The sound of this guitar with your playing at the start were all the convincing I needed. Sold!

Stellar review mate. Many thanks

I really enjoyed your review! Good sample playing and great explanation! Keep it up! Greetings from sunny Hollywood California.

Nice review, beautifully played and carefully miked. Subscribed! Its got this very transparent sound, not at all muddy! - oddly, I found this review after I placed an order for it. Maybe I'll have it in about a week or so. The pickups are disappointing to me though. At the price of that guitar, it seems well worth putting in an LR Baggs Anthem, and see if the built-in knobs of the guitar can be wired to that. Given the requirements of microphone recordings, I'd definitely want the best pickup possible. The only other acoustic guitars I have are carbon fiber: They'll never sound as good as even a mediocre wooden guitar, but they also don't turn into a construction set on a hot, humid pacific island. So like you said, in a way, this is going to be my only 'real' guitar ;-)

Great review! I think this sounds much better than the 717 Builders Edition

I've played several Taylor guitars across the range and even owned a 510e once upon a time, too. Sadly I feel I've never really connected with the Taylor sound or experience though, hence I no longer own the 510e. Larrivee have really spoken to me, PJE and a Gibson J45 too, along with a Faith (Mars FRSB45) that really proves budget guitars can knock it out of the park too, just for good measure. This 517e, however, seems to have deviated nicely from the (overly) trodden path of Taylor and 'their' sound, and I'm intrigued. Thank you for such a succinct, engaging, transparent and genuine 'to the point' review. Less thanks, however, for the dent in my wallet that may well be forthcoming - I'm compelled to try one now!

It sure shows the shortcomings of the Taylor expression system compared to a mic. Wow.

That is an incredible wall you're sitting in front of.

I have one of these and the pickups sound great but your amp needs to be turned up or a mic placed in front of the speaker for an apples to apples comparison.. The mic will always sound a little louder since its right in front of the sound hole. Good review.

That as a very informative review of this guitar, which I have. I completely agree with the upper mids on the pickups but that isn't insurmountable.

How does this compare to the 717e builders edition?

The Taylor ES2 system only senses vibrations at the bridge. It is not a microphone and does not pick up tone, so it will never replicate the sound of the guitar. It is meant to be fed into large amounts of electronics to build out the sound you want. I always use a mic, not the ES2.

The knobs are set flat. If you tweak them they pickup tone will greatly improve.

The acoustic tone is amazing; the plugged tone. . . I'm torn. The ES2 delivers a very "natural" and pleasing tone; but it seems that, at least at their detente position, is quite weak compared to the mic. In other guitars, especially Ovation guitars, the plugged tone is quite powerful; not here.

great video! please tell me the intro song so I can learn it?

Best guitar ever made.

How is it possible that the pickup is so bad? Did you double check your system on another known pickup, or is this real? Not what I have heard elsewhere.

Anyone know what he’s playing at the beginning?

why does it sound fuller on mic lol

Same shape as my Gurian J-R

Beautiful without pick up, terrible with it. How come?

The acoustic sound of the 517 is really impressive. I was close to buying until I plugged it in. The ES2 pickup does not come close to capturing the rich acoustic tone. For the price I think we should be able to expect a better pickup representation through an acoustic amp (AER). An option might be to buy a 517 without the ES2 and fir an LR Bragg’s system. Annoying that this has to be a consideration for an instrument that is so close to great but let down by an electric in house amp,ovation system. A real shame.

The E2 system prevents me from buying this. I would rather have an lr bag anthem. But they doent make one without the E2.

I will buy this,instead of 00028…

Beautiful guitar and natural sound. The Es2 system absoluty disappoints, flat and thin sound. I'm disappointed.

The pickup isn't any good on this guitar, sounds like you listen to it via a phone speaker. Much richer and fuller sound via the mic!

Electronic is not so good la, you lose depth, warmth and roundness of the guitar. Miking is the best way to record this guitar

The pickup controls cheapen the look of this otherwise beautiful guitar. Such a shame.

I can only assume you sell these guitars or get some side benefit from Taylor. How else could you find nothing wrong with it? The pickup made it sound like a $100 formica student guitar. Good grief...