BATTLE OF THE ANCIENT WOODS
The Taylor Catch Custom C12e Grand Concert vs the Avalon S12ce
When Titans Rise from the Forest
Before there were guitars...
There were forests.
Before there were luthiers...
There were giants.
Trees that stretched towards the sky while kingdoms rose and fell beneath their branches. Trees that stood through drought, storm and fire. Trees that witnessed generations pass beneath their shadows before a single note of music had ever been asked of them.
Most trees end their lives quietly. A fortunate few become furniture.
The rarest...
Become legend.
Today, two of those legends stand before us.
Not as timber. Not as beautiful objects.
But as warriors forged by time itself.
To the west comes the Taylor Catch Custom C12e Grand Concert.
Its armour is carved from magnificent Sinker Redwood, a giant that refused to surrender even after disappearing beneath cold Californian rivers. Decades passed in darkness. Water replaced air. Minerals whispered into every fibre. Time itself became another craftsman, shaping a voice impossible to recreate by modern hands. At its back stands breathtaking Bocote, wild and untamed, every grain line twisting like lightning captured inside ancient wood.
To the east...
Another champion walks slowly into the light.
It carries no need for spectacle. No elaborate introduction.
Its greatest weapon has already been spoken.
One hundred and thirty-five years. One hundred and thirty-five summers gathering sunlight. One hundred and thirty-five winters refusing to fall.
One hundred and thirty-five years growing stronger while empires expanded, industries transformed the world and music itself evolved from parlours to concert halls.
Its timber is not merely old. It remembers.
This is no ordinary guitar comparison.
This is a battle between patience and perseverance. Between rediscovery and endurance.
Between two forests that refused to be forgotten.
Raise the banners. Strike the first chord.
Let the ancient woods decide.
ROUND ONE
ANCESTRY
Every warrior carries a family name. These two carry entire forests.
Taylor's Sinker Redwood speaks of survival.
It should never have existed.
Once towering proudly above Californian soil, it fell into deep rivers where cold water wrapped around every fibre, protecting it from decay while decades drifted silently overhead. Forgotten by men. Preserved by nature.
It returned carrying secrets. Density. Stability.
A voice shaped beneath flowing water.
Nature herself became the luthier.
Not with mystery. With age.
The 135-year-old Brazilian Mahogany didn't sleep beneath rivers.
It stood.
Season after season. Storm after storm.
Adding another ring. Another memory. Another year.
By the time its roots finally left the earth...
Entire generations had lived and died beneath its branches.
This isn't reclaimed timber.
This is inherited history.
Every note begins one hundred and thirty-five years before your fingers ever touch the strings.
Winner: Avalon
Because nothing defeats time.
ROUND TWO
THE ARMOUR OF KINGS
Every battlefield remembers the first glimpse of its champions.
Taylor arrives like the sun breaking through cloud. Its Bocote blazes with impossible contrasts.
Gold collides with ebony. Amber wrestles with chocolate.
Every line across its back seems alive, as though rivers still flow beneath the lacquer.
No photograph quite captures it.
It must be witnessed.
Avalon never raises its voice.
Its Brazilian Mahogany carries itself differently.
Its beauty is not immediate. It unfolds.
Like old leather. Like antique violins. Like oak doors polished by generations of hands.
The longer you look... The more impossible it becomes to look away.
Winner: Taylor
Because even forests occasionally decide to create masterpieces simply for the joy of beauty.
ROUND THREE
THE FIRST STRIKE
Steel meets string. The battlefield falls silent.
The Sinker Redwood explodes into life.
Every fingertip becomes amplified. Every harmonic hangs suspended. Every whisper becomes music.
It possesses astonishing speed. Almost supernatural responsiveness.
The guitar feels less like an object...
More like a conversation already waiting for you to begin.
It absorbs. Then answers.
The first chord rolls outward with impossible depth.
Not louder. Older.
As though every vibration has travelled through one hundred and thirty-five years before finally reaching your ears.
Notes bloom like sunlight through cathedral windows. The sustain refuses to leave.
The overtones gather around every melody like ghosts unwilling to say goodbye.
Winner: Draw
Some battles cannot be measured.
Only experienced.
ROUND FOUR
THE FORGE
No weapon becomes legendary without the hands that shape it.
Taylor's workshop is one of modern guitar making's greatest triumphs.
Innovation. Precision. Consistency.
Its revolutionary V-Class Bracing rewrote expectations of sustain, intonation and projection, proving that engineering and artistry could exist as equals.
Every brace. Every joint. Every microscopic detail calculated with astonishing precision.
Across the sea... Avalon works differently.
There are no shortcuts to wisdom.
Every top is voiced. Tapped. Adjusted. Heard.
Not because machines demand perfection.
Because experienced ears refuse to accept anything less.
Taylor builds remarkable guitars.
Winner: Draw
Because mastery wears many faces.
FINAL ROUND
IMMORTALITY
Every great contest eventually reaches the point where victory becomes impossible to measure.
The applause fades. The arguments fall silent. Specifications lose their authority. What remains is something altogether more enduring: the stories these instruments carry within them.
Neither of these remarkable guitars owes its greatness solely to the hands that built it. Their journeys began long before the first brace was carved or the first string was tuned. They were shaped by forests, by seasons, by time itself. They stood through storms, absorbed generations of changing skies and quietly gathered the character that only decades—or in one extraordinary case, more than a century—can bestow.
The Taylor Catch Custom C12e tells a story of rediscovery. Its magnificent Sinker Redwood spent decades hidden beneath Californian rivers, preserved by cold water until it emerged with a voice unlike any other. Paired with the striking beauty of Bocote, it represents nature's remarkable ability to transform adversity into something breathtakingly beautiful.
The Avalon S12ce tells a different story. Its 135-year-old Brazilian Mahogany did not disappear beneath the water or wait to be rediscovered. It simply endured. For well over a century it stood, season after season, adding another growth ring, another chapter and another quiet reminder that the finest things in nature are never hurried. When that timber finally found its way into the hands of Avalon's luthiers, it had already lived a lifetime before a single note had been played.
And perhaps that is the true wonder of instruments such as these.
We often speak about tonewoods in terms of species, density, resonance and projection, yet those words tell only part of the story. What we are really hearing is the patient work of time itself. Every vibration passes through timber that has witnessed far more than any musician ever will. Every note carries with it a history that cannot be manufactured, accelerated or artificially recreated.
To play either of these guitars is to become the latest custodian of a story that began long before our own. Long before reviews, specifications and model numbers. Long before today's debates about craftsmanship and construction. These instruments are not simply products of exceptional lutherie; they are the final chapter in lives that began as towering giants of the forest, and the first chapter in a musical journey that may continue for generations yet to come.
So who wins this battle?
The truth is that neither guitar defeats the other.
The Taylor stands as a celebration of innovation, rediscovery and extraordinary natural beauty. The Avalon stands as a monument to patience, heritage and the quiet confidence that only age can bestow. Each represents a different philosophy of guitar making, yet both arrive at the same destination: instruments capable of inspiring musicians for a lifetime.
Perhaps the real victor has been standing silently in the background all along.
The forest.
For in the end, it is not the luthier, the workshop or even the musician that writes the opening chapter of a truly great guitar.
It is the tree.
And these two ancient giants have already written stories that will continue to resonate long after the final chord has faded into silence.
From the Musicmaker Workshop
We love writing comparisons like this because they remind us that great guitars are about far more than specifications. They're about craftsmanship, history, remarkable tonewoods and the stories hidden inside every piece of timber. Whether it's reclaimed Sinker Redwood, spectacular Bocote or 135-year-old Brazilian Mahogany, these aren't just materials—they're chapters in a musical story that continues every time somebody picks up the guitar and plays.
More details on the mighty Harvester HERE.
More details on the rare and exquisite S12 HERE.
