Video: Discover the Taylor Expression System 2

Taylor pickup designer David Hosler had been studying under-saddle piezo transducers and how they capture a guitar’s energy as it is transferred from the strings through the saddle and soundboard.

The industry’s prevailing understanding had been that the top and string vibration cause the saddle to “bounce” up and down.

This has long been the basis for the placement of a piezo-electric transducer under the saddle. But Hosler found that the vertical movement is heavily restricted because the string tension’s downward pressure essentially locks the saddle down.

That’s why a traditional under-saddle pickup with piezo-electric crystals often responds with a sound often characterized as thin, brittle or synthetic. In reality, the saddle’s natural range of movement is back and forth like a pendulum.

That revelation led Hosler to relocate the piezo crystals from under the saddle to behind it, just barely making contact with it.

The new positioning enables the crystals to respond more naturally to the guitar’s energy as it was transferred through the saddle.

Find out more at www.taylorguitars.com