Laurence
Sloppy finish on the guitar and no customer service
In terms of build...the guitars are excellent, and play very well indeed. However, I recently (just before the pandemic) bought a 317e. After a few months a number of white spots showed up on the finish. I couldn't take the guitar back as the store was closed. I later wrote to Taylor and asked for their opinion. One of their 'experts' told me that he thought I had knocked the guitar against a wall and got paint on it, after I told him that it was below the final finish and definitely not paint. The dismissive tone of the email was quite striking and he clearly did not believe me. I took the guitar instead to a local maker of (very) high end bespoke guitars, and was advised that the problem was almost certainly due to a sloppy application of finish, which was not given time to dry before a new layer was applied. I found the same advice on a number of guitar forums. Taylor told me to bring the guitar to their centre in Amsterdam so they could review it. I live in the UK. To get the guitar to Amsterdam I would have to pay insurance and shipping at my own cost. I was also told that there is no Taylor agent in the UK who can both verify that I am telling the truth and correct the shoddy finish. The tone of the Amsterdam team was similarly disinterested and when I expressed disappointment I was just told 'I am sorry you feel that way' (the very definition of passive aggressive disinterest). I only really wanted some advice and perhaps some sympathy. My guitar is now a great advertisement of what you get when you buy Taylor...a great build which is let down by a sloppy finish and zero customer service. They seem to have expanded too quickly as there is apparently no longer any pride in their craftsmanship. Only buy Taylor if you don't care what your guitar looks like and have money to burn.