Taylor Guitars 655-CE Jumbo 12 String Acoustic Electric Guitar Reviews
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Taylor Guitars 655-CE Jumbo 12 String Acoustic Electric Guitar Feature
- 12-String
- Jumbo
- Solid Sitka Spruce Top
- Solid Maple Back/Sides
- Hardshell Case Included
The Taylor 655-CE 12-string delivers the same easy-to-hold, stay-in-tune playability as its six-string siblings. A smooth Venetian cutaway provides access to the upper frets, while the Expression System pickup amplifies each note with true warmth and fullness.
 | - 12-string Jumbo with Venetian cutaway
- Better amplification with the Taylor Expression System
- Sitka Spruce top
- Big leaf maple back and sides
- Abalone soundhole rosette
- Ornate pearl leaf inlays on fretboard
- Ebony fretboard, bridge
- Tusq nut and saddle
- Gold-plated Taylor Tuners
- Adjustable truss rode
- Strung with Elixir Light Gauge Strings with NANOWEB Coating
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Taylor's Jumbo Shape
The Jumbo delievers the extra-deep resonance and volume that come with larger sound chamber together with its own signature subtleties. With a huge presence, the Jumbo is perfectly suited for aggressive strumming.
A Venitian cutaway in the Jumbo body allows better access to the upper frets. In the past, many players moving to acoustic guitars grew accustomed to the cutaways on their electric guitars, while others simply like the freedom of movement into the upper register that a cutaway allows. Now, cutaways are favored as much for their decorative appeal as for their function.
 12-string Jumbo body. |
Sound that Cuts Through
The top is made from Sitka Spruce, a dense, straight-grained wood that has the highest strength and elasticity-to-weight ratio among available tonewoods. It's these attributes that make Sitka Spruce an ideal material not only for soundboards, but also for internal bracing. The Sitka top will produce a tone slightly brighter tone than Engelmann Spruce.
The back and sides of the left-handed 614ce are made from big leaf maple, a wood with high-performance properties that have made it a favorite on stages and in recording studios. Its stiff, tight grain produces a clear, bright, compressed, balanced tone capable of cutting through an ensemble mix, and its relatively quick note "decay" gives maple a hedge against feedback. Maples range of tan coloration and widely varying grain figure--fiddleback, quilted, or highly flamed--make it one of the more beautiful tonewoods.
In short, the distinctive blend of Big Leaf maple and Sitka spruce gives it a bright, crystaline timbre with strong projection and warm overtones. It's a combination that truly "cuts through."
 The Taylor Expression System gives you a natural acoustic sound. |
Pure Reproduction of An Acoustic Sound
In the past, Taylor had relied on after-market pickups that employed traditional piezo technology. But the result was a distorted tone that failed to capture the natural acoustic richness and dynamics of a Taylor for live performance. After several years of research, Taylor designed their own groundbreaking pickup system that uses magnetics much like a microphone. The result is an exceptionally pure reproduction of an acoustic guitars natural sound. The Taylor Expression System delivers an amplified tone that will satisfy the most demanding pro player, yet makes it simple for anyone to plug in and sound great.
The Expression System incorporates three different magnetic sensors. Two strategically placed Dynamic Body Sensors affixed to the underside of the soundboard capture the complex nuances of the tops vibration, while a Dynamic String Sensor mounted beneath the fretboard extension registers string and neck vibration. The preamp boosts the pickup signal cleanly, without the need for artificial EQ "coloration. The balanced, low-impedance signal the Expression System produces can run direct into a mixer or PA in most situations, and is free of distortion at almost any volume.
 Big leaf maple back and sides join with spruce top. |
Three simple, unintrusive onboard control knobs preserve the aesthetic beauty of your Taylor, yet allow you to easily adjust the volume, bass, and treble to suit your personal preferences and performance environment. When set flat, the tone controls add no color and produce the most natural sound. Or, add bass or treble (or subtract) to adjust for the room or personal tastes. The payoff is in the purity of high-fidelity amplified tone, unprecedented dynamic range, and extraordinary resistance to feedback and distortion. It enables all of the expressive subtleties of your playing to come through, just the way you intended.
Construction
Taylor takes pride in using the finest quality woods for their guitars, like ebony for every fretboard they make. The tone woods were quartersawn and carefully book-matched before being sorted, dried, and prepared by Bob Taylor and his experienced team of luthiers. The inlay and binding work was also done by hand, providing care and "touch" that no machine can give. Taylor believes that precision matters, which is why they rely on laser cutters and computer-aided milling machines to consistently hit minute tolerances that were impossible a decade ago.
Balance and Bracing
A balanced tone is critical to a quality recorded sound. Guitars that are too heavily weighted towards a particular end of the tonal spectrum (too "bassy," for example) tend to be tougher to record. While the Dreadnought shape has more volume or bass than other shapes, the overall balance is not compromised.
 Features pearl leaf inlays. |
Straight Necks Matter
Don't all guitars have straight necks? The answer is usually yes, but the real question is will they stay that way? Since its inception, the acoustic guitar had a major design flaw. The fretboard lacked sufficient support to remain truly straight because of top movement caused by changes in humidity. All guitars experience this phenomenon--often resulting in a slight bump at the 14th fret--but not all guitars respond to it in the same way.
Introduced in 1999 and a standard feature since 2001, the patented New Technology (NT) neck was designed by Bob Taylor and his team to accomplish the primary goal of building a straighter, more stable guitar neck. While some necks may bend in the face of humidity and other factors, the NT Neck stays stable and straight.
Adjustability is another major NT advantage. Since the NT Neck angle is created by spacers and requires no glue, adjustment simply requires a repair person with a new set of spacers and about five spare minutes. Altering the neck angle of a traditional neck assembly could require invasive surgery to remove wood and relocate the bridge.
The bottom line: The NT Neck means a stable, easy-to-adjust neck that stands up to the pressures all acoustic guitars face.
Tuners
Precise, gleaming tuners add appealing form to an important function, while the type of strings used can alter the feel and the tone of your guitar. Taylor pays careful attention to both, using tuners and strings that are optimized for the guitar. Together, they are among the keys to an easy-playing, incredible-sounding Taylor.
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Dec 18, 2010 16:53:03
