K&K.  Yeah, this is a quality acoustic for not much cash and suits me very well indeed.

Winny_Pooh

Best Hog Dread I've played. Great guitars

Rich31k

I have one. My number one guitar. Love it. HNGD

Epsilon

Nice. I think the AD series are great (except the name). Definitely the best value in the range.

DavidR

Very nice Taylor. Affordable too for American made. I like the single line black purfling. Many all-mahogany guitars have no purfling but this looks better.

Yes, Martins very often ship with high actions and I think they assume you will lower them or get them lowered. Not a difficult job but one which is a bit scary if it's an expensive instrument.

Congrats.

Dave_Mc

That's very nice, nice work! 

Soupman

Taylors are very popular - with good reason. Nice guitars, good setup, good quality control,  and excellent customer support.
A very good purchase, I trust you will enjoy it for years.