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Posts: 1421
Location: Orange County, California | Last night My Friend Otto and I attended a Taylor "Road-show" event. I sat through their dog & pony show, bode my time, and at the first chance, I grabbed a T-5, plugged it in to a very dirty tube amp, and let 'er fly. Yup, she's 'lectric I reckoned, and a pretty nice feeling axe, but I still had unanswered questions about comparisons some have made between it and the VXT.
So tonight, I did it. I went and played them both side by side!! I actually made a GC employee drag a Fender Deluxe into the acoustic room so I could hear what it really sounded like. I planned to A/B the VXT and the T-5 with a classic American rock amp and a Fender Acoustisonic JR (an amp I'm familiar with). First and foremost, the VXT feels great in your hands. The neck is Gibson-esque, but not too chunky. The contoured body is every bit as comfy as a Strat, and although I didn't grab a strap and dance around with it, I have a feeling the VXT is perfectly balanced. After playing it for a few minutes, the T-5 felt like picking up a toy. It's not much lighter (if at all) it just didn't feel as solid. I did away with the confusion of the Y-cable, and instructed (with his thanks even) the salesmen that they could do the same when they demo it. Set the switch to mono and just switch back and forth between amps. It's allot less confusing. On the FD, I could get everything you'd expect from the Duncan 59's out of the VXT, from chimey clean tones to doubled over gut wrenching distortion. Rolling over to the VIP side (or just blending them together) yields a cool percussive voice with huge bottom end and super bright highs. On the clean channel, the VIP sounded just like dreadnought plugged into a tube amp. Not bad at all. Distorted, this is a great rock rhythm guitar, them all you do is roll the knob forward to the rear magnetic for your leads. Although the T-5's have a purely magnetic active pickup system, it never convinced me that was serious about driving the tube amp. I even played one with the two exposed pickups, as I heard they were geared more towards the electric side of things. At medium gain, going from clean single notes to distorted chords and double-stop bends took a concerted effort. I didn't even have to think about them on the VXT. It just happened.
I switched over to the AJ, and I thought I'd give the T-5 first crack at it. I have to admit the neck felt nice, and the setting using the top transducer and one of the pickups did sound pretty natural. However, I never forgot I was playing a Taylor. No matter what I did, it had "that" sound. Grabbing the VXT again, (it was surreal) I couldn't believe that sound was coming from something that "felt" like an electric. The real shocker came when I rolled back to the magnetic pickups. I was getting this tight clean electric tone with a little bit of cone breakup from an acoustic amp!! The sales clerk standing there with his jaw wagging Says "Wow!!". Then, I rolled back to the VIP, and finger-picked a little, and he says "That's amazing. It's so much clearer than the T-5. I think I like VTX better now"
No kidding. I went in with as few pre-conceived notions as possible. Initially I thought the T-5 would have the edge because of it's versatility. After all, the VXT only has ONE acoustic sound right? NOT!! I never considered mixing the magnetics back in before. It's amazing. The VXT has a unique voice of it's own that lives somewhere around that detent in the middle of the blend knob. Here's what you really get. An American made guitar, mahogany body, set neck, double humbuckers, great acoustic sound, awesome tone and sustain in a surprisingly understated package that works really well.
Don't take my word for it. Go play them yourself. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | Fred
thanks for a very long and well constructed critique |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Way to go, MBFred. This is the kind of test drive I was unable to do and have been impatiently waiting for. I hope we have a few of these at the Reunion and can all demo this first hand. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | How is the ACOUSTIC sound of these things??
Y'can put strings and humbuckers on a snow shovel and get a decent tone out of it (my local music store HAS one!).
The video clips online(thru computer speakers) of the acoustic tone didn't impress me at all . . . kinda' just sounded like a clean-tone hollow body . . .
Is the acoustic sound better than the EA-Vipers or the DuoTones?? |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | Good review. I don't have the chops to do a decent comparison. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I think that this might be the guitar that gets Ovation the attention that it deserves . . . |
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November 2005
Posts: 1126
Location: Omaha, NE | I've never thought much of the T5. The big problem I have is that Taylor doesn't seem to grok that the down stream amplification channels between the electric and acoustic sides are completely different.
I could really see going with the VXT thanks to the Y-cable capability. That might be just the ticket for me.
The only thing I'm not sure on is the strings. I like to play really light and slinky electric strings, while I want acoustic strings to fight back a little more. I'll need to play around with that a bit. |
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March 2005
Posts: 1421
Location: Orange County, California | In a word (on both the T-5 and the VXT), GOOD.
The VXT videos online don't do it justice.
IMHO, with a little processing, you can get a decent acoustic tone out of just about anything with a piezo bridge. The EA's are some of the best to start with. The Parker Flys are great too. I haven't played the DuoTone yet. Carvin has a couple that work well. A semi-hollowbody (or something with some natural resonance) seems to sound the most natural to me. And of course the amp/PA you use makes a huge difference in the final result. Oh, that reminds me. Both were fairly prone to feedback on the electric amp, but it was totally manageable on the AJ.
The next thing I was going to do last night (The wife protest) was start plugging in full bodied acoustic guitars for comparison.
EDIT:
Omaha makes a good point. Taylor sells this reeeally nifty a/b switch and the T-5 NEEDS radically different amps to sound good both as an acoustic and an electric. The VXT *could* sound like a nice clean electric on an acoustic amp (throw a distortion pedal inline and Bob's your uncle) or a really warm, possibly even broken up acoustic on the electric amp. I was trying to emulate going from "clean acoustic" to shred electric on one amp. It was do-able WITHOUT the Y-cable. YMMV |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Originally posted by cliff:
How is the ACOUSTIC sound of these things??
Is the acoustic sound better than the EA-Vipers or the DuoTones?? I've had the same question since word first leaked out on the VXT. |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 1421
Location: Orange County, California | GO PLAY THE VXT. If no likey, you no gotta buy. It's worth the money JUST as an Electric.... |
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VXT vs. T-5