My fav is the 814CE (the 914′s and way too many pesos) due to its wonderful bass response and clarity and balance in the mid and upper ranges. They also play VERY nice. The only complaint I’ve heard on Taylor guitars is the width of the neck and string spacing at the nut. Takes some getting used to. And therein is one comparative point with Martin guitars. The Martins’ playability outclasses Taylor a bit due to this issue. Against a Martin, I just have never played a Taylor that sounded just ok. The Taylor 800 series with the spruce top and East Indian Rosewood and back is saaawwweeet sounding. The 700 series with the same back and sides + the red cedar top is probably a better sounding guitar with some age than the 800′s are. The 600 series with their fine-grained spruce tops and maple sides and back are bright and brilliant. Though they don’t carry as much bass due to the tonal characteristics of maple, they stand solidly on their own for the type and quality of sound they offer.

My 2nd favorite guitar maker is Martin. The Martin D-28 and the HD-28 traditional herringbone purf’ed variant are beautiful instruments. Not all Martins are “cannons” and I think this is because of the variation/strictness of quality in the manufacturing process. Kinda hit-n-miss between the good ones and the ok ones, in terms of sound, though I have never played one that sounded bad. It’s just that some sound better than others. But I digress… I think if Martin tightened up their range of “tonal acceptability” (a phrase I have coined) within each model’s range, they probably would sell more guitars. Ever heard Martin’s cheapo DX and DM guitars? Baaaad! A Sigma mass-produced in Japan sounds better!

I’d write more, but I’m out of time…