Taylor Guitars 310-CE L7

Same as above. the back and sides are actually tasmanian Blackwood, not Koa, although very similar in tones.

Same as above again. Tremendous and versatile.

Very workable to get to where you want it.

the only place I disagree with the first review. I would suggest being "pissed off" at the store you bought it from. If a guitar- any guitar- developed a crack that quickly, it was on it's way to a carck long before you laid hands on it. Being in the guitar retail biz, I see a lot of improper care all over the place for acoustic instruments. It is quite unfortunate. I went into a local Taylor dealer around this area and found every guitar to have about a 1/16 of an inch of dust on them. What does that tell you about the care of those instruments?
I have one of these guitars myself and have had no problems with humidity.

It was on ongoing joke around here that I never seem to keep any guitar longer than 6 months... (Takamines, Martins, Ibanez...) I have owned this guitar now for almost a year and a half. I thought about trading it a couple times I'll admit. But, once I played it side by side with any other- no way! It's a keeper.

Tasmanian Koa back and sides, solid Sitka Spruce top, ES pickup system, NT neck. This is basically a 310 CE model with the back and sides swapped for Tasmian Koa for their 2004 Fall L7 Limited Edition series. The grain on my guitar is simply beautiful - a cross between Hawaiian Koa and Brazillian Rosewood in grain contrast and detail. Besides this beautiful sounding tonewood, the guitar is built like a normal 310 CE model with the ES pickup system. It has a basic white rosette, black fiber binding and chrome tuners. I purchased the gold Taylor tuners and ebony/abalone endpins to customize it a bit. Wouldn't trade it for anything now.

I need one guitar to use for recording and live performances that can be strummed hard for rock and folk-type songs, be able to sound great and handle the nuances of intricate fingerstyle guitar, and also handle some intense flat-picking and blues bending. This one handles them all with ease and then some. Probably the most versatile acoustic guitar I've ever played in my 25+ professional years.

Koa is a very expressive tonewood - more so than most. Depending on how you play and attack it, it can be very warm and bassy or very cutting and trebly - depending on what you need it to do. That being said, you need to know how to control it. I can make it sing and sound better than almost any acoustic tone you've ever heard. My friend plays it and sounds like crap on it. I can also make it sound more Martin-like that his own HD-35 (another great guitar). I can play anything from Days of the New, to the Eagles, to Dave Matthers, to Chet Atkins to Alex DeGrassi and sound great all the way around.

No flaws that I could see. I had to adjust the action to raise it a tad. I want it to be at the height that I can strum fairly hard without too much fret buzz but also play some intricate fingerstyle without it being too high or hard to play. With the truss rod adjustment on the NT neck, fine-tuning is easier than any guitar I own or have ever played.

Although I love this guitar very much, I do have on gripe about it (and newer acoustics in general). It is VERY sensitive to dry air. My house is not dry to the normal person at all. I had this guitar out of the case for about 8 hours and it developed a hairline crack from the lack of humidity from the soundhole to the fretboard end (about 1/4" in length). Can hardly notice it at all, but I know it's there. I also had a properly hydrated Kyser soundhole humidifier in it when it was stored in the case as well. Not covered under warranty of course since it's a "humidity issue". Nevermind that the authorized Taylor dealer recommended that humidifier and the other 3 acoustics I have don't use ANY humidifiers, stay out hung on the wall in my studio and haven't cracked or shown any warping or "humidity issues" in 10+ years.

Pissed me off as you can imagine. Customer service was quick. I started to get a harsh lecture about humidity from some dick at Taylor's tech support until I told him about my Martin, Guild and Ramirez not showing any problems, and that I'd just return it if it's that damn temperamental. His tone changed to be more helpful and understanding. The actual customer service guy was very nice and friendly, and went out of this way to see what he could do for this.

For this humidity sensitivity, it drops this otherwise near-perfect guitar down a few pegs.

Tech support sucks. Hate them.

Customer support is awesome. They should teach the Tech support how to talk to customers.

If not for the whole humidity crack and the clown at tech support, I'd give this rating a 10 and highly recommend it all the way around.

Words of Advise:
GET A GOOD HUMIDIFIER AND USE IT PROPERLY!!! Sure, your hard core Martins and Guilds might not need it, but this dainty Taylor will - or you'll pay dearly. As much as I LOVE to play it and LOVE the sound and look of it, I have to knock it down for this alone. I'm totally glad I bought it, but it hindsight - had I know Taylor were THIS sensative, I probably would have tried a little harder to look for an alternative.

With extra care to humidity conditions, I'm somewhat confident this guitar can last a while to where I can pass it down to my son someday in still-great playing condition.