Available Now at Northeast Music Center!

Taylor Academy 12e-N  Nylon String Acoustic/Electric Guitar(s/n: 2206156028)!  Guitar comes with Taylor GigBag!

Nylon-String Warmth Without the Traditional Classical-Guitar Learning Curve

The Taylor Academy 12e-N is one of those guitars that makes an enormous amount of sense the moment you understand what Taylor was trying to accomplish.

This isn't simply an inexpensive classical guitar.

It's a Taylor-designed nylon-string crossover created to make the warmth and expressive character of nylon strings comfortable and accessible to a much wider range of players.

Available now at Northeast Music Center, this individual Academy 12e-N—serial number 2206156028—combines a solid Lutz spruce top, layered sapele back and sides, compact Grand Concert body, player-friendly armrest, radiused ebony fingerboard and onboard ES-B electronics.

And it comes complete with its Taylor gig bag.

For a beginning guitarist, it offers a comfortable platform on which to learn.

For an experienced steel-string or electric player, it opens the door to an entirely different family of sounds without forcing you onto the extremely wide, flat neck of a traditional classical instrument.

That's what makes the Academy 12e-N so interesting.

A Nylon-String Guitar Designed Around the Player

Taylor created the Academy Series around a straightforward idea:

Learning guitar is difficult enough. The instrument shouldn't make it harder.

That philosophy is particularly effective on the Academy 12e-N.

Traditional classical guitars have their own established design language, including wide necks and flat fingerboards. Those features make perfect sense for traditional classical technique, but they can feel unfamiliar to players coming from electric and steel-string acoustic guitars.

Taylor takes a different approach.

The Academy 12e-N retains the additional string spacing that makes fingerstyle nylon playing comfortable, but combines it with a radiused fingerboard, familiar Taylor neck feel and compact Grand Concert body.

The result is immediately approachable.

You don't have to be a classical guitarist to enjoy this guitar.

In fact, that's one of its greatest strengths.

Solid Lutz Spruce Top

At the heart of this particular generation of Academy 12e-N is a solid Lutz spruce top.

That's an important feature at this price level.

The top is the primary vibrating surface of an acoustic guitar, and using solid spruce gives the instrument the responsiveness, projection and articulation needed to make the most of nylon strings.

Lutz spruce provides a strong combination of clarity and dynamic response.

With nylon strings, that translates into an acoustic voice that can be warm and rounded without becoming indistinct.

Use a light fingerstyle touch and individual notes can sound intimate and expressive.

Increase your attack and the solid spruce soundboard responds with greater projection.

Whether you're learning traditional fingerstyle technique or simply using the guitar to bring a softer texture into contemporary music, the solid top gives the Academy 12e-N a genuine musical voice.

Layered Sapele Back & Sides

Taylor pairs the solid Lutz spruce soundboard with layered sapele back and sides.

Sapele's warm reddish-brown appearance gives the guitar an understated, natural look, while Taylor's layered construction creates a practical and durable body.

That makes perfect sense for an Academy Series instrument.

This guitar isn't supposed to intimidate you.

It's supposed to be played.

Keep it next to the couch.

Take it to lessons.

Bring it to rehearsal.

Put it in the included Taylor gig bag and take it to a songwriting session.

Plug it in for a performance.

The Academy 12e-N is built around usefulness rather than excess, and that's a large part of its appeal.

Grand Concert Comfort

Taylor uses its compact Grand Concert-inspired body proportions for the Academy 12e-N.

For a nylon-string guitar, it's an excellent choice.

The smaller body sits comfortably against the player and produces a clear, articulate response that works beautifully with fingerstyle playing.

It also makes the guitar less physically intimidating for newer players.

That matters more than many specification sheets acknowledge.

If an instrument is awkward to hold, uncomfortable against your body or simply feels too large, you're less likely to pick it up.

The Academy 12e-N does the opposite.

It invites you to play.

Built-In Armrest — A Small Feature That Makes a Big Difference

One of the smartest features of Taylor's Academy design is the integrated armrest.

Rather than leaving a hard body edge exactly where your picking arm naturally rests, Taylor softens that contact point to create a more comfortable playing position.

It sounds like a small detail.

Spend an hour with the guitar and it doesn't feel small anymore.

For a beginning guitarist, comfort can mean longer and more productive practice sessions.

For an experienced player, it simply makes the guitar more pleasant to live with.

Taylor could have treated an armrest as a luxury feature reserved for expensive instruments.

Instead, the Academy philosophy puts comfort where it arguably matters most: on a guitar designed to encourage people to keep playing.

1-7/8" Nut Width — Room to Play Without Going Full Classical

The 1-7/8" nut width is one of the most important specifications on the Academy 12e-N.

It's wider than a typical Taylor steel-string acoustic, giving your picking-hand fingers additional room to work between the nylon strings.

But it doesn't go all the way to the feel of many traditional classical-guitar necks.

That middle ground is exactly what makes this guitar so approachable.

Players interested in fingerstyle get useful string spacing.

Steel-string and electric players get a neck that doesn't feel completely foreign.

Beginning players get room to develop clean fretting and picking technique.

Taylor has essentially created a bridge between a contemporary acoustic neck and the traditional nylon-string world.

25-1/2" Scale Length

Unlike the shorter-scale steel-string Academy models of this generation, the Academy 12e-N uses a 25-1/2" scale length.

That longer scale works particularly well with nylon strings and helps provide the response and feel Taylor intended for this crossover design.

Combined with the wider nut and radiused fingerboard, it gives the guitar its own distinct playing personality.

This isn't simply an Academy 12 with nylon strings installed.

It's a purpose-built nylon-string instrument.

West African Crelicam Ebony Fingerboard & Bridge

Taylor equips the Academy 12e-N with a West African Crelicam ebony fingerboard and bridge.

That's another impressive detail on a guitar designed around accessibility and value.

The ebony fingerboard provides a smooth, substantial surface beneath the fretting hand while contributing to the clean Taylor aesthetic.

For us at Northeast Music Center, these are the kinds of specifications that help separate a genuinely good first instrument from something a player will quickly outgrow.

Affordable shouldn't have to mean disposable.

The Academy 12e-N is designed to remain musically useful long after the beginner stage is over.

Nylon Strings Aren't Just for Classical Music

This may be the most important thing to understand about the Academy 12e-N:

You don't need to play classical music to want one.

Nylon strings can completely change the character of familiar musical ideas.

A chord progression you've played hundreds of times on a steel-string suddenly becomes warmer and softer.

Fingerpicked passages take on a rounder attack.

Jazz voicings can sound beautiful.

Latin and Brazilian-inspired styles naturally feel at home.

Pop arrangements gain another texture.

Singer-songwriter material can become more intimate.

And in the studio, a nylon-string guitar can occupy a completely different space from your steel-string and electric guitars.

Sometimes the best reason to buy another guitar isn't because it does what your current guitar does better.

It's because it makes you play something different.

A Great Songwriting Tool

That's why we think experienced players should pay attention to the Academy 12e-N too.

Pick up a nylon-string guitar after years of playing steel strings and your hands often start approaching the instrument differently.

You may play softer.

You may leave more space.

You may hear chord voicings differently.

You may write something you wouldn't have written on your normal acoustic.

At Northeast Music Center, we don't look at the Academy Series as being exclusively for beginners.

A comfortable, affordable guitar with a genuinely different voice can be an extremely useful instrument regardless of how long you've been playing.

ES-B Electronics with Built-In Tuner

The "e" in Academy 12e-N means this guitar is ready to plug in.

Taylor equips this generation with ES-B electronics, giving players a factory-installed system for amplified performance along with a convenient built-in digital chromatic tuner.

That dramatically expands what you can do with the guitar.

Use it acoustically for practice and songwriting.

Plug it into an appropriate acoustic amplifier or PA for rehearsal.

Take it onto the stage.

Use the onboard tuner between songs.

For a player purchasing their first acoustic-electric, having all of this built into the instrument keeps things simple.

For an experienced guitarist, it makes the Academy 12e-N an easy nylon-string guitar to add to a live rig without having to modify it first.

An Excellent First Guitar—and Much More Than a Beginner Guitar

Taylor's Academy Series was designed with developing players in mind, but that shouldn't be mistaken for meaning these guitars are only useful for beginners.

There's a difference.

A beginning player benefits from the comfortable body, armrest, approachable neck and nylon-string feel.

But an experienced guitarist can appreciate those exact same qualities.

The difference is what you do with them.

This can be someone's first serious guitar.

It can also be the tenth guitar in a collection—the one you grab because you need the warmth of nylon strings for a song, recording or performance.

That's a lot of usefulness from one very approachable instrument.

Why Buy Your Taylor from Northeast Music Center?

At Northeast Music Center, we're proud to be an Authorized Taylor Dealer and the only authorized Taylor store within approximately 100 miles of our location.

That relationship gives our customers the opportunity to purchase Taylor guitars from a real independent music store where guitars aren't simply inventory numbers.

We understand that someone shopping for an Academy 12e-N may be buying their very first guitar.

We also understand that the customer may have been playing for 30 years and simply wants a good nylon-string instrument to add another voice to the collection.

Both deserve the same attention.

At Northeast Music Center, our approach is knowledgeable and low pressure.

We want you to understand what the guitar does, why its design matters and whether it makes sense for the way you want to play.

And whenever possible, we identify the exact instrument we're selling.

This guitar is Taylor Academy 12e-N serial number 2206156028.

That's the guitar being offered.

Whether you're visiting Northeast Music Center in person or purchasing online from across the country, our goal is to provide the same kind of personal experience you'd expect if you were standing in the store with us.

Because a great first guitar can start a lifetime of playing.

And a great tenth guitar can inspire something completely new.

Specifications: General

• Manufacturer: Taylor Guitars
• Model: Academy 12e-N
• Series: Academy Series
• Serial Number: 2206156028
• Instrument Type: Nylon-String Acoustic/Electric
• Orientation: Right-Handed
• Number of Strings: 6
• Body Style: Grand Concert
• Cutaway: Non-Cutaway
• Armrest: Yes
• Electronics: Taylor ES-B
• Built-In Tuner: Yes
• Case/Bag: Taylor Gig Bag Included

Body

• Top Wood: Solid Lutz Spruce
• Back & Sides: Layered Sapele
• Back Configuration: Layered
• Body Style: Grand Concert
• Cutaway: Non-Cutaway
• Armrest: Integrated Armrest
• Body Finish: Matte
• Body Binding: None
• Rosette: 3-Ring Baltic Birch
• Pickguard: None

Neck

• Neck Wood: Mahogany
• Fingerboard: West African Crelicam Ebony
• Fingerboard Radius: Radiused
• Fingerboard Inlays: 4mm Italian Acrylic Dots
• Scale Length: 25-1/2"
• Nut Width: 1-7/8"
• Neck Finish: Matte

Peghead

• Peghead Type: Slot Head
• Peghead Binding: None

Hardware

• Bridge: West African Crelicam Ebony
• Saddle: Micarta
• Bridge Pins: None
• Strings: D'Addario Pro-Arté Carbon Nylon

Electronics

• Electronics: Taylor ES-B
• Built-In Tuner: Digital Chromatic Tuner
• Application: Acoustic Amplification / Live Performance

An Easy Way Into the Nylon-String World

The beauty of the Taylor Academy 12e-N is that it doesn't demand that you become a different kind of guitarist before you can enjoy it.

Taylor takes the expressive qualities players love about nylon strings and places them inside a comfortable, approachable instrument.

You get:

A solid Lutz spruce top for projection, articulation and dynamic response.

Layered sapele back and sides for durability and practicality.

A comfortable Grand Concert body that sits naturally against the player.

An integrated armrest that softens the body's contact point against your picking arm.

A 1-7/8" nut width that gives nylon strings room without the extreme width of many traditional classical necks.

A radiused West African Crelicam ebony fingerboard for a more familiar contemporary feel.

A 25-1/2" scale designed specifically around the nylon-string platform.

ES-B electronics and a built-in tuner for amplified playing.

And a Taylor gig bag to protect it when you're ready to go.

For the beginning guitarist, it's a thoughtfully designed instrument that removes unnecessary obstacles.

For the experienced guitarist, it's an affordable way to add the warmth and musical personality of nylon strings to your collection.

And for the songwriter, it may be exactly the change of voice that inspires the next song.

Taylor Academy 12e-N serial number 2206156028 is available now at Northeast Music Center.

Sometimes making guitar easier to play is exactly what makes you want to play more.