Top-End Taylor Acoustic Guitars
Published on 06 September 2024
Are you looking for a new Taylor guitar? Taylor are a brand who create gorgeous, contemporary guitars at a wide range of price points.
They have their numbered ranges that increase in prestige along with price, offering more features and better tonewoods as the range travels north. From the 100 series to the 900 series, there’s a lot to consider and choose from,
But that isn’t the whole story. Taylor offer a number of top-end paths to travel down too, for the player who wants a real ‘lifer’: an heirloom guitar that represents the very best that a company has to offer in terms of features, construction, beauty and tone.
That’s what I’m going to talk to you about today.
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Taylor Custom
Taylor Custom is where you can create something that isn’t offered in any of their production lines. You’ll be choosing from the best tonewoods, for sure, but also some rare, exceptional examples of those woods, for a guitar that’s beyond premium.
It’s all about individuality, so pairing unusual timbers is part of the fun, as are finishes, decorative elements (inlays, features like armrests etc) and more options, allowing for beautifully unique instruments.
Taylor’s own Andy Powers has this to say: “We love that each and every guitar player has unique aesthetic tastes and musical influences. Through our custom guitar program, a player has the opportunity to combine elements from a curated collection of body sizes, tonewoods and visual details to create a personalised, one-of-a-kind instrument that reflects their individuality.”
Taylor Custom instruments are like all other custom shops: their order books are always packed! Lead times for custom orders can be years long, so to counter this (and to provide beautiful guitars for sale in our stores), we order special runs of one-off Taylor custom guitars and simply wait for them! When we get a delivery, it’s for guitars we’ve actually ordered a year in advance! Skip the waiting line and choose from our specially curated Taylor Custom guitars. Here’s an example for you…
Taylor Custom Grand Auditorium Master Grade Koa
Is this Taylor Custom GA in Master Grade Koa one of the most stunning acoustics you’ve ever seen? Koa is a popular guitar tonewood (Taylor often uses it with their GS Mini guitars), but it is rarely seen with such clearly stunning figuring!
Tonally, Koa is often reported to have a similar sound to mahogany. All-Koa guitars like this therefore have a warm, rich sound that is great for gelling notes together. It’s a room-filling sound, even in this medium-sized Grand Auditorium body, and that GA shape is great for taming some of those midrange frequencies, adding a dash of sparkle to the sound.
I haven’t commented on the superlative inlay work, but I suppose it’s somewhat self-evident from the photos! The Koa was already pretty magnificent to comprehend, but this full-length fingerboard inlay definitely heaps on the ‘wow’ factor. Let it be said: this is NOT a guitar that should be living it’s life in a case or bank vault, okay?
Presentation Series
Taylor’s Presentation Series is their top-of-the-line range of production instruments. They are the most meticulously built instruments that Taylor offer outside of full-on Custom guitars. Put simply, Presentation Series guitars ARE Taylor Custom guitars, but the specs are decided upon by Taylor instead of by the customer or dealer.
In effect, this means the finest tonewoods, the most beautiful decorative work (with the best materials), attention to detail that’s to die for and a playing experience that’s unparalleled.
Taylor PS12ce 12 Fret
This lovely Presentation Series PS12ce ably demonstrates Taylor’s artistry. Everything is top tier, from the woods to the details. It’s a Grand Concert body with a 12 fret neck join and a very cool slotted headstock. Timber-wise we have a ‘sinker’ Redwood top (sinker wood is literally logs that have been recovered from riverbeds) and Honduran rosewood back & sides, a combination which is not only rare but also rich and deep sounding.
There’s a load of wonderful detail work here, not least the gobsmacking fingerboard inlay! This is made from both mother-of-pearl and paua, and the theme is repeated on the pickguard. There’s plenty of binding & purfling, and a beautiful armrest too. It’s a wonderful player and an absolute masterpiece to look at!
Taylor BTO
Taylor BTO stands for Built-To-Order, and it’s a very cool way of getting a guitar that is somewhat customised, at a far lesser cost than going for a full-on Taylor Custom guitar.
This is achieved by allowing only certain choices and parameters to work from, rather than the wide selection that Taylor Custom offers. Still, you can select sets of wood (tops and backs will be ‘pre-paired’, if you get me), choose the body type and pick out certain decorative elements.
For Taylor BTO guitars, we at guitarguitar will work with you to go through the options of what’s available. Once a spec is put together (we fill out a form with you), we liaise with our Taylor representative to check that it meets all of the required criteria (and to make sure that all of the options are still available!) and then it’s a matter of waiting for the guitar to be built!
As with Taylor Custom, we often become the customer, as it were, and order up some delicious BTO models for stock. These reflect what we’d love to see in existence, filtered through our knowledge of what customers tend to like. Hopefully that results in a small number of pretty special guitars, just like this one…
Taylor BTO Custom Grand Auditorium Sinker Redwood/Rosewood
The Grand Auditorium format is a great shape for most players: it’s large enough to project a good, rich tone, but it’s small enough to fit snugly under the arm. It’s perhaps the most versatile acoustic guitar body around, and so will reflect any changes made to the ‘ingredients’, as it were.
On this occasion, we have a lovely Taylor BTO Grand Auditorium with Sinker Redwood and Rosewood. That lovely sinker redwood has a sound that is rich and punchy, with some warmth underneath. There’s more resonance here than with non-sinker Redwood, and that is a great match for the Indian rosewood back and sides, which brings even more warmth and cut to the tone.
It’s a real looker too, with a matte black top alongside the natural timbers for a three-tone effect that is pretty spectacular. It’s quite an unusual look for Taylor, and one I wholeheartedly approve of!
Taylor Builder’s Edition
The Taylor Builder’s Edition is an ever-changing range of Taylor guitar that reflect the preferences of the builders themselves. Taking existing models, the Taylor artisans make subtle modifications to them: maybe they’ll change the bracing, or switch out tonewood combinations, or even add some visual decoration; each Builder’s Edition limited run is different, and reflects different preferences and playing styles.
By their very nature, Builder’s Edition guitars have no set-in-stone features: from model to model, you’ll see extra contours, armrests, headstock facings, different neck profile carves and more. Here’s a lovely Builder’s Edition for you to have a glance at…
Taylor Builder’s Edition 914ce Wild Honey Burst
How’s this for a gorgeous specimen? The Wild Honey Burst is a non-standard hue for one thing, and a lovely rich colour to boot. As I mentioned earlier, the style 14 Grand Auditorium body is a great starting point for modifying. This 914ce Builder's Edition has abalone purfling around the body and rosette, binding, lovely inlays and an armrest. As with many Taylor guitars, the beauty is of an understated nature, and complements the beautifully balanced tonal properties.
Best of the Best
How many masterpieces can one blog have? Taylor’s top end guitars are pretty breathtaking, and the only thing better than their looks is their sound. At this level, we’re talking about ‘guitar for life’ heirloom stuff, a fact that Taylor know only too well. Always fastidious in their attention to detail, Taylor really sweat the details with these magnificent instruments: the inlay work is astounding without (normally) being overly ostentatious, but then the timber choices often do the talking in this regard!
Taylor’s Custom, BTO, Presentation and Builder’s Edition guitars are testament to the art and beauty of guitar building.
