i have never had a premium guitar in my entire life and i have been playing guitar since 15 years. i began playing with a 20 dollar classical guitar and played it for 8 years. i bought my first acoustic from a local shop with tight student budget. it was a LAG T66A and it sounded great. played it for another 7 years and by the time passes, i started to realize that it has no bass or depth. searched the internet for 2-3 months and without even playing, i understood that Martin and Taylor are the best acoustic guitar brands out there. To be honest, compared to Martin, i didn't like Taylor's bright sound at all. But since no website ships Martin to my country, i had no other choice but choosing a Taylor. There are a lot of models with different body shapes. You can go to their own website and there is a whole catalogue how to choose the best guitar for yourself. For me, i always wanted a dreadnought because i believe it is the shape that an acoustic guitar supposed to have. it has bass, depth and versatility. Sadly, Taylor has just a few models that has dreadnought shape because their most popular shape is grand auditorium. I had to choose between Academy 10, 110e, 210ce. In my honest opinion, Academy 10 is the best dreadnought for anyone who wants to learn acoustic guitar without paying more than it's worth. Now, about this guitar, here is my review. It arrived inside Taylor's factory box which is packed inside another box from Thomann without a scratch/damage. As written, it includes a Taylor gigbag which is a premium gigbag that is more than enough. I tuned the guitar and with the first strum, i fell in love. It made me feel like for 15 years i literally played a wooden stick with strings on it. Bass, sustain, definitive bright notes which Taylor is known for, impeccable quality workmanship, stunning look... I had a few doubts in my mind when i bought it because they say that this is the beginner level of Taylor which is made for people who wants to learn guitar and remember i am playing for 15 years already. This guitar is made of layered sapele back and sides, which is not a solid wood and i had worried if it will ruin the sound and i was wrong. I hardly can describe but imagine this, when you touch it, it feels like a real tree. when you smell it, it smells like spices and forest. I know that you might be thinking like i am exaggerating this review but believe me even a regular person who doesn't know nothing about music can say that this is top notch quality workmanship. Now, i have chosen this guitar without playing it and i can say that it sounds 10 times better than how it sounded on youtube videos. I am ending this review here with this brief summary of all i written : Taylor guitars, pure quality, unique definitive sound, "the best" price/performance ratio.
