Taylor Legacy 810e review – a fascinating reimagining of Taylor’s first-ever guitar
$3,399/£3,399, taylorguitars.com
Fifty years have passed since Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug founded Taylor Guitars. This is an extraordinary achievement for a company that came – seemingly out of nowhere – to knock existing heritage brands Martin and Gibson off their perches with an exciting new sound and feel that would make Taylor Guitars a ubiquitous sight on stage and in the studio.
READ MORE: How Taylor Guitars became one of the world’s biggest acoustic guitar companies
In recognition and celebration of this milestone, Taylor is releasing a limited edition ‘Legacy Collection’ of five guitar models that changed both the fortunes of the company and the voice of the acoustic guitar as we know it. This includes six- and 12-string Grand Auditorium and Jumbo shapes in addition to the very shiny dreadnought currently gracing a stand in my studio.
Image: Adam Gasson
Taylor Legacy 810e – what is it?
For those of us who spent our adolescence lusting after shiny Taylor instruments in the local guitar shop, the 810e needs no introduction. This was the first ever Taylor guitar model – launched in 1974 – and is a traditional style square shoulder dreadnought in a classic wood combination (more of which later), built to rival Martin’s D-28, which had reigned supreme since 1931.
The interesting thing about this guitar is that the above is quite a misnomer to the 2024 Taylor line-up. It’s been quite a while since you could find a square-shouldered dread in the catalogue, because the 10 model of old has been superseded by Andy Power’s Grand Pacific design. That of course, is a round-shouldered silhouette that’s more reminiscent of Gibson and Goodall designs – a lot more California than Pennsylvania.
As such I can’t help feeling a pang of nostalgia holding this objet of retro désir. And that’s obviously the point here. After all, this guitar – one of the first 100 of its kind – contains a label signed by both Bob Taylor and, most unusually, Kurt Listug, too. Notably, the signature of Taylor’s current CEO and master guitar designer Powers is absent, adding to the vibe that this is a guitar firmly about the OGs of Taylor Guitars embarking on something of a greatest hits tour.
Image: Adam Gasson
That reach back to the olden days is furthered by the wood combination. Taylor’s pioneering use of non-traditional tonewoods has been industry-changing, but back in the day Bob was sticking to the tried and true recipe. So here we have a back and sides of extremely straight grain Indian rosewood coupled with a Sitka spruce soundboard. This has some tight dark winter growth lines and beautiful cross silking that stops just short of bearclaw. It’s absolutely classic stuff.
Speaking of which, the mahogany neck features Taylor’s Standard Carve – a gentle shape seemingly moulded around a thumb-over G chord that is supremely comfortable from nut to body join. Unlike the guitars that Bob would have been building in 1974, the neck here is of Taylor’s NT design – meaning that it’s easily adjustable, and a comparatively recent Taylor feature, being some 25 years old. There’s a 1.75” nut width offering a little more room for accurate fingering. The fingerboard is traditional jet black ebony – no orange Crelicam stripes here.
Every part of this guitar is retro-coded with a number of little details that take me straight back to a more innocent time. The bright white body and headstock binding – originally inspired by a TV appearance by Johnny Cash whose black guitar had been similarly attired – is an immediate flashback, as are the abalone rosette and large diamond fretboard inlays. In addition the tortoiseshell-style plastic scratchplate and high-gloss finish throughout remind me not only of where Taylor Guitars started, but also how it has evolved over the years.
Image: Adam Gasson
Taylor Legacy 810e – feel and sounds
This aesthetic goodness is all very well but what about the sound? Well, with this Legacy 810e model we take a serious step back in time with a traditional X bracing pattern – there’s no V-Class here. This should have a powerful effect on what comes out of the front of this guitar.
It has been several years since anyone outside Taylor’s C-Suite has had the opportunity to play a brand new 10 model dreadnought, but the first open chords on this guitar remain immediately familiar. Less woody and bass-driven than a Martin, the Taylor 810e has a more focused voice – it’s easy to hear why it became such a hugely popular recording and stage guitar.
The combination of a 25.5” scale length and gauge 13 strings (oh yeah, we’re back on those bad boys too apparently) makes for an immediate, shimmering voice that feels better suited to pop and rock than country or folk.
This is a very new instrument with probably less than 10 hours of play time to its name and those gauge 13 strings take a little while to relax, too. However, after an hour or so of strumming around the neck I can already hear some very beautiful sounds coming out of this guitar.
Image: Adam Gasson
The bass response of a Taylor guitar is rarely its dominant feature. In this case we do have a touch of vintage dreadnought power but it is balanced with very little muddiness. This makes the 810e a great choice for singer-songwriters and jazzers who want to hear every note in their extended chord voicings.
The treble response is inevitably coloured by the full 25.5” scale length and the slightly metallic transient characteristic of Sitka spruce. This in turn is rounded off to some extent by the use of the heavier strings. It still shimmers with bell-like notes higher up the neck.
Dropping a brand new Taylor into DADGAD can be a revelatory experience and the 810e loves the lower frequencies and sympathetic resonances typical of this tuning. The overtone content is not as full as you might expect from a rosewood instrument, but once again, this is a set of wooden bits glued together that doesn’t fully yet know that it’s a guitar. As with any brand-new quality acoustic guitar, you have to appreciate that time and playing is an essential component of getting the best out of it.
Interestingly, electronic duties are handled by the cutting-edge LR Baggs Element VTC active pickup system with soundhole-mounted volume and tone controls. The absence of Taylor’s own Expression System 2 system is a little surprising, but probably more period-correct. And rest assured, the VTC is a considerable upgrade from the Fishman Prefix Blend of yore both in ease of use and in sound. It does a great job here.
Image: Adam Gasson
Taylor Legacy 810e – should I buy one?
There’s no doubt that 50 years is a long time – even given the often tectonic rate of technological advancement characteristic of the factory-built acoustic guitar. Or perhaps that’s how it was when the 810e was first launched in 1974 – maybe things are different now – and if so then a lot of credit must go to Taylor which has evolved into more than just a guitar company in that time.
They have become thought leaders in the field of responsible wood stewardship, as well as pioneering designers and creators. It’s almost unheard of for this most innovative of brands to do any kind of reissue, so for that reason alone it’s an interesting and important guitar for Taylor fans and even those just curious about how we got to where we are today. Beyond anything else though, this is a great guitar – here’s to the next 50 years.
Taylor Legacy 810ce alternatives
If you want a fully up to date big-bodied, non-cutaway Taylor guitar, then the 818e ($3,999/£3,499) is a suitably sumptuous option – it shares the classic spruce/rosewood combination but makes use of the big-bottomed Grand Orchestra body shape. It’s impossible to talk about dreadnoughts without mentioning Martin, and the D-28 ($3,199/£2,999) is the guitar that provided a lot of basic inspiration for the original Taylor 10 shape. Another legacy alternative in the big-bodied stakes is the USA-made Guild F-40 Traditional ($2,899/£2,551).
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
