Taylor 322e 12-Fret Acoustic-Electric Guitar

This handsome Grand Concert blends vintage looks with a wonderfully played-in sound, thanks to a shaded edgeburst top and Taylor's distinctive 12-fret design, respectively. The 12-fret neck-to-body orientation features a shifted bridge location (closer to the center of the lower bout) that produces a more mature voice and a warm, punchy midrange, especially with the tonewood pairing of a mahogany top with sapele back and sides. Thanks to the shorter 24-7/8-inch scale length, players can expect a slinkier string feel. Together with the comfortably compact Grand Concert body, this promises to be a fun and inspiring fingerpicking machine that also offers ample headroom for strumming. Taylor's Expression System 2 electronics wire you for natural-sounding amplified tone.

Grand Concert Body Shape

The smallest of Taylor's full-size body shapes. Its compact dimensions make for a physically comfortable guitar with an intimate feel and sound. The smaller footprint keeps the overtones in check, contributing to a focused, articulate sound that's well-suited for recording and stage work.

Tropical Mahogany

Harder, denser woods like mahogany and koa that are used on the back and sides of a guitar are sometimes used as tops. Their stiffness initially translates into a bright tone and tends to need more play-in time to open up, but the more a mahogany-top guitar is played, the more it develops overtones that contribute to a fuller, richer sound. A mahogany-top guitar might appeal to… read more rootsy players who like a little extra punchiness in their tone.

Goes Well With: Blues and roots players, anyone who likes a slightly more burly or punchy quality to their tone.

Sapele

An alternative tonewood that joined the Taylor fold over a decade ago. It's sometimes mistakenly referred to as African mahogany because it closely resembles the West African wood khaya, which is commercially known as African mahogany. Sapele is a highly sustainable, relatively fast-growing wood. Tonally, it does everything that mahogany does, with a little extra treble zing. We'll be able to offer it for a long, long time.

Goes Well With: Everything. Like ovangkol, it's a great all-purpose tonewood that will deliver a consistent, balanced tone in a variety of playing applications, from fingerstyle to strumming.

Expression System 2

The Taylor Expression System 2 (ES2) is a revolutionary pickup design that delivers the latest in Taylor's ongoing innovation in acoustic guitar amplification. The heart of the Expression System 2 is Taylor's proprietary behind-the-saddle pickup (patent pending), which features three uniquely positioned and individually calibrated pickup sensors. The location of the sensors enables a more dynamic range of acoustic sound to be captured than ever before. Together with Taylor's custom-designed "professional audio"-grade preamp, this system produces exceptional amplified tone and responsiveness. On stage through a PA, plugged into your favorite acoustic amplifier, or direct into recording software, the Expression System 2 faithfully conveys the voice of your Taylor guitar.

Behind the ES2 Design: Rethinking the Piezo Pickup

For decades, piezo-electric transducers have been positioned under the saddle of a guitar based on the long-held belief that the string and top vibration cause the saddle to "bounce" up and down. But Taylor's electronics team, led by developer David Hosler, discovered that the vertical movement is actually heavily restricted, and that the saddle gets "locked down" due to the string tension's downward pressure. That's why a traditional under-saddle pickup with piezo-electric crystals often responds with a sound often characterized as thin, brittle, brash or synthetic, especially with more aggressive playing.

The saddle's natural range of movement as the guitar is being played is actually back and forth like a pendulum. That revelation led Taylor's design team to relocate the crystals from under the saddle to behind it. The new positioning enables the crystals to respond more naturally to the guitar's energy as it is transferred through the saddle. Three pickup sensors are installed behind the saddle, through the bridge, with three tiny Allen screws that calibrate the position of the sensors in relation to the saddle.

Like the original Expression System, the ES2 features the same volume and tone control knobs. The preamp is similar but with a slightly different gain structure. As a result it will be about 25 percent hotter, which is more in line with other pickups. This makes it plug-and-play friendly both for artists and live sound mixers.

Features:

- Topical Mahogany Top
- Sapele Body Wood
- Ebony Fretboard Wood
- Taylor Expression System 2
- Case Included read less