Does anyone play a Taylor T5 through an Ultra?

richb

richb

Inspired
I play acoustic guitar in a duo. There are times when I would like to kick in a little electric guitar during a song, so lately I have been looking at the Taylor T5.as a potential purchase. I'm wondering if anyone here plays a T5 through an Axe FX Ultra (which I own), and how you configure the Axe Fx. Taylor recommends an electric amp and an acoustic amp, which the Axe Fx can accommodate, but I would like to hear how someone with this setup uses the T5 and Axe Fx.

I would appreciate any insight.

Thanks
 
i don't use a taylor, but i use a guitar with 2 types of outputs - electric and acoustic.

i did a video a while ago showing how i use it - focusing mostly on the electric side - but maybe it can give you an idea of what you could do?

honestly, i never thought the t5 sounded like an electric. a guitar with acoustic strings on it always sounds like an acoustic to me. adding electric amps and distortion just sounds like adding it to an acoustic. unless the guys i've played with just didn't know how to use their guitar correctly, which is definitely a possibility.

 
I know longer have a T5 and only played through a T5/Ultra/K12 setup a few times. Worked great and I could go from clean acoustic sounds to dirty electric ones with no hassle. Great combination of the two. Been a few years however. I created patches unique patches for each T5 pickup selection. Generally I only used two. Acoustic patches were generally just a preamp (could be an amp block or tube pre drive block), eq, chorus, reverb. Electric patches added an amp and cab block.

Great combination. You may not need separate amps depending on what you are playing through.
 
I have a T5 and it's a beautiful guitar to play. But I think Taylor missed the mark on a few points, particularly the way thy tried to market it as and acoustic, then plugged it through a dirt box and proudly announced "Look it does heavy metal as well". To my ears, it has a unique sound of it's own that I quite like, that is neither truly acoustic or electric. So I'd recommend to try before you buy.

There are some niggles though, the main one being that the preamp is EXTREMELY noisy. I performed a chip upgrade on mine that reduced the problem to VERY noisy. You could not realistically use it with high amounts of gain unless you don't mind using a noise gate to choke your sustain. But for light gain and some acoustic-like tones, I think it's excellent.
 
No experience with the Taylor, but I do have an electric with piezos. Haven't really used the piezo side of things for some time, but I used to have dual chains running in my patches to process the two separately. Magnetic pickups went in the normal front input, piezos went in via input 1R in the back. Later I did a similar thing, but for passing our violinist through the Axe and out through the normally unused side of my poweramp to a wedge.
 
Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but maybe this will help someone. I'm selling my T5 after using for about two years as my workhorse solo/duo guitar. I agree that it doesn't sound like a traditional acoustic or an electric, but it can lean TOWARD the sound of either, depending on the pickup setting and strings you use. If you use acoustic strings, yep, it's hard to get away from the acoustic sound. I used electric strings on mine to improve the electric tone. A couple of weeks ago I made an impulse response for my Telecaster neck pickup using a mic'd acoustic as the reference sound (used Clark Kent's DAW tone-matching technique), and now the Tele sounds more like a real acoustic than the T5! It's a beautiful, light, easy to play guitar, but I wish it sounded more traditional. My Tele is now getting double the work hours it used to!
 
I hope some of you are still monitoring this thread. I have a Taylor T5z and the Axe Fx II. Have had pretty good success with my acoustic tones, but my electric sounds aren't quite right yet.. I find that I get the best electric tone using just the single stacked hum bucker, (setting 3) on the guitar. Have you guys got any input for me? Have you got any patches that you'd be willing to share. I just can't quite get the pure electric tone. And no... I do not want to replace or buy a new guitar... :)

Any input would be awesome.... Thanks,

John C
Sonoma County, CA
 
I just acquired a T5z and the Axe II. Love both, but as stated above, it's neither perfect as an acoustic or electric. It's a blast to play and sounds pretty great, but I haven't found a great electric\drive sound yet. It sounds a bit like throwing electric guitar strings on an acoustic and running it through an electric amp with distortion. A little harsh, tinny and not as great as using an actual electric. I find I'm reaching for my LTD EC-1000 as soon as I kick on the distortion. It's still pretty damn great though. I have mine tuned to Open C with a 56 Gauge string for the low C and it feels\sounds awesome without neck issues. If anybody ever nails a preset that gets the best of both worlds feel free to share it!
 
Justin Morse said:
I just acquired a T5z and the Axe II. Love both, but as stated above, it's neither perfect as an acoustic or electric. It's a blast to play and sounds pretty great, but I haven't found a great electric\drive sound yet. It sounds a bit like throwing electric guitar strings on an acoustic and running it through an electric amp with distortion. A little harsh, tinny and not as great as using an actual electric. I find I'm reaching for my LTD EC-1000 as soon as I kick on the distortion. It's still pretty damn great though. I have mine tuned to Open C with a 56 Gauge string for the low C and it feels\sounds awesome without neck issues. If anybody ever nails a preset that gets the best of both worlds feel free to share it!
Click to expand...

Check out this video by Peter Autschbach. He walks you through his Acoustic patch. Pay close attention to his use of EQ & PEQ. I think there's some good info there.

 
Looks good.. How about electric tones? I've been playing around with this for about a year and although I think I have some good ones, I'm still looking to duplicate a good strat sound.. Yeah I know.... "go buy a strat then...." I'm trying to avoid that.. I play more acoustic but when I have to break into a lead or platy electric still feels like something slaking.. Any thoughts??
 
Hi John
I don't try to achieve a Strat tone myself, but maybe try one of the Fender amp models, like the Twin, or Vibro King, and use the middle p/u position. I just got my AX8 last week, and I am playing my first gig with it tonight. I use the Vibro King amp, with a little distortion for my electric sound. Since I play in a duo, I can't use too much drive / distortion, as it just wouldn't fit our vibe. I like the T5, but hate the p/u selector. I am almost considering moving it to the bottom of the guitar, like a traditional electric. In fact, I wish the volume knob was down there too.
 
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