Taylor 324e Acoustic Guitar Review with Garrett Moshier

Today we review the Taylor 324e Acoustic-electric Guitar.

Artist, producer, and instrumentalist for Jordan Feliz, Cody Fry, Micah Tyler, Danny Gokey, Steven Curtis Chapman, CAIN, and more – – Garrett Moshier is originally from the gulf coast of Florida. While in Florida, Garrett began performing and leading worship at local churches and youth groups, eventually auditioning for and attending Belmont University’s Commercial Music program. There, he studied music and production, later landing spots in some of the university’s showcase series and playing shows in town as an artist. After his graduation in 2018, Garrett began performing as a guitarist and keyboardist with local pop and country artists before shifting focus to the Christian Contemporary genre in mid-2021.

The best use case for this, I think, would be any kind of live scenario. So if you’re a worship leader, I think it’ll work great. It’s going to sound really good. Even as an acoustic, you can tell how good it sounds with the low rhythm chords. That sounds exactly what I think a guitar should sound like in a live worship scenario. – – Garrett Moshier

From Taylor Guitars

Players love the Taylor Grand Auditorium body style for its tonal versatility, exceptional clarity, and relaxed feel, and this 324e offers all those benefits in an all-solid-mahogany package that serves up punchy, warm midrange tones. This non-cutaway model features V-Class interior bracing for greater volume and longer sustain, pairing beautifully with the mahogany construction for a dry, focused response that produces fewer overtones than other tonewoods. That character makes the 324e an ideal recording partner, and with the ES2 electronics, you can count on faithful amplified tone whenever you need to plug in.

Features

• 6-String
• Tropical Mahogany Top
• Tropical Mahogany Back and Sides
• Tropical Mahogany Neck
• Ebony Fretboard
• Expression System® 2 Electronics
• Non-cutaway
• Taylor Deluxe Hardshell Brown Case
• All-solid mahogany body for midrange punch and focus
• V-Class bracing adds longer sustain and more volume
• Grand Auditorium body offers broad tonal versatility
• Mahogany top helps serve up a balanced attack
• Includes ES2 electronics and ships with a hardshell case

 

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Transcript

So we basically have an all mahogany guitar except for the fretboard, which is Ebony. I think Ebony is a great fretboard wood. Also Mahogany is really great for like a warm sound. They use it on Les Pauls pretty much exclusively. It is a little heavier. So I notice that this guitar definitely has a little bit more weight to it, especially that one that could be also just because of the size, but it’s pretty noticeable. Still a light acoustic guitar. It’s not like you’re actually carrying a Les Paul around where it’s a solid body and everything. It’s not 13lbs, it’s probably more in the ballpark of 6 to 7, which is super great.

One thing I would say is that we’ve got to satin finish. Satin finishes are great to look at. They don’t, get super smudged up on stage. That’s a big win. But I think one area where it falls short is if you’re recording live acoustic guitars through a microphone. So in this instance, you’ll be able to tell this microphone, we’ve got a lot of like, just kind of like, contact noise. If you are doing intimate acoustic guitar recordings, I think you’re going to find that that might get in your way a little bit more than something with a glossy finish where it’s not quite so loud with this. So you’ll hear that even when you forearms just like strumming along right here. So on that end I would go for something with a gloss finish on the on the sides and the front.

We’ve got like an normal pickguard here. The pickguard’s very gloss I would imagine at some point this is going to get all beat up and whatnot, but sometimes, depending on the way that you pick, that could even look cool.

Up at the top, so we’ve got like a different inlay structure. It looks still like abalone. Different symbol here. So, you know, pick your poison. It’s this symbol also in the fret inlays. I think they still look really pretty, still very much cooler than your everyday Mother of Pearl Dots.

Really nice woodgrain on the back and sides. Very consistent. I think it’s still a solid top, which is ideal. It’s not your typical sunburst. It’s more like this kind of like dark burst. Don’t know, really, what they would call it, but it’s super elegant, really pretty to look at. I feel like if you have a guitar that’s really pretty to look at, you’ll probably want to pick it up and play it more, which means you’ll probably get better. Getting better is good unless it leads you to choose a career in music. I’m just kidding.

A thing I like to do on acoustic guitars is, I call it, The Crash Test, so I’ll play “Crash” by Dave Matthews Band, basically just between guitars, whichever one you start tiring out on quicker probably means that that one needs the setup more or the action lowered in general. Here would be The Crash Test. I can already tell that I’ll probably be having to dip out of this within like four passes through. Yeah, I’ll definitely have to be have to be bailing after a little bit. I think that’s also just because it’s a bigger body. So I think maybe the scale length is even a tiny bit longer than that one might have been.

This is a Grand Auditorium shape. It feels like it’s potentially even a little bit bigger than what I think the Grand Concert would be, which I think is the closest thing to a 000 size, if you’re familiar with like the Martin shapes or I think even other companies like Blue Ridge and even Recording King use 000 as their basic like Grand Concert style size. That’s what you’d probably see John Mayer recording with. This feels a little bit bigger than that, which is probably the culprit of why it has so much more volume. Overall it’s still comfy. It’s not super wide in the back here. It’s still like a fairly manageable guitar. I think if were like sitting on the couch or something like that. It would probably feel a little bit clunky and that’s where I would probably opt for the smaller body size. But if I’m recording in a studio or something like that, I think it’s a great size for recording. I think you’ll get probably an in-between sound if it’s something between a Dreadnought and more of a concert-sized guitar. If you’ve got small hands or you have short arms or I’m 5’10″ and so if you were much shorter than me, it’d probably get on the uncomfortable side and I would probably air for something a little smaller at that point.

The action still low enough right out of the box that like it still plays well. You can still do most of your basic things, but I’m definitely going to reach a little bit up here. That’s usually not a deal breaker for me. Typically, all you need to do is just, go up to the truss rod here and give it a nice little quarter turn. And that’ll tighten the truss rod up. You just want to make sure you don’t do it too much that you get any fret buzz at the low ends. But with guitars in this price range, you should have a nut that’s really cut well. Think all of these guitars have a tusk nut. Tusk is a great material. It’s self-lubricating usually, and so you don’t necessarily deal with any string slippage that often and it is more durable than bone, which is the other most popular type. You really just want to stay away from any plastic nuts. If you got tusk, you’re good to go.

On the inside of the guitar, we have what’s called the V-class bracing. I can definitely tell, right off the bat, that it’s got a lot more volume, so it projects quite a bit more. So I think for your big strum stuff, it’s going to work really great for your big open chords, you probably won’t be able to tell through your phone or your computer screen, but it is noticeably louder than that guitar there. I think that is due to the bigger body size, but the same time, the different bracing system that will have a big impact on the sound. And like I said, I think a company like Taylor, they got their bracing down. They know what they’re doing and when it comes to that.

We’ve got the expression system again, I think the same ES2, same thing, you know, it might sound different from guitar to guitar. My guess is that because we got all mahogany, it’s probably going to pick up a little bit warmer sound off the bat. But like I recommend with any acoustic guitar pickup, I think it’s great to have an EQ pedal. That way you can shape your mid range. That’s the biggest part, I think, of a guitar’s frequencies. So you’ve got your bass and treble here. Obviously you can mess with that a little bit, but my guess is that you’ll probably find yourself just leaving it flat and then messing with the mid range with an EQ pedal somewhere in the line. But as long as it feels good and responds well, I think that’s all you really need out of the PA as a pickup.

Obviously, with the electronics, we’ve got the same electronic system, and so once it gets to the front of house speakers, it’s probably going to sound about the same as a lot of the other guitars from Taylor, because they use that- they’re very unified on all fronts about their electronic systems. Most of them have very similar ones, but as long as it feels good, it’s going to sound great, and as long as you get good response from it, it’ll be great.

The best use case for this, I think, would be any kind of live scenario. So if you’re a worship leader, I think it’ll work great. It’s going to sound really good. Even as an acoustic, you can tell how good it sounds with the low rhythm chords and stuff like that. That sounds exactly what I think like a guitar should sound like in, you know, a live worship scenario.

I think at $2,500, that’s, definitely a pro-level gigging guitar. You can expect great build quality, you can expect stability as well when you’re going at it from different temperatures and different humidities. I think it’s going to look great too. Like I said, you know, the satin finish being a slight drawback in the studio. I think it’s a big win on stage because it’s going to photograph well. It’s also going to it’s going to show up well on video. It’s going to look great. It’s going to look exactly like out showing up here. So I’d definitely take this on the road. I’d probably still want to have it insured, you know, and make sure it’s just in case if someone else is handling it.

I think this one comes with a Hardshell case. So obviously you can still put that in a carry on, you know, on most airlines. But I’d also feel comfortable, you know, at the very least, you know, gate checking it before I get on the plane. That’s what I would do with most of my guitars. If I have to check them, I’d do it at the gate. At that point, you know, it’s one person. Chances are, in a Hardshell case, it’s going to be just fine. Take as little risks as you can, especially with guitars. It’s made of wood. So they’re fragile in some ways. But at the same time, I think this one can probably take- take a beating and still be alright, especially with the nice bracing we’ve got it feels sturdy, feel solid.

The intonation seems pretty good. The G-string- I feel like that’s a tiny bit out of tune might just be my head playing tricks on me. That being said, you know, the small adjustments that you can make and generally, you know, up here like this is like micro tones of differences when you’re up at the 12th fret right here, probably would need a tuner to be even able to tell. So I think overall the setup is great, the action’s great, frets feel nice. You know, I don’t- it’s not quite as much of a rolled fretboard as that one was, so it feels a little bit more like a new guitar. I can feel the frets a tiny bit, but still feels good. And I don’t think that any fret about to ever going to get in the way of me playing even up higher in the neck. I like that I have pretty good access up here, even past the 15th fret, I feel like that feels good.

The neck is very nice. I think the neck has a slightly more satiny finish on the back of it and therefore, you know, you can just move a little bit quicker. It just feels a bit more comfortable to move along. So overall, I think the playability is really good, especially if you’re staying down here, you know, kind of, you know, ninth fret and below. I think you’re going to have a really good time with this guitar. you ever need to, you can go down a string gauge size and, you know, the guitar’s not really ever going to notice if you just go one size down and it’ll sound great and it’ll probably be a little easier to play if you need it.

Oh, was it make me want to eat? Probably a steak. Kind of got the same color. Can’t speak to the insides. The insides are not red. So I would say this is probably more like the style of a well-done steak, having red on the inside of the guitar would probably also be a little bit weird. You don’t need to pay for that paint, so..

It kind of just makes me want to play like big jangly chords. This is so early 2000’s, but like “No Such Thing” – John Mayer. I kind of went off the rails already, but I just think it’s like that kind of thing. Like, that sounds really great, I’ve got no qualms with that sound. This sounds great too.