What a day! After checking out a lot of guitars and brands online in the past few weeks, my Dad and I finally went to Thomann’s to take a look at various acoustic guitars. I had a small list of guitars I wanted to try out (The Guild GAD30(RE ATB), the Takamine EG5013SVFT, the Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat Acoustic, the Yamaha LS6 and the Taylor 114e), also, “my guitar” had to have a pick-up and no cutaway (which, apparently, is almost impossible these days). The Taylor 114e wasn’t listed in their online store anymore, so I didn’t have high hopes to get to see it at all and the GAD 30 ATB was my secret favourite look-wise.

So we went to the guitar department and I was totally overwhelmed: the place was huge, hundreds of guitars, all beautifully arranged. When I was there the last time, which was over ten years ago, they had had a lot of guitars as well, but now?! Just wow, totally worth a visit. Anyway, I took a look around and was surprised to see the Taylor 114e in a display case. However, you needed a member of staff to try it out so I looked around some more first. They didn’t have the Guild GAD 30 at all, no variant of it.

So I first tried out a few Takamine’s (not the EG5013SVFT because they didn’t have it on display either), Fender’s and Ibanez’. They all looked very beautiful but didn’t quite feel right. The Yamaha LS6 also didn’t impress me much and most of all I had overlooked the fact that it didn’t have an electronic pick-up… So I took the Fender Hellcat in my arms which I had spotted earlier and – instant fit! I was so impressed by its sound and playability, it also felt really good just to hold. Very comfortable and the best of the ones I had tried so far. I just was a bit hesitant because it was relatively inexpensive (~350 €) , especially considering it’s a signature model, has a pick-up and the name FENDER on it.

So I decided to try out the Taylor after all and what can I say – it blew me away! I plucked a few strings and somehow the sound combined with the guitar’s vibrations going through my body brought tears to my eyes. Literally. What an intense experience! Dad tried the guitar out as well and he almost didn’t want to hand it back to me, he was just as impressed. This left one last thing to do: Listening to the pick-up systems. Went in there with the Hellcat and the 114e. The Hellcat had no chance. While the Taylor sounded warm and bright, well, just like a real acoustic guitar, the Fender just sounded loud.

If I needed a nice guitar for traveling, small gatherings, etc. I still would buy the Hellcat. And maybe I actually will do so in the future. But for recording and “bonding” purposes, I think the Taylor was the right choice.

We’ll see!