Taylor Guitars 410-R

This was a 1998 limited run of Rosewood in a 400 series guitar. The guitar had real boomy low end and slightly faint high notes. All solid wood and few frills since this was Taylors entry level guitar back then. Made in USA. Solid yet fairly light dred acoustic. The guitar was almost 1k. I now know what kind of guitars can be had for 1K such as Garrison, Alvarez Yairi, Takamine, Blueridge so the price was a little high for the features , quality and tone.

I only flatpick and have literally owned about 75 acoustic guitars in the past 25 years. Write my own, play Eagles, Elton John, Zepplin, America, wedding crap, Neil Young, Beatles, Garth Brooks etc. Im not very good but I do no tone since I played violin and piano from age 6 up to my senior year in H.S. This guitar had great low end boom however it was a tiny bit muddy. The mids were almost non existent. Highs wer light but clear as a bell. A perfect singing with guitar since voice is mid tones. This guitar was very difficult to control the low boom.

The fit and finish was perfect with this Taylor

Well made and dependable but Taylor guitars are very fussy about humidification issues. Ive owned dozens of solid wood guitars including other Taylors. The Taylors are difficult to manage unless you keep em cased. Perhaps it is the bolt on neck tied with solid wood. This fact is why I have sold all Taylor and will never buy one again. Who really wants to buy an expensive guitar and hide it in the case forever and a day! Not me.

Customer support should be fine however Taylor dealers are sometime crooked as a creek. But then Dealers of many nice guitars seem slippery at times. Oh well, they gotta make their money. Just remember you may do alot better selling any guitar via Ebay then what most dealers will give you.

Alvarez Yairis, Takamine, Garrison and high end Corts are the best value around. What is a name and lots of advertising worth to you. Always remember that you can get alot of guitar in the 500 range. I sold all Taylors. I will admit that their advertising is great. I was duped for awhile but now I see better foreign guitars for way less money. Let your ears be the judge, forget those names of familiarity. I will never buy another overpriced Taylor.

I bought a Taylor 410-R 25th anniversary in 1999 and it's really great. It's a solid body rosewood, ebony neck, Grover tuners, solid sitka spruce top.

I play a lot of folk style stuff that requires strumming and arpeggiated chord progressions. The sound is between warm and bright.
The sustain is really amazing. After playing many other dreadnoughts, this guitar sounded really distinctive, so I went with it.

Well, the action is incredible, the neck is fast and smooth, really comfortable to play.

I've played live with this guitar and it sounds great. The construction is superb, although you have to really take care of this guitar if you live in humid regions, like the south. But I live in CA now, so......

Taylor is number one in customer service, without a doubt. You can have your guitar registered with them.

This was a new model in 1992 when I bought it. Although it's since been gussied up, this model was a 410 dreadnought that traded rosewood back and sides for a satin finish spruce top. It has a mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard (I think), white dots on the neck--pretty plain compared to many Taylors. I give it an 8 for the rosewood, otherwise it would be a 6.5.

I play blues, folk rock and some jazz on this guitar, finger style and flat pick. It sounds wonderful. Very resonant. It's somewhere between bright and warm--pretty typical rosewood sound.

The action is wonderful. I've had different setups on it and basically, you can get whatever action you like short of ultralow. Stays in tune well and the tuners are great (I think they're grovers).

The fit and finish are not top notch. One dot marker is sunken a bit. While I was prepared to live with the plain jane dull finish on top, I've been disappointed at how much it's worn in front of the pick guard.

Everything on this guitar has been OK except the top. It developed a crack near the neck after 2 years. Last year, I had to have the bridge worked on because it sunk and the high E was buzzing when fretted after the 10th fret. The dealer always blames these problems on not keeping it humidified. If that's true, this is an overly delicate guitar--not guitar should have to be constantly humidiifed simply to play right.

Haven't dealt with the company. It's a lifetime warranty and the dealer's dealt with each problem described above, but always with an attitude ("I had to humidifiy it for 3 days").

I love this guitar's sound and feel; it literally rings in my hand and against my chest when I play it. But it's way too fussy. I've been around guitars for 35 years and take decent care of them--this one wants to be a museum piece.
I'm trying to figure out if this is just this particular one--was the bracing poorly done, the top too thin--or is this characteristic of Taylors? It's certainly more delicate than my old Guild shitbox and my friends' Martins. If I felt that this was a bit of a lemon, I'd buy another Taylor, because on balance they seem to offer a lot of instrument for about $500 less than comparable guitars.

The Taylor 410R is a variation of a 1999 Taylor 410 commemorating the 25th anniversary of Taylor guitar. This California made guitar features a solid spruce soundboard with some slight bearclaw figure, and solid rosewood back and sides instead of the regular 410 specification of ovankol for the back and sides. The neck is mahogany. The fretboard and bridge are ebony. "25th Anniversary is etched into the peghead. The finish is high gloss for the top and satin for the back, sides, and neck. Binding on the body and neck is white plastic. Pearl is used for the fretboard dots and Taylor logo on the hearstock. Chrome Grover tuners are supplied the the guitar come standard with Elixir strings.

The reason I purchased this guitar was the tone. I was using a beautiful Martin D-41 which was simply too pretty to take on gigs. It made me nervous to take it out of the case for fear of scratching it. The Taylor had everything the Martin had tonally plus some added sparkle and clarity in the high notes. The Martin was a little too thick and boomy sounding. The Taylor doesn't have these deficiencies.

The Taylor has an essentially flawless finish if you like the combination of gloss top and satin back and sides. It's okay with me. The rosewood sides show a little cupping which the repair department tells me is normal. The guitar was set up perfectly. I haven't done anything to it, and I am normally quite picky (I'm also a guitar tech).

Taylor has a fine reputation for durability. They rarely need neck-sets (which Martin often do) and their system of bolt-on necks means necks can easily be reset if they need it. Taylor's newest system is incredible, although this guitar was made before the change. I think this guitar will hold up well over the long run. They are extremely well engineered.

I was concerned about the slight cupping in the rosewood sides near the waist of the guitar. I e-mailed Taylor and within two days they delivered a satisfying explanation. They said that this phenomenon occurs quite often. Some manufacturers will resand the sides of the guitar before finishing to eliminate the waves, but Taylor feels this removes too much wood from the sides, leaving them prone to cracking in a hit. Sounds good to me.

I really like this guitar. It looks fine, plays easy, and delivers the tone for my style of flatpicking and fingerpicking. I've had prettier, fancier, and more costly guitars, but this one does the job and it didn't cost so much that I worry about it. If it got lost, I would probably replace it with a Taylor 710 which uses similar woods but has black binding and an abalone rosette, which I like. I compared this guitar to other Taylors, Martin rosewood dreadnoughts, Larrivee dreadnoughts, Huss and Dalton etc. This guitar sounds better than most and is a whole lot cheaper than most. Taylor's legendary playbility is another positive factor.