Taylor Academy Series Academy 12e Grand Concert Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Wood, Natural

Low action, light strings, very very high quality with gorgeous smooth frets. The quality control in MIM is apparently same as MIA and it shows. The onboard pickups are very nice and clear with tone controls and a tuner. The neck is the exact same size as my strat at the nut so it's a very familiar feel if you're playing a strat/electric already. It's a super light guitar and the "arm rest" feature feels natural and supports the arm and elbow and for me, stops me swinging my arm and just strumming more from the wrist. The body is thinner than others I have seen, and it comes right up into and against your body - it's not boxy or bulky. The tone unamplified is clear and just has that right amount of mids and bass. With the amplifier this thing sings. I am very pleased. If you're a new player then you can't go wrong here - remember, if you play a cheap guitar and get a rubbish tone then that is all you will hear. If you hear a nice tone when you fret that chord you've been working on for two weeks, you will come back time and again. That's what it is about, don't go cheap for your first guitar this thing sounds nice and is easy to play - that is what counts.

This guitar feels good in your hands and sounds great. For the money, it cannot be beat. I prefer nylon strings (and have a nylon version on order) - this guitar plays easily and is not hard on the fingers even with steel strings. The tuner works well and it is chromatic allowing you to tune down a half-step, etc. Plugged into my JBL eon, the sound is natural. You really don't need more than a tone and a volume option 99% of the time. The single tone knob is definitely preferred for beginners, but I have been playing for almost 50 years now and prefer it myself. With the knob at 12 o'clock, the tone is perfect and there is a lot of tonal shift across the span of the knob. You don't have to have a trained ear because it is a very natural tone and sound quality in the 12 o'clock position. I have not used this guitar for any live gigs yet as it just arrived yesterday, but I did want to add a review as there are so few. It looks like we all agree with the 5-star rating. It does come with a gig bag, and arrived on time from Chicago Music Exchange.November 10th: Have used this guitar for about a dozen gigs now, and I am still impressed. It stays in tune well, though the tuner can be a little finicky. Having a single tone control becomes a bit more limiting as you plug into various other sound systems (meaning you cannot readily trim down bass without adding more treble in a system that is set too boomy, but it can of course be tweaked at the sound board). It also has no feedback control, but that is not a common feature on many acoustic-electrics, especially in this price range. All in all, buy this guitar. It is solid and has a great tone and overall feel for the price. The amplified volume is consistent across all 6 strings (many times you find the low E is too weak or too strong compared to the other strings independent of tone settings). It will more than suffice for any player, though if you play Carnegie Hall you might want to spend more than $650 on a guitar anyway.

I have been singing and playing guitar for 56 plus years. I am more of a singer, however, I do well enough to accompany myself with a little flare of the fingers🙂. I have had a number of guitars over the years, and this is my second Taylor. I don't need the cutaway, as is on my last Taylor. The electric part works well with my amplifier. Acoustically there is a good sound and not too shrill. (I use finger picks.) I recommend this delightful guitar.

I love this guitar. It’s just a delightful instrument to play. It arrived quicker than anticipated perfectly packaged. It is one of my favorite purchases on amazon ever.

Perfect fit - beautiful build and sound!

This guitar is for more experienced musicians and it is perfect

It’s very good

This is probably my favorite Taylor I've ever had. While my 3-series Grand Symphony will always be the best sounding Taylor I've ever played, this one probably is the most giggable guitar that Taylor has ever made, as in bar gigs and open mics (and not Carnegie Hall). These are the reasons why.1. The Grand Concert body is a breeze to play. The scale is especially wonderful.2. At gigging volume, sometimes one has a tendency to pick harder than necessary. Grand Concert gives you more brightness and volume as you pick harder, without introducing boom or distortion.3. Built-in tuner, which Taylors normally never have.4. Plugged in tone is good. I don't know if it's the best pickup ever, but I think it sounds good, and it has labeled knobs (Volume and Tone), unlike the usual Taylor setup of three unlabeled knobs. You can always add an acoustic pedal to the equation if you're picky.5. Battery can be changed very easily. This guitar uses button cells, used in watches and headstock tuners. While 9V would obviously provide longer battery life, on the other hand, you can buy an entire strip of CR2032 batteries for a few bucks and keep them in the gig bag. So it might be cheaper in the long run.6. Arm rest makes a huge difference when playing standing up on a strap.7. The endpin jack is of a different design and than the standard Taylor ES jack, so I am just able to slip in a rubber Grolsch washer over my Ernie Ball strap and really keep that strap locked in there. That's never coming off. A locked strap protects my guitar and my investment.8. Price is reasonable, so if anything happens to it, it didn't happen to a guitar costing thousands.So you see, this is the most perfect gigging Taylor ever made, in my opinion. I really like that they're able to do some of the things that Taylor doesn't normally do, like labeled knobs and built-in tuners, in an entry level instrument without introducing those changes to higher-end guitars.The only issue I have with this guitar, as with all Taylors, is that there is no included truss rod adjustment tool and I have to buy one to adjust my truss rod.There is also the 15/16 Dreadnought A10e that was released alongside A12e, which has the same scale and all the same features except for a slightly bigger body. I'm curious to know what that guitar is like. I think it's like this. When you dig in and play hard, do you want the guitar to get brighter, or do you want the guitar to get boomier, too? If you want a little more bass response, then go with the A10e. If you want to cut through, go with the A12e.