2016 Taylor 552CE 000-Size 12-String Guitar




This lush-sounding, short-scale, smaller-bodied Taylor was made in August of 2016 but is essentially as-new. Its owner bought it but found the nut width and size just a little too big for her hands and shoulders and so it's sat stowed in its hard case since sometime last year with its only need being a light adjustment at the nut.

It's a lost opportunity, though, because this is a well-engineered, well-thought-out guitar-box. With 12 frets and a 24 7/8" shorter scale length, it fits right in the lap and shoves the neck towards your left hand. Said 12-fret joint also pushes the bridge into more of the center of the top and so this dishes out a lot more bass and grunt than I usually expect from a Taylor of this size. Mix that up with a fast neck, fully-compensated (factory) saddle, and plenty-of-room 1 7/8" nut width, and you definitely have an instrument geared towards playing.

Specs are: 24 7/8" scale, 1 7/8" nut width, 1 21/32" string spacing at the nut, 2 13/32" spacing at the bridge, 15" lower bout, 10 7/8" upper bout, and 4 1/4" side depth. Action height is 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret and the gauges feel like a typical Elixir 46w-10 set for 12-string. The neck has something like a 14-16" radius to the board and a slim C/V hybrid back profile. This has Taylor's Expression System 2 pickup and preamp controls installed.

Woods are: solid x-braced cedar top, solid mahogany back and sides, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard and bridge, and ebony headstock veneer. It has nice, rounded-over tortoise binding and cream-colored inlay in the board.









Most companies don't bother with fully-compensated 12-string saddles. I'm glad Taylor does -- though my personal preference would be to also have string-ramps for at least the pins farther-aft on the bridge as well.













The original, brown, hard case is also in great shape.

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