Finding a great hybrid electric-acoustic guitar can be tricky, whether based on your stylistic tastes or dependent on which of the sounds (acoustic vs. electric) need to be dominantly closest to the real deal. It’s not easy to find one guitar to fit both acoustic and electric needs, especially if you need the guitar to look and feel more like an acoustic guitar. But perhaps Taylor Guitars found a way?
The Taylor T5z Pro provides a great option in offering the best of both worlds contained in one acoustic-looking package. The Taylor T5 model has been around for a while, but there are some noteworthy changes and enhancements made to the T5z Pro making it function more like an electric guitar while preserving its acoustic guitar character (not to mention its acoustic guitar sounds). For reference, check out our review of the original/standard Taylor T5 here.
| Category | Value | Rating |
| Features | 20% |  |
| Usability | 25% |  |
| Sound | 25% | |
| Documentation & Support | 10% |  |
| Price | 20% |  |
| OVERALL RATING = 3.5 Stars (out of 4) 3.6 stars or better: Outstanding, WIHO Award 3 stars or better: Worth considering 2 stars or better: Suited to specific needs 1 star or less: Not recommended |
||
Features
The evolution of the Taylor T5z Pro mainly focused on ergonomic and aesthetic upgrades over the earlier T5 models. The whole premise was to mirror more of an electric guitar with a lighter thinline Urban Ash body, rounded edges including a built-in armrest, and repositioning of the volume and tone knobs to the lower bout of the guitar. Taylor Guitars also minimized design to a single F-hole and visible bridge pickup to maintain more of an electric guitar look while maintaining its versatile acoustic/electric hybrid sound.
Our review model of the T5z Pro was a beautiful Harbor Blue color. Cosmetic details include rounded edges around the top for enhanced comfort, and the figured maple top is revealed around the flamed top (it looks like binding but it’s actually the wood). Black purfling outlines the F-hole and pickup, giving it that extra pop. Other color choices included Cayenne Red and Tobacco sunburst.
The Big Leaf Maple top provides a nice woodgrain pattern and depth to the guitar’s presence. The back and sides are comprised of Shamel Ash giving it a dark/black appearance. The bolt-on neck features Taylors proprietary one-bolt system which we continue to find very stable and solid. The neck is comprised of Neo-Tropical Mahogany with a West African Crelicam Ebony fretboard with faux pearl/silver spires and jumbo frets. The width at the nut is 1-11/16 and the full-scale length is 24-7/8. The nut material is white TUSQ complemented by a white Micarta saddle.
The electronics include a five-way blade switch which provides selection of the bridge humbucker (exposed), neck humbucker (hidden,) and an inner body sensor to capture the acoustic properties of the guitar.
Usability
The Taylor T5z Pro was extremely comfortable and easy to play. Having the guitar in our hands felt like a thinline, semi-hollow body, electric guitar. It was very light and balanced like an acoustic guitar, but the fast-playing neck made it perform with the ease of an electric guitar.
The T5z Pro featured independent Volume, Bass and Treble controls which are rubber-coated to ensure ease in gripping for flawless on the fly changes. They are positioned just as you would find them on any standard electric guitar, much like a Strat control layout. Each control knob has a center detent; center being gain neutral with a 6db cut or boost to your specific need. The only challenge is finding that center detent – you really must feel for it as we found it kind of faint to the touch.
The five-way blade switch is located at the top side of the body. It’s equipped with an LED light to show that the battery and electronics are functioning, and the guitar is plugged in. Making pickup selections on the fly or mid-song can be challenging given the location of the switch. It may have been better suited by the Volume and Tone controls like a standard electric guitar configuration. However, having the visibility of the selection switch position was very helpful.
Unfortunately, the pickup selection left something to be desired, as there was nothing intuitive to indicate what kinds of tones could be achieved from different positions along the five-way switch. It was not analogous to a five-way pickup selection switch on a typical Strat-type guitar. We found a great outline of each position, and what they provide from a sound perspective, online:
- Position 1 (Neck Humbucker + Body Sensor): The most acoustic-like setting, blending the warm neck pickup with the body sensor for a natural, unplugged sound.
- Position 2 (Neck Humbucker Only): A smooth, full electric tone, great for jazz, blues, or solos, like a Strat neck pickup.
- Position 3 (Bridge Humbucker Only): A brighter, punchier electric sound, good for country or pushing an amp.
- Position 4 (Neck & Bridge in Parallel): Creates a scooped, hollow-body, “jazz box” tone by running both humbuckers side-by-side.
- Position 5 (Neck & Bridge in Series): Delivers a thick, powerful, full-bodied sound with more output and mid-range, ideal for lead guitar.
Effective use of the various settings required committing to memory what each setting offered. Given that there was no blend knob, it would have been nice to be able to instinctively flip the five-way pickup selector from pure acoustic at one end to rockin’ bridge pickup electric at the other without having to pay careful attention to finding position #3 in the middle for that bridge pickup only. That would eliminate the possible fumble in-between chorus and lead sections of the song.
One concern we did want to note was that the neck of the T5z had a “very slight” hump at the 15th fret area on the bass side of the neck. This was only a visible observation, and we found that it did not affect playability in any way.
It should be noted that the Taylor T5z Pro only offers a mono output, not stereo nor dual outputs. For best results in a live setting, you may need an AB box or other switching system. This is one guitar where players with modelers like the Axe-FX/Quad Cortex/Helix may have an easier setup time as they can configure both electric and acoustic guitar amp settings in a single device.
Sound
We played the guitar through two amps: a Mesa Boogie Lonestar for clean tones and blues/rock tones as well as a Bogner Ecstasy to see if the Taylor T5z Pro could hold its own playing high-gain rock/metal music (the short answer is “Yes”). We also tested the guitar straight into a PA system (in case you must on a gig), through an L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic DI and a Fishman Aura into a PA (both were ideal) to optimize the acoustic tone as best possible, and also into a mixing desk and studio monitors to spot-check the accuracy of the tones we were hearing.
The Taylor T5z Pro was very articulate, and all notes had a sharp attack to them that you’d expect to hear from a quality electric guitar. The guitar was particularly sensitive to how heavy or light we picked while playing, capturing the most subtle nuances in a performance of all three instruments. The T5z Pro, without a doubt, has a great acoustic sound about it, but can equally hold its ground with overdriven rock sounds while providing a distinctive sound of its own.
When using the neck pickup, we were treated to especially strong lead tones for jazz and blues playing.
Through our Bogner amp’s Blue and Red (Overdrive) channels, the T5z managed to sound surprisingly Strat-like in a few of the pickup positions, and it was easy to get a very bluesy Strat sound out of it. We had a similar experience playing thru the Mesa Boogie Lonestar. The clean tones were very articulate and had a touch of jangly Strat sounds through each pickup position.
We appreciated that the tone controls (Bass and Treble) changed the color of our sound without affecting the gain negatively. We did notice a very slight hiss or air sound from the amp, but nothing alarming or out of control to the point where remediation was required. If it did become an issue at higher volumes, a very slight noise gate would do the trick. But at center detent/neutral tone settings, the sound was very clean and void of any transient sounds.
One other thing we loved about the guitar was how well the signal cleaned up when rolling off the volume. Using the bridge pickup and reducing the volume, we turned our rock tone into a very usable acoustic tone. If you like to play single channel guitar amps and rely on your volume knob and pickup selector to go from heavy to clean, the T5z will not disappoint.
If you just want a beautiful looking acoustic guitar for stage, that plays with the ease of an electric guitar, you’ll be in total heaven here. While the unplugged sound is decently acoustic, it’s more suitable to playing and practicing on your couch than using at a camp fire or busking in the subway unplugged. Given the thinline construction, do not expect the unplugged guitar to sound like a genuine Taylor acoustic guitar. But once plugged into a nice DI like the aforementioned Para Acoustic DI or a Fishman Aura, the first two pickup positions deliver outstanding acoustic guitar tones that we could live with for an entire acoustic performance.
Overall, the Taylor T5z was a pleasure to play in all styles, and its tone was consistently good regardless of what amp/PA we played it through. The fact that it can replace your electric guitar on the gig if desired makes it a rather special instrument, though we wouldn’t try using it in a heavy metal setting as the pickups aren’t hot enough to really push your high-gain amp and at your likely stage volume, you might generate some unwanted feedback of the not-cool variety.
Documentation and Product Support
To our surprise, our review model of the Taylor T5z Pro was not accompanied by any documentation or supporting material. The days of getting welcome letters, manuals, warranty cards, care instructions, and truss rod adjustment tools have long been replaced by a company’s website under product support.
Trying to find detailed information on exact electronic operations took a little digging and wasn’t easily accessible on the Taylor website – most of the information was a very high-level overview. We wound up going to Google University to locate YouTube documentaries explaining the exact pickup configuration and how it was integrated with the five-way blade switch.
Taylor provides fabulous piece-of-mind, though, with a limited lifetime warranty on their instruments.
Price
The Taylor T5z Pro, Harbor Blue sells for $3,299. Though at the higher end of similar hybrid electric-acoustic guitars on the market, we find the pricing worth the value considering the premium woods, high-end electronics, and detailed craftsmanship. A premium hard-shell case is included.
Contact Information
Taylor Guitars
www.taylorguitars.com
