The Academy 20e acoustic-electric guitar begins with the classic dreadnought body shape, in part because it’s a widely-recognized guitar shape that makes a good strumming and flatpicking guitar. Taylor borrowed the slightly smaller footprint of its famous Big Baby Taylor for comfort, but opted for a body depth that’s three-quarters of an inch deeper to give the guitar a fuller voice with more low-end response. The wood pairing is a solid walnut top with layered walnut back and sides, along with a beveled walnut armrest to add another level of comfort in the outstanding playing experience. This comfortable dreadought also includes the ES-B pickup system, which incorporates piezo design elements from the flagship Taylor ES2 system. It's powered by an onboard preamp that includes a built-in digital chromatic tuner, an LED display for tuning and low battery indication and tone sculpting 3-band EQ. Powered by a 9-Volt battery, the ES-B conserves battery life using a standard on/off system that will automatically turn off if left on over 3 minutes. A low battery indicator on the LED display (located on the preamp circuit board) will display an “L” when the battery reaches 4.5 volts.