If you’re prepared to sink serious money into an instrument, then buying from a high-end brand like Taylor or Martin would be a great place to invest your hard-earned money.
Every dollar you spend will buy you an uplift in playability, build quality, materials, and tone. If a good electric guitar needs a skilled luthier to piece it together, then an acoustic guitar is on a different level.
Let’s take a quick look at two different guitars, Taylor’s AD27 and Martin’s D-15M, to see which one comes on top.
| Features: | Taylor AD27 American Dream | Martin D-15M Dreadnought |
|---|---|---|
| Price: | £1,199 | £1,599 |
| Inlay Design: | Italian acrylic dots | Diamonds and Squares |
| Frets: | 20 | 20 |
| Bracing: | V-Class | A-frame ”X” |
| Top: | Mahogany | Mahogany |
| Back & Sides: | Sapele | Mahogany |
Taylor AD27 American Dream
Named after the Southern California guitar shop where Taylor guitars were originally founded back in 74’, Taylor’s American Dream series was created to provide an affordable solid-wood instrument that springs from the Grand Pacific round-shouldered dreadnought.
Build
Taylor’s American Dream series has followed the same philosophy while delivering a high level of performance using V-Class bracing, all at a price that’s affordable for an American-made guitar.
In fact, the guitars in the series are the lowest-priced American-made guitars that Taylor has ever offered, and it’s no coincidence that they’ve been introduced when the pandemic has made it harder than ever for people to purchase new guitars.
The AD27 tilts the recipe toward deeper lows and warmer sound via a body made of solid Sapele (a tonewood similar to mahogany) and a mahogany top.
Taylor’s AD17 lightweight guitar is fitted with a mahogany neck along with a 25.5-inch scale eucalyptus fingerboard carrying 20 smoothly finished frets and a perfectly shaped black Tusc nut.
Taylor has kept costs down as the ornamentation is fairly spartan and comprises a black-maple-black rosette, a tortoise pickguard, black plastic truss-rod cover and heel cap, Italian acrylic position dots and a headstock inlay.
The guitars tuning chores are handled by Taylor-branded nickel die-cast machines, and the ebony bridge has a Micarta saddle and black pins.
The AD27 wears a thin (2.0 mil) matte finish, allowing the user to really feel the graining of the woods, which all look very attractive under the reddish-brown hues of the Urban Sienna stain. Suffice it to say, if you’re a fan of natural-looking guitars, then the AD27 will have you covered.
The AD27 has a C-shape neck that feels great with its medium depth and a width of 1.75 inches at the nut. The string spacing is easy to navigate, whether you’re soloing or fingering complex chords, and the factory setup was well dialled in on arrival, providing low and buzz-free string response along with rock-solid intonation all along the neck.
Performance
The AD27 produces a big voice, and it rings out clearly and has a nice complexity in the midrange, with lots of low-end girth.
While it mightn’t be a sonic cannon that a D-28 can be, the AD27 is nevertheless better-balanced top to bottom and still pumps out a good amount of volume with little compression when played hard with a pick.
Martin D-15M Dreadnought
Martin’s D-15M is a little different from the average acoustic guitar. From the tonewoods used to the finish and the appointments, it feels and looks, and sounds unique.
Build
Most dreadnought acoustic guitars today usually employ something like a cede or spruce top with rosewood or mahogany back and sides and a mahogany neck. There’re some slightly different variations, however, the basic idea is to count on the back and sides for the depth and warmth provided by woods like rosewood or mahogany, with the top providing punch and clarity due to tonewoods like spruce. It’s always a pleasant combination that sounds great.
Martin’s D-15M is a little different, and that’s due to the “M” tacked on to the end of the name. The D-15M has a top, back, neck, and sides that are all made from solid mahogany. While this design is sort of unique today, it has a heritage that has gone back many decades. And that mahogany top means the D-15M is going to have different tonal characteristics than a typical dreadnought acoustic.
Its fingerboard, head-plate, and bridge are all made with East Indian Rosewood, which looks beautiful with the chocolate-colored mahogany. Like other guitar companies, Martin is always coming up with creative solutions to the shortage and subsequent import limits on the quality of rosewood in recent years.
The D-15M is without binding, and has no fancy appointments or inlays. The D-15M is all about the wood, that deep, rich beautiful mahogany. And it’s the mahogany that makes this model sound so special.
Performance
If you play an electric guitar, then you’re probably aware of the influence a good mahogany body can have on your tone. Long before the Les Paul was even conceived, acoustic guitar brands like Martin knew about the sweet tonal texture that solid mahogany provides, and the D-15M carries on that tradition.
With all that mahogany on the guitar, some players might be concerned that the sound may lack presence and clarity. Although some users may simply prefer a brighter sound, the mahogany top may not have brought the presence you’d expect from spruce. The D-15M delivers a deeper, rounder, not-as-bright sound compared to spruce or cedar-top acoustics.
Conclusion
Martin’s D15M is a great guitar overall, with that iconic Martin sound, although it has a little bit less boom, due to the all-mahogany construction.
As for the AD27, Taylor have their own sound which is bright sounding and not as dark sounding as Martin’s
The body of Taylor’s AD27 is a tad bit smaller than the D15M.
So which guitar is better? Well, both the AD27 and D15M are great. In order for you to make a better conclusion before buying, you need to consider what you prefer in an acoustic sound and whether or not the AD27’s brighter sound is for you.