Taylor Guitars 310-CE ES

I bought this new at GC and have had it about a year now. It has a solid spruce top, with a built in "Expression System" supposedly designed by Rupert Neve. It comes with a very nice, form-fitting hardshell case.

There's a bass and treble control for the expresssion system that give a nice range of tones with some experimentation. The guitar comes with a novel 1/4" TRS (balanced) jack and a TRS to XLR adapter cord that works much better than a standard guitar cable, gives almost twice the volume which you really need if you aren't using a dedicated preamp.

This is a fairly bright (as opposed to warm) sounding acoustic compared to others I've played. If this is what you want, great. I find it especially useful for fingerpicking as you can hear the individual notes better. It's a good guitar to use when you want the thinned out "acoustic guitar as a shaker" sound often used in country mixes. Wouldn't be my first "go to" acoustic where the acoustic is featured.

The expression system is only so-so. Maybe a bit better than piezo, but certainly not the sound you'd get with a mike. A bit over hyped compared to what it delivers, but not terrible.

The guitar is very comfortable to play as set up by the factory. I could detect no flaws in the finish or hardware.

The built in expression system on mine developed a bizarre problem where it distorted depending on whether the guitar was lying flat or in the playing position. The local authorized Taylor rep could not repair it and it ended up being shipped back to the factory. Works fine now. The battery is not the usual 9V but a couple of AA cells which don't fit exactly right in the compartment and the manufacturer actually recommends wrapping a standard sticky pad note around the batteries to make them snug.

It's an OK guitar for what I do with it, meaning it stays in my studio in the case until I need a fingerpicked guitar part on something. I wouldn't take it to a gig, a $150 Fender electric acoustic sounds 90% as good and you won't cry if it gets swiped or crunched in the truck. The Taylor name on the headstock seems to impress some of my customers, and, in the studio business that matters.

Mine developed a bizarre problem where the expression system distorted depending on whether the guitar was lying flat or in the playing position. I emailed Taylor about my expression system problem, they called me immediately and set up an appointment with an authorized repair station in town. The place looked a little scary and didn't inspire confidence, but the guy was competent enough and immediately verified the problem. Unfortunately he could not fix it and I had to ship the guitar back to Taylor in CA. I didn't have to deal with the boxing or shipping, I was directed to let Guitar Center do that for me which was a nice touch. The guitar was returned promptly in perfect working order, and not a scratch or fingerprint was added.

All of this was covered under the warranty as the guitar was less than a year old, and the ES failed after just a few weeks of playing it.

I've been playing for 35 years. I run a recording studio and play in various bands, so I have a lot of stuff. If this were stolen or damaged, I wouldn't buy another Taylor. Not that it isn't a nice guitar, it is. It's just that for everything it does there is something comparable for less money. I don't think it stands up to similarly priced Martins if you're going to strum it and want a warm sound, and I think unless you're making big bucks it makes no sense to gig it.

I love that it's easy to play, and sounds bright even fingerpicked. I don't like the lack of warmth when you strum it. The Expression System is not much better than a piezo, and falls far short of a miked sound (of course).

own 2 31o's -1 with fishman and 1 with expression system..The 310 fishman sounds best plugged in the 310 es sounds best unplugged.
Both are 2003 models..The ES system sounds really bad to my ears.
Very honky..Sounds like the note fills up after being struck and this gives it a sound like a thin glass being filled with water.
This really comes out when playing single note lead...Guitar is great but dont get the expression system..

Unplugged great - plugged the ES system sounds bad..very honky

guitar good -electronics bad

very nice durability

good guitar ES system sounds bad

it's an acoustic guitar from Taylor and it's above a 200 series, which means SOLID WOOD no laminated wood, body style dreadnought, finish is gloss top with satin sides and back, top - Sitka Spruce back and sides - Mahogany(either that or mine has Sapele i'm not entirely sure). Neck I dunno, check the specs on Taylor's webpage, they are up: www.taylorguitars.com, hardshell case(new hardshells are seriously hardcore, yet expensive), neck is a little wider to handle the ES system. As far as an acoustic/electric guitar goes, it has all the features you need and more.

I love the sound, I played all the Taylors at the Guitar Center in Albany, I've played music for 19 years(i'm 22), and this guitar seriously I love it. I had an alvarez before, compared to that, it's a more mature sound, not engleman mature, but for sitka it's pretty deep. Guitar has a great range, but if you go outside that range(mostly volume) the guitar will just not respond to you, it won't fart out or anything.

ACTION = AWESOME
PICKUPS = AWESOME

the Taylor I bought has a tiny dent in it, but it was the only one and it didn't effect the playing or the sound so i bought it, it's also not a wood dent I think it's a surface dent(finish only) but i could be wrong.

dude it's a Taylor, how could it not stand live playing for 1500(after tax)?
Hardware is the Taylor ES system it definately seems like it will last.
Finish is awesome
strap buttons solid
yes I would use this guitar without a back up, in fact I gave away my alvarez to one of my close friends who needed an acoustic. So I only have one acoustic, and I only NEED one acoustic.

haven't talked to them, let you know when something wrong happesn with the guitar, but nothing has yet.

It's an awesome guitar, it can stand dents and scratches but if you want to keep it pretty, don't let someone play it who doesn't know how to play guitar. intonation is great the ES system rocks, maybe that's because I have the final product ES system for 2004/2005, no quirks, everything has been all fixed, Taylor is already overpriced, but if you are buying a Taylor you should know that. I'm fine with the guitar.

Nicely made quality guitar, spruce top with mahogany body. Perhaps a little too nice a guitar to take to a crummy bar for a gig. This guitar has the new Taylor Expression System, which I will comment on below in the "Sound" section. Guitar sounds very nice acoustically, though it is quite bright, perhaps because of the Elixir strings.

Sounds good miked up. I use it in the studio only, I prefer to drag something cheaper to gigs. Very bright, but useable sound. Good for finger picking. The Expression System is not so good. Mine worked the first session I played with it, but I found it too boomy and used a good pair of condenser mikes instead. After that I mostly played it acoustically. Imagine my surprise a few months later when I tried the ES again and the output was distorted. New batteries didn't help, snugging the connectors and flexing the circuit board did, though not for long. Probably has a bad solder joint or connector on the preamp board. The local tech couldn't figure it out, it's back in California getting repaired. I give it an 8 for acoustic sound, a 2 for electronic sound, a generous 6 on average.

Set up and action are fine. There are no flaws to this guitar other than the electronics.

I would not take this guitar to a gig. The electronics are unreliable, and the guitar itself is too valuable and delicate to risk theft or damage. I'll use this guitar strictly in the studio and take an old beater Fender to the shows.

The Taylor folks seem top notch so far. I contacted them about the ES problem and they immediately gave me some troubleshooting advice and referred me to a local guitar tech who looked at it the next day. When the tech couldn't figure the problem out, Taylor authorized shipment to the factory at their expense, with the shipping taken care of by Guitar Center where I bought it. The Taylor folks didn't even want to know when I bought it, probably because the ES is fairly new. I will keep you posted on developments.

I've played guitar for 40 years. I own a commercial recording studio. I bought this guitar on recommendation from a trusted friend, primarily for the expression system which so far has been a disappointment. I would not buy the same guitar again, I would go with a cheaper Fender acoustic which sounds 90% as good for far less money. I narrowed down this purchase to the 310ce or a Martin with an internal microphone. I knew the internal microphone arrangement would not sound good and would feed back, but I had hoped the Taylor ES would sound good and not feed back. I didn't get a good impression of the ES during the short time it was working. This guitar could use a better preamp system with more tone control.

310 with expression system

Sounds great unplugged. Sucked when plugged in. The ES system is horrible. I have had three of these guitars which I eventually returned because the ES sytem would start to feed back after a couple of weeks. I spoke to a Luthier who said Taylor has mailed him all the components to fix this and that hum and buzz are a common problem.
What a pain in the A**. I eventually returned the guitar for cash where the dealers said this is rare, BS. I believe this is common.

The ES did sound good when it worked, (10 days) I own ten other guitars and this sytem is worse than my wood soundhole pick up. I think it may be a way for Taylor to save money by not buying Fishman electronics.

2004, expression system with dvd manual and hardshell taylor case

I play live acoustic rock shows, and am in the process of recording a CD with my Korg mkII. This guitar has excellent sound for recording, unplugged it is even better. I also play a guild d25 and yamaha cpx. The string balance on the Taylor is better. The Guild sounds equally impressive unplugged.
The expression system works! The first one had a slight overdrive sound, I called the company and they attributed it to a loose senser. I returned it for another one. No problems.

ES sytem is very sensitive. I can hear my hand slide across the top. Easy to dial in. Short battery life at 20 hours or less. Action is satisfactory. The first one was set too low resulting in buzz, irritating.

Undecided, all hardware is first rate.

Helpful

This guitar lists for 2000. Guitar Center listed it for 1399. I checked this site to get a reference for price. I offered 1100 with the case and that was what I paid. I don't think you can get a better guitar for the money.
It does not have many features, who cares, it is a workingmans guitar so when it gets scratched I can deal, and it is not so valuable I am afraid to play it live. It sounded better than all the more expensive guitars, The new ES system works well so far.