A prime factor in the 'Taylor sound' -- unplugged -- is that Taylor's tops are by design sliced thinner than most manufacturers' solid-tops. While this allows for freer vibration of the top, it also diminishes the strength (power) of the top's low frequency vibes as it enhances the mids and highs.

It's this top design and tonic character that made Taylors so popular for recording. When recording a steel-string acoustic, the top is the 'main ingredient', since it's where you aim your mic(s). Getting a true natural tone reproduced to is a challenge, especially digitally. Taylor's top simplifies the issue.

Conversely, or conseequently, Taylors going direct rather than mic'd can sound thin & brittle because an Under Saddle Transducer (UST) relies picking up the top's vibrations. Thin in, Thin Out. Or, as the saying goes, Crap In, Crap Out.

Therein lies the challenge with a Taylor: the preamps -- onboard the guitar, and of the mixing board or amp it's fed to -- that the transducer's signal get fed to have to be skillfully worked to get anything close to a warm & natural tone.

So it's up to the skill of the sound or recording engineer to rise to the challenge. Most don't, because they fail to recognize and understand the Taylor top factor. A weak engineer can make a $3,000 Taylor sound like a $50Toys R' Us special.

Besides the sound issue, the thin Taylor tops are inordinately susceptible to cracking. Made close to the Pacific Ocean, regardless of how 'climate-controlled' the Taylor factory is, when you take a Taylor to a particularly dry climate -- like the New Mexico or SoCal dessert (where I live), if you don't religiously tend to careful 45-55% RH monitoring and maintenance, you'll eventually have a brittle-topped Taylor that will sound even thinner than it would in say, more humid zones like New England, the Pac Northwest, Tennessee or Florida.

If you read Taylor's Warranty carefully (go to their website), you'll find the stern warnings about caring for the humidity and how if you don't, you void the warranty.

Interestingly enough, Taylor makes a big deal about attending to humidity on their site and in their 'Wood & Steel' magazine. Our lawyer Fretters will understand what that's all about: fair upfront warning, in writing and video. You don't heed it, you're the negligent owner. Tough cookies if the top cracks.

Good luck dealing with Talor Customer 'Support' when your top cracks.

We have a Taylor dealer here in town. He sells them OK. Many (Taylor a/e's) end up getting traded in to the Takamine/Ibanez/Godin-Seagull/Tacoma dealer -- the store I shop. Either because they disappointed the owner with their plugged in Barney Fife sound, or their top developed hairline cracks and they found themselves SOL with Taylor on a warranty claim attempt. So the Taylors end up selling as damaged used goods. They get jack on their trade. Better off turning to e-sleaze-bay to unload them on someone who wouldn't know a crack in a top unless they could stick their finger thru it like Thomas the Apostle.

I have 2 (Japanese) Takamines. Santa Fe series. By design, Tak's preamps are modular (not sure on the G-series Korean and Chinese Taks). Takamine has about 4 preamps...the ultimate of which is the 'Cool Tube', a tube preamp. All can be swapped, as simple popping a tab and pulling the unit, and pulling 2 plugs & jacks. It's one reason Tak's preamps are up on the upper bout next to the heel. A little tougher to read the controls than if it was mounted like most others, in the waist of the upper side. But its' in the stiffest section of the side, interfering less with any side vibes.