It’s official. My fortune from the food court Chinese restaurant today said, “Happiness is not a destination, it’s a consequence.” Santa came early for ME this year and brought me my consequential happiness in the form of a Taylor T5 Acoustic Electric Thinline Guitar. From the second I opened the carton, I knew that this was a rare gift indeed. This has all the precision crafting that’s made Taylor one of the truly great American companies, and combines the best of electric and acoustic.

My version, a T5 standard honey sunburst, has a maple top, mahogany neck, and sapele body. The true hollowbody makes the top act as a soundboard – really brings out the richness of tone. It comes standard with a plush Taylor hard case. If you’re planning to grab one of these, get in line as they’re selling fast.

The T5 ships with medium grade Elixir Nanoweb strings, and even though I usually replace strings right away, these sound great.

Even unplugged, the action is great, and this masterpiece gives no fret buzz. You can play the full range of frets without sacrificing any of the richness of tone that you come to expect from Taylor guitars. It comes with both magnetic pickups and the Taylor “body sensor”. It is billed as a “fiveway” with a five position pickup switch.

I play a variety of music - rock and worship mostly, and this was a true pleaser. I’ve already played out with it, and it’s versatile to a fault. It provides clear ringing tones and can get crunchy when you need it to. If I was stranded on an island and had only one guitar, this would be the one I’d pick (provided I got an amp too). It has lots of the advantages of an acoustic, and all the advantages of an electric. The one drawback is that it really does need to be amped for any performance. It does, however, have plenty of volume for solo practice, or for sitting on the deck with friends. I tried it through an acoustic and an electric amp, and was pleased with both.

Taylor Guitars has a history of innovation, and it’s actually a pretty great story. Since it’s inception in October 1974, it’s gone from a hand made one-off guitar shop to a precision production environment, while still run by co-founders CEO Kurt Lustig and President Bob Taylor. And when I mean a precision production environment, I mean it. These babies are manufactured to the finest specifications with all the care you could imagine going into any precision instrument.

Through their history, quite a few great musicians have ordered these guitars. Prince had a purple stained 655 12 string custom ordered for some recording sessions in the mid 80s, and since then some of my favorite artists have been proud to have a Taylor or two in their arsenals. John Cephas, Lenny Kravitz, Switchfoot, The Killers, Tenacious D, Edie Brickell and a multitude of others (see here). AND, “real people” love Taylor too. Check out some of the letters.

My grade on this is a resounding A+. I have to say that I was a bit skeptical about this offering, but once again Taylor has not disappointed me.

You can find this guitar in the usual places. Musician’s Friend has them in stock, and I found a couple of local stores that have them in, but I DID have to call around a little – try Guitar Center in Southfield or Detroit. There’s still time to pick one of these up for the musician in your life and I PROMISE it will make their Christmas.