Electro Acoustic For Son..Taylor or Takamine??

[dealmaker]

Buying my son a decent quality Electro acoustic as a suprise gift. Both seem to have similar neck profiles and size.

Whats the consensus - a lower end Taylor or a higher end Takamine??

[gbbird]

Either way it looks like your son is going to get a lovely guitar I personally would go for the high end takamine, but tbh electro acoustics are not really my area of expertise

g

[bga]

I prefer Taylors, my brother swears by Takamine - they both make some really nice guitars. One of the difficulties when buying for someone else is that it's such a subjective choice. You are unlikely to go wrong buying either!

[gingerpaul]

Taylor every time. I've had a Takamine and it was nice, but it wasn't anything compared to the Taylor. I actually only ended up buying the Taylor because the neck on the Tak warped. I'm surprised you didn't mention Martin too as they seem to be the benchmark acoustic, although I personally don't like the lower end of their range.

[satchbot]

Curve ball and go for Ovation?

[AllTorque]

Like others have said - lucky son!!

I prefer Takamines to Taylors, but if he is planning on actually plugging it in then consider a Maton:

http://www.maton.com.au/

They are the guitar of choice for the world's greatest acoustic guitarist (bold claim I know), Tommy Emmanuel and use a different mic system (rather than piezo) for amplifying the acoustic. They play fanastically well, and you should be able to get Tommy's signature model for about £1000-1200.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_P_-cFbGbU

[Stig]

Takamine for me. Just a glorious, big fat sound. Love mine

[dealmaker]

Thanks for views guys. In the end I bought him a Taylor 214CE - got a good deal - it sounded and played the best to me - hoping it will last him a lifetime!

[gingerpaul]

They're good guitars.

I'd recommend you get a humidifier if you're leaving it in a central heated house though. Only a £10 and it's just a sponge that goes in the sound hole, but designed so it won't drip water inside it.