Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

New Baby!

#1

Well I done some wheelin’ and dealin’ today and ended up with a new addition to the family.

Never been one that liked the sound of Taylors, just couldn’t get that booming bass like Martins. But figured I’d test drive this one and it has that “sound”. It’s the DN-3 and it’s a “keeper”, probably the best sounding over-all guitar I have ever played and is super easy to play, may have a new “daily player”.

OK I own some Martins so don’t think for one minute that I have switched to the dark side!

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh54/Oldhat1234/2012-07-11_13-49-34_934.jpg

#2

Those DN3’s are good guitars, I’ve never played a bad one. Congrats man!

#3

Congrats, that’s very nice! I have a funny story to share. A few weeks ago, it was my birthday and my wife and I were looking to burn some time before dinner. I suggested swinging by guitar center to see what strings were on sale. On the way in Carolyn said “No more guitars.” I said “Ok.” We get in there and I am looking at some new solid wood Yamahas… just curious. I hear Carolyn playing. I walk over there and she has a Taylor Koa BR-IV (builder’s reserve). She bought it :slight_smile:
So I guess we embraced the dark side as well.

#4

Congrats!!! If it’s a 2006 or later, it has “forward shifted bracing w/ the relief rout” That really opened the dreadnaught Taylors up IMHO.
I have several Taylors, one of which is a DN5.It’s a great guitar w/a totally different personality than my 710-L9. I got a 814ce-LTD(2010) short scale(24-7/8) 12Fret slot head today that will get a good going over Sat. It too has a very pleasantly unique sound.Deep ,powerful yet still quite balanced.
Hurricane Katrina took a '93 510 and a '91 Martin D3-18 that are sorely missed. I’m still looking for the sound I hear in my head of those 2 guitars.
Steve

#5

S MS Picker:

She’s a 2007 model so yes the bracing opened her up. I was surprised as when I seen it was a Taylor I remembered the sound of the Taylors of old, actually I kind of despised them over-all. Now don’t get me wrong, they were nice strumming instruments but were nothing even close to a bluegrass sounding guitar. With the forward shifted bracing I personally think this guitar can sneak into “bluegrass” music and fare decently.

To me this guitar is a “Singer/Songwriter” guitar that may want to play some lead lines or even be finger picked. The balance over-all is about as good as I have ever heard. Mid’s are bit much/pronounced a bit but it sounds fabulous on a strum, clean enough to play some lead, and will remind you how bad of a singer you are when you try to sing with it as in a strum you can hear all the notes and can really tell when your voice goes off tune!

My suggestion to anyone on this guitar would be for the ones that love playing a loud dread but they have yet to decide exactly what type of music or style they are going to pursue, you can play about any style on this guitar and get by. Guitar carries about a $1200.00 box store price tag but can be had for around $800-$900 on the used market. Previous owner took exceptional care of this one, looks like it had never been played.

#6

Mike:

Can’t say that I have played many KOA instruments but damn a they purdy! When it comes to KOA I like the blonde (lighter) color verses the dark brunettes!

I special ordered a guitar a few years back, would stop by my local store every other day waiting for it to come in, came home with a new guitar on one of those days, wife kind of “evil eyed” me when I told her it was not the one I ordered…phone rang and it was the guys from the shop letting me know they had a late shipment arrive and mine was there…wife really evil eyed me there and I got the “Do you actually realize that you have spent around $4000.00 on guitars today?” I closed one eye, held the other on wide open, tilted my head and said “Baby it’s closer to $5,000” She didn’t throw anything at me so my closing one eye and tiltin’ my head (bracing for impact but wanted to see what was coming at me with the other eye) was purely a move I thought i needed to make.

#7

Just to be clear… she bought the guitar for her. She really liked it. What made it really enjoyable was her comment on “no more” as we were walking in. Everybody gave her a hard time for her buying a guitar for her on my birthday. :laughing: Life is good.

#8

Nice Guitar. I’m impressed with how innovative and precise Taylors are and are becoming. Their definitely figuring out the science of how to build them. While they’re not very bluegrass, they play great. Down the road you can even send it back to the factory for a “service package.”