Meet Lauren's NEW Guitar!!!! | Crafter VS ????

Texas. Howdy from Texas. Well, got a little special surprise for you guys. Before it pops up in any videos, we recorded some new videos. I want you to meet my, my new friend here that I'm going to tune up. Still have the crafter. Don't worry, she hasn't gone out to pasture. Early evening in the uk. Chicago, New Orleans. Nice. Scotland. Fantastic. People from all around the world. I've always find this so fascinating that I get to talk to you guys from all around the world. Arkansas. I think that's the first time I've seen Arkansas. That's awesome. Colorado.

One of my business coaches and good friends lives out in Colorado. The North Park.

Tune this baby up. So as you guys can see, no, I didn't get a Martin. Nope. I didn't get a Gibson. It's not an electric. It's actually a Taylor. I've never owned a Taylor before. So we have this, this beautiful Taylor guitar.

That I'm gonna, I'm gonna share with you guys today.

Bonnie, Scotland. Maan, Georgia. India. Wow. We have someone from India in the house. Forth Worth, Texas. I have a friend that's from Fort Worth. Pan White Lake, Michigan. Wow, new guitar. Yes, this is the new guitar. So this is a, a Taylor 324ce builders edition model. And for some of you, I'll tell you the, the story because it's part of what this live is, is me going and telling you a little bit about and why I ended up with this guitar is I haven't bought a guitar. The last guitar that I actually bought was this crafter, the one that you guys see me use in all of my, all of my videos, all of my tutorials. And I bought this guitar probably about 10 years ago. And so when I bought this guitar I wasn't, you know, wasn't really making a lot of money playing original songs. And so this, this guitar, you know, cost me $1,200, which for me at the time was a lot of money. Couldn't afford to buy a really nice Taylor guitar. But I ended up buying this crafter because the gentleman who sold it to me, he said, you know, these, these crafters are built very similar to Taylor's. They sound great. Everyone comments. They love the sound of this guitar. They sound great and you know, they're well made. So I was like, cool, I'm sold. Plus I really. Hey, Jack Waters in the house. First super chat donation. Thank you so much, Jack. The reason this crafter really stuck out to me was the hummingbird inlay here. That's Why I ended up buying this guitar because one of my recommendations or one of my requirements is not my guitar has to look cool. Not only does it have to sound cool, it has to look cool. And I do. Everyone, I get lots of comments on this crafter about those inlays, the hummingbird inlay. So that was a really a big thing for me. Yeah. And if anyone, if you want to hop up on the top of the chat, super chat donations, if you're enjoying the lessons and want to support the channel, feel free to go ahead and make those super chats. We do appreciate those here. So this, this crafter, you know, I went and reached out to my rep at Sweetwater. If you guys don't know Sweetwater, they are a great company. I have never ever ordered a guitar online before. That was usually I go into a store and I play them, played them all in person and then I, I purchased them. Because you get a feel for the guitar, right? So I called my friend, I said, you know, I'm, I'm having a live event. So if you guys don't know, I have a live event coming up in August in Boston here where people are going to come out. It's a weekend where we're going to play guitar. And I said, you know, I have this live event coming up in August and I want a new guitar for the event. And he said, well, what are you looking at? And I said, I have no clue. I really didn't know what I was going to end up with. And he said, you know what? He said, you know what this is? Let me show you a guitar that's very similar. I told him, I said, I want it to be similar to my crafter. You can see body size here. Okay. I like these are what we call grand auditorium size guitars. They're not dreadnoughts. Dreadnoughts are a little bit bigger and they're also what we call the om style. So you can see they have a little bit more hips to them. Okay. I like hips in my guitars. They're not flat. Like a dreadnought has a little bit of a flatter design and it has to have a cutaway. And I told them I liked really warm, warm sounding guitars. That was a requirement. And they said it had to look cool, it had to have a wow factor. So he showed me this guitar and I was like, oh, I didn't know Taylor made guitars like this that are really a tailor for the teach. That's right, Zane. A tailor for the teach. So he sent me a Bunch of videos. He played it, and he's a much better guitar player than I am. He played a bunch of videos and sent me tons and tons of pictures. And he said, this is the guitar I would buy if I was going to buy my next guitar. And I said, you know what? I was like, let's do it. Let's go for. I'm gonna. I'm gonna go on and trust your opinion. I'm gonna trust your opinion. So here's this guitar. I was surprised, let me tell you, when I took this guitar out of the box. It was in tune, out of the box. I was already impressed. But it's a very warm sound. It's actually warmer than my crafter. I'm gonna go between the two of them so that you guys can see. But listen to. It's a beautiful sounding.

And that's the thing I love about it. It has such great sustain in the. In the chamber, too. So when you're done playing, it just keeps ringing. It's really great. And it is easier to play, surprisingly, than my crafters. Slightly bit easier. The scale, I think, is the same. I think. I think I might have one extra fret. The sizing might be a little bit different. I think I have one extra fret on the crafter. The body size of this tailor is maybe like an eighth of an inch smaller than my crafter. And the other thing. That's really cool. I don't know if you guys can see it. There's like an angle cut. Let me see if I can go sideways here. Hard to see, but if you can see it. This is actually angled, and I like this. It's very comfortable for my arm instead of having just like a straight down here. So I find this very, very comfortable. That's. That's a cool difference between my crafter. But other than that, they're very, very similar. The action on this was set up really nice. I didn't really have to change anything. And this guitar comes standard. I asked him what it came standard with, so I could tell you guys come standard with Elixir Phosphor Bronze. These are actually 12s, and I usually play with 11s. Okay. So a little bit of a thinner string because it's easier for me to play bar chords with 11s and. But with 12s, I'm actually able to. I'm actually able to play bar chords pretty easily with this tailor. I think the bar chord. So I think this tailor is a little easier to play than my crafter. But this guitar also did cost Way more than my crafter. So. So I hope it would be easier to play, but no, she's a great guitar. Very easy to play. Don't worry, the crafter is not going out to pasture. She will keep showing up in videos. But I wanted to share this with you guys. So let me just. Again, let me just play this and I'm going to switch over the crafter so that you can hear the difference. You can't believe you guessed right, Charles. You did.

Let's do a little finger picking so you guys can hear.

Okay, so that's. That's The Tailor Taylor. 324 CE. Builders Edition. Builders edition. Very important here is the crafter. So you can see it's similar size. This is just. It's slightly thicker but not too much. But let's. Is it. Hopefully it's in tune. It is. Okay.

This has a slightly brighter tone to it. Right. Can you guys hear. I hope you guys can hear that through the microphone, because I got the microphone set up right here. I might even pull it a little closer so you guys can hear it. But.

So the, the treble, the bright tones come out a little bit more on this guitar. I also have phosphor bronze strings, so I think that's important. They're both phosphor bronze. These are the D' Addario phosphor bronze coated strings. Those are the elixir phosphor bronze. These strings are a little bit lighter. These are 11s. So, you know, the thicker the string, the better sound you get. But that's what I noticed with the Taylor, with the Taylor is that it's. There is a really well balanced between the high and the low and the mids. Very well balanced guitar. But you can hear if I, if I play this G, this bright G chord.

Very, very bright, bright tones. Let's jump back over to the Taylor. Very well balanced.

So here are. The bright tones. Don't jump out as much. It. It's got a. It's a very nicely balanced sound. And I. That's. That's the biggest thing that hit me when I first played. It was like, wow, this is a really well balanced instrument in terms of the tone. So these are things. And that's why. Yeah, it is a. Is a bit richer of a tone, Jerry. Absolutely. And. And this is why sometimes when recording artists go into a studio, they bring in multiple guitars because they all have different sounds and different tones. And sometimes you might want that brightness to come out more. So maybe you want a guitar that has more Bright tones. Or maybe you're playing a song that you want more of that balance. You know, if you're doing a finger picking song and you don't want those bright tones to stick out as much.

You can hear that, that, that treble doesn't pierce through as much. And, and if you guys remember when I had the zagger guitar and we did give that away because congratulations to Patty Hess. Patty Hess. I didn't even know Patty's from Massachusetts. So I mailed out the guitar yesterday to Patty and if she sends me a picture, I will post it in the community section for you guys to see the winner of our giveaway. So congratulations to Patty, who got that, that zagger guitar. And, and that guitar was even brighter than the Crafter. So it was three different, different sounds, three different guitars all made out of different woods. I forget what the, the Zagger guitar was made of. I have babinga wood on the Crafter. And this is made of what they call urban ash. So urban ash is Taylor took in his recycling trees from, you know, survivor trees from the forest fires or trees in, in downtown urban areas where they're diseased or, you know, they got. Or they're dying. They're coming to the end of their life cycle. They're taking these old trees and they're repurposing them. So it has a very, very unique sound to it. And it's called, it's called urban ash. But you guys can go on Taylor's website and read all about it, especially this model, the builder's edition, and learn about that. I thought that was really cool. So it's like giving a second life to a tree that was coming to the end of its life cycle. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It is a lovely, lovely looking guitar. Hi, Morgan, Must you help me out with my guitar? Do not know what to do about it. Hold on. What did it say? Need help? Oh, okay. I'm not sure what you need. Need help with, but I'm here to help you with your guitar because that's what we do on this channel. We make guitar makes sense. And I wanted to share this moment with you guys because like I said, I haven't gotten a new guitar in 10 years. It's been 10 years. And I thought as a reward for all the hard work I did, you know, the last couple years through the pandemic and getting the channel going, can you believe it, guys? We're almost at 200,000 subscribers on this channel. And I Owe it all to you guys. I owe it all to you because you guys come back here, you jump on the lives with me, you interact on the videos, you like the videos, you share them out, you comment.

So I truly, truly appreciate you guys being here with me and, and sharing in this journey with me. It really does mean a lot to me. So thank you so much. How have you gone 10 years without a new guitar? It's called being broke.

People have given me a lot of guitar. I've gotten a lot of free guitars over the years. You know, through the music school that people are like, here have a free, you know, here's a free guitar that they weren't using. But yeah, how did I honestly, I love this guitar, just so you know, I do love this crafter. It is part of me. You know, when you buy a guitar, when you buy a guitar, part of your soul goes into the guitar. And I've written many songs on this guitar. I've recorded two albums on this guitar. So I will, I will never get rid of the guitar because people are like, Lauren, give away the zagger or give away the crafter and keep the sagger. This guitar. I absolutely love this guitar. And even though this tailor is. Is lovely and beautiful because I've had this crafter so long, this is still my favorite guitar. But obviously this Taylor has different applications because of that warmth factor. It's a very, very beautiful guitar. And any songs that have bar chords, I'm probably going to give preference to the tailor just because it is a little easier to play than this crafter. And that might have to do with the bracing system. Mike Green, thank you so much for your. Your super chat donation. Really appreciate it. You guys are awesome. Land of New Zealand. Hello. So I, I love this guitar. And as I say, you're going to see the crafter popping up in videos, you're. Or the tailor popping up in videos, you're still going to see this crafter. The gretch will be there on the wall. You know, I did use the gretch, though. You guys are always like, lauren, get the gretch off the wall. So some of you may not know, I recently just finished recording an entire blues guitar course. I had so many people like Lauren, can you teach the blues? And you know, I will admit, you know, I know how to do the blues, but it was something I never went down the rabbit hole to learn a lot about. So I spent the last three months learning a lot about the blues and I recorded a whole course and the gretsch is front and center for the majority of that. Course, the Ibanez does come up on because I had to give the Ibanez some love too. But the Ibanez, the red one, I got all my guitars around me. I'm in like a little guitar cave. Like all my guitars are here. So this is my Ibanez. Let's just introduce you to them all. This is my Ibanez essay. This is actually my favorite electric and people like Lauren White. Isn't the Gretsch your favorite electric? They're both good for different reasons. Again, different sounds, different tones. This Ibanez is just so much easier to play, which is interesting because I paid probably like 6 or $700 for this Ibanez. That Gretch is probably like $3000. I did not buy that Gretch, just so you guys know. So that, that was a gift. So I did get a new guitar after the crafter, but. But this was, this was actually gifted to me by, by a student of mine. I don't know. You guys are awesome. Now you guys give me some crazy gifts. No, no one here on YouTube. This was an in person student that I had. They asked me, this was when I had. I own a music school, if you guys don't know. And I had a car crash. I had a car crash through my building. And it was probably one of the worst years of my life. It was horrible. You know, I had employees working for me. We were trying to keep this thing going. We moved the music school into my home. So imagine I had 150 students coming into my house every week. It was. It was crazy. So after we survived that, my student gave me this gift. He asked, he said, Lauren, what is like your dream guitar? And I said, I've always wanted a Gretch. And I said, you know, I really love. I love the Beatles. And I said, I really love a George Harrison duo jet. So one day we went out to lunch and he had this guitar case with him and this guitar was, was inside. So yeah, yes, I did say a car crashed through my building. Yes. We opened my music school in the Boston area in 2012. November 2012, September 2014. A car crashed through the front of the building and wipes the business out overnight. So that's why when Covid happened, I was actually pretty relaxed because I had already been through this. Okay. I didn't have the online stuff, but I mean, I had been through this. It was probably one of the most stressful periods of my life ever. The car crashed through My building. A few weeks later, my, my stepfather ended up passing away from cancer. And then a week or two before that, I was waiting to see if I had breast cancer. So all within like one month. And some of you may know I had Hodgkin's lymphoma when I was 16. So I had cancer when I was younger. So it's always that fear of, of the cancer coming back. So that was the year we were seeing if I had cancer again. So it was, it was qu doozy of a year. And for me, surviving that year, this student was gracious enough to recognize the work I had put in to keep my business going, to keep my employees working, and to make sure that the students still had a way to stick with their music lessons and keep up with it. So that was the result of that. So. So this was a newer guitar, but I didn't buy it for myself. So that the tailor is the first one I bought for myself. So there you go. So that is a giant story. I don't think I've ever told you guys all those stories. It's like story hour with Lauren. So I'm from the planet X. Oh, David, that is. You guys are awesome. Thank you, David, for the super chat. That is super sweet of you. You didn't have to do that.

Really appreciate it. Really appreciate all the support you guys give me. What year was that? The year that the car crashed? That was 2014. And something else. So if you live in the Boston area, you know that 2015 was the year of the snowpocalypse. That was the year that Boston got like 8ft of snow in like a month. So. So we had that on top of it. So you could see why I was under a lot of stress that year. But we survived and we reopened the school in Medford, Massachusetts. That's where I'm from. I'm from Medford and that school is still there. I rebuilt an entire school right across the street from the old one and we're still there today. And I'm forever grateful because we're still going and going strong. And I always tell students because students ask me all the time, Lauren, can you do a one on one lesson with me? I unfortunately, because I'm so busy with all this stuff with YouTube and everything else, I tell students I don't have time for private lessons. But if you wanted to take a one on one lesson with one of my teachers, LB Music School more than happy to provide you guys, you know, with some online 101. If you need a teacher to ask questions to LB Music School is where to go. And, you know, they're all my teachers vetted by me, so they're great people. Yeah. Life is absolutely a journey. And that's what I tell people. It's just like guitar. Guitar is a journey. Right? That's what I tell you guys. Guitar is a journey. And. And that's why when you get a new guitar, these old ones never go away. I have. My purple Ibanez is over there. I'd have to walk over to get to that one. It's interesting because when I hung all the guitars up on the wall, I hung them up in the progression that I bought them, that I got them. So down the far end is my first Ibanez ever that you guys saw in the Boat War video. So that was the first Ibanez I got when I was 16 years old. And then the next one is my purple Ibanez, which was the first guitar I ever bought myself. And that. That's an acoustic purple Ibanez. Electric. Acoustic electric. The next one was that red. That red Ibanez. I didn't own an electric. I mean, I had a Squire that that someone gave me for Christmas. I ended up buying the red electric because I wanted an electric guitar. Then came the Crafter, and now it's. And now it's the tailor. So that is the progression. How old am I now? I'm gonna be 39 next month. My birthday's coming up. So in. So what's that? 16 minus 39. 23 years. In 23 years of playing guitar, I have personally purchased 1, 2, 3, 4 guitars. I've personally purchased four guitars with my own money. And. And that's the thing. When you. When you love something like, I love this crafter. When you love something, you hold on to it and you. You treat it nice, right? So that's why, you know, people are like, why didn't you buy a guitar for 10 years? I just really did love my guitar. And there wasn't a guitar that I played that really spoke to me. Really spoke to me when, you know, like this, Taylor, when I first played it, and I was like, wow, that is a warm balance. You know, that's a warm balance sound coming out of that instrument. And I did the night I got this, I played the guitar all night, which I hadn't done in a long time. So it brought something out in me. There was, like, a new life. Because every guitar has a story, just like us. We're humans. We all have our own Stories. Every guitar has a story, and you don't know what songs you're gonna write with it or what songs you're gonna play with it or what adventures you're gonna have. So it's always a new experience when you get a new guitar. So, you know, if you're thinking about a new guitar and you're like, lauren, what. What should I get? What should be. What should I look in if I. If I want a new guitar? You know, I had acoustics, and I was like, I want an electric. That's how I ended up with the Ibanez. I was like, I want a good electric guitar. And I saw that one. I mean, this. I just thought this was so cool. I. I walked into the store, I mean, I kind of knew that this was what I was gonna go in because I've seen what they had in stock, and I was like, I just love the red and the tiger, like, the flame pattern. T. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thanks for being you. Well, thank you for being ut and always posting on. I see your comments all the time on the channel, so thank you for your super chat donation. Really appreciate that. So when I saw that red flame maple, I was like, I gotta have that guitar. I played it for, like, two seconds. At the time when I bought that, I could. I could. Didn't even really know how to play an electric guitar. I just knew I wanted one. One. So I bought that. And it. I liked it because I have my purple Ibanez. My purple Ibanez is. Is kind of like a flame top. Let me go grab it. I know you guys want to see it. Let me grab it. It's two seconds, but I gotta walk around the desk. Give me one second. I'll be right back, guys. So here we go.

Now this one. I don't really play this one this often, so I'm. It's. It's. The strings on here are very loose. Can you hear that?

So when. When I don't play a guitar often, I loosen up the strings so it's. It's healthier for the neck, for the. For the strings not to be tight, so I loosen them up. But this is my Ibanez, so you can see it has. It's like a purple flame. So I wanted the red flame. And you probably can't see it. It's hard to see. There's a little heart down here. So this guitar was actually signed by Brandi Carlisle, and they just did a Brandy Carlisle lesson. Everyone's been asking me. Some people have been asking Me to do a Brandy Carlisle lesson. So this is my purple Ibanez. I saw the. The Red Flame Ibanez, and I was like, that's going to be a great contrast to my. My purple guitar. So this was the first acoustic I ever bought myself. And you can see, again, this is the shape I like. This is the another grand auditorium style. Om hips. So you'll see. And the nice thing about this Ibanez, it has a slightly rounded back. You know, I never liked ovations because you'd hold the guitar and it would, like, slide down your leg. I love the sound of ovations, but I can't play them. I just. The rounded back kills me. But this one was nice because it had a rounded back. There's a curve. I don't know if you guys can see it, but there is a curve. It's a very, very comfortable guitar. I bet this is very similar in size to the tailor. Let me just put them side by side.

Believe it or not, this Ibanez is actually just a tiny bit smaller. I mean, it does bulge out in the back, but at the margins, the three, then the tailor's just. I mean, we're talking like eighth of an inch. Then the tail, the crafter. So, yeah, so this one also. My guitars are made in Korea. Taylor's obviously made in the US and those are better models. So if you're looking at guitars, look in the sound hole or look behind the neck. It will tell you where the guitar is made. Typically, guitars made in China are lower quality. The workmanship's a little bit lower. Kind of the next step up is guitars that are made in Korea or Japan. I don't think there's too many guitar companies that are made in Japan anymore. Ivan is used to, but the Korean models are kind of like the next step up. And then obviously, you know, Gretsch. I mean, their cheaper models are made in Korea, so it just, you know, and they have even cheaper mod. Their cheapest model, I think, is made in China. So it just goes to show you, when you're talking about price differences between guitars, it's gonna vary one depending on where it was made, the quality of the craftsmanship, the quality of the products. Let me tell you, I'm gonna. I've run out of stands. I'm just gonna leave it on the desk here. The. Look at my tuning pegs on this crafter. They're beautiful. You know, they're kind of like a. A pearl. A pearl tuning peg. The tuning pegs on this tailor. I swear you could kill someone with them. They're just like. I mean these are solid. Yeah, they're gotch. Gotch. Is that what it says on go to go to 121 gear ratio. So they stay. They're very precise tuning pegs. But I mean these are like pure metal. Like you could kill some of it. I was like, holy crap. These are, these are pretty solid. So you do get what you paid for. You do get what you paid for. Price differences. Now granted, some of these I bought a while ago. So this I bought maybe like 15 years ago. I paid about 500 for this, this Ibanez and played it for many years. I actually recorded an entire album with this guitar. The downside was it is an acoustic electric, so it has electronics. The downside, it didn't have a preamp which meant that when I played live, you'd have to jack the volume up here and on the pa so it didn't have a lot of power to it versus my crafter which has. These are, these are the L.R. bragg electronics. Actually the guy from Sweetwater who bought, who sold me the Taylor, he said he actually likes the electronics and the crafter better than the Taylor.

That's just a preference thing. I forget what the electronics are called. I'm still learning about Taylor and the stuff in their products. This crafter was about twelve hundred dollars ten years ago, so. Twelve hundred dollars ten years ago. And the guy told me, you know, if this were a tailor, he goes, it would probably be $2400 just because of the way it's worth. Goto goto. Thank you, Bruce. See, I learned new. You guys teach me new things every day too. Goto Goto tuners. Thank you. Yeah, I'm not. You guys are making me. You're turning me slowly into a tech person because you've asked me questions and I look stuff up. So I'm like learning all these new things about guitars that I never knew before. And then this crafter, the 324ce, the regular version is I think like maybe 2200, 2400. This is the builder's edition. I have no clue what that means. I'm not gonna lie. I don't even know the difference. He's just, this is the one I would buy. I'm like, okay, cool. So this in full transparency, this is a three thousand dollar guitar. So this is the most extensive guitar that I have ever purchased in my life. And I almost like sucked in my breath and was like, that's a lot of money. But as Many of you who are fans of the Taylor brand, I had a lot of students who said, you know, it hurts the first time when you buy it. It hurts but you have it forever. And, and as you can see, I keep my guitar. You know, I don't usually sell or give away guitars. Once I buy something, I own it. I have, that's why I don't have a lot of guitars. I mean I have five, I have five guitars here. Only one of them I don't really use anymore, the Ibanez because you know, it's, you know, I would prefer to play the crafter. Much easier to play. But I use these guitars, I will use them. So if I'm not using it, I would get rid of it. But I use what I buy. So just giving you guys some, some price differences, you know, in that Ibanez that over there, my first guitar was probably like a hundred bucks and it was a piece of crap. So $100 guitar, you know, 500 dollar, 1200, 3000. And, and there's a big difference between a thousand dollar guitar and a three thousand dollar guitar. There is a big difference between a 500 guitar and a twelve hundred dollar guitar. And once again there's a big difference between a 100 guitar and a 500 guitar. You do get what you pay for when it comes to guitars. So I always tell people if you, if you have money, don't skip, skimp out, get a better guitar. They are just easier to play. And I'm telling you I've been playing guitar for 20 plus years and this guitar is easy. Even though this is a 1200 guitar made very well and I have lighter strings, very good action. Whatever bracing system they use on this or however this is set up, it's easier to play than my crafter. And I can feel it on the bar chords. I can totally feel it on the bar chords.

It's just again, you get what you pay for. So thank you guys so much for, for joining me here for you know, the half hour or so and, and participating. I wanted to show you guys the new member of the family. I don't have a name, I don't usually name my guitars. It's just like the Ibanez, the crafter, the tailor, the scratch. So I don't name my guitars but maybe we should do a little post here on YouTube, a little poll and you guys can maybe come up with a name for the new Taylor. Maybe I will name my first guitar. So awesome guys. Have a wonderful, wonderful afternoon. Thank you so much for joining me and going through all of these guitars. I'll see you guys in a lesson video real soon. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a wonderful afternoon, wonderful evening, or morning, wherever you're calling in from. See you guys soon. Bye. Bye, everyone.