Taylor Guitars is proud to unveil the Grand Pacific, a round-shoulder dreadnought that brings an inspiring new sonic personality to the dreadnought category and the Taylor line. The new body style is the latest offering from Taylor master guitar designer Andy Powers.
Built on the tone-shaping promise of our award-winning V-Class bracing, the Grand Pacific design was inspired by classic acoustic recordings and guided by Taylor’s passion for innovation and expressive acoustic sound.
A New Era of Taylor Tone
When most players think of the “Taylor sound,” they imagine a modern, articulate tone, with sparkling highs and crisp, well-defined notes that maintain clear separation even when played in chords. It’s a sound typically associated with Taylor’s proprietary Grand Auditorium body style, which has become hugely popular around the world.
The Grand Pacific delivers a different kind of tone. Between the carefully calibrated contours of the body (including the wider waist associated with dreadnought-style guitars along with its rounded shoulders) and the V-Class architecture, Andy Powers was able to reshape the sound of the notes. Compared to the note separation of the Grand Auditorium, the Grand Pacific produces broader, rounder notes that overlap and blend into a warm, seasoned sound.
Refining the Dreadnought Shape and Sound
In a dreadnought category known for traditional, legacy models, the Grand Pacific introduces a voice that manages to be both familiar and unique.
“I wasn’t interested in building another version of an existing dreadnought,” says Powers of the design. “Those guitars already exist. This guitar makes sounds that are deeply familiar yet unattainable with any other guitar. With the help of our V-Class bracing architecture, we’ve captured everything we love about a venerable acoustic guitar sound and added other sonic improvements that we think will appeal to a wide array of players.”
Among the improvements is greater clarity in the low end, compared to the muddy bass frequencies often associated with wider-waist dreadnought-style guitars. The Grand Pacific produces clear low-end power, creating a more musical, more usable tone in every setting: recording, live performance, even practice sessions. Together with the other fundamental sonic improvements of V-Class—more volume and projection, longer sustain, cleaner intonation, and more tonal consistency from top to bottom—the Grand Pacific brings broader versatility to a dreadnought-style guitar, promising to satisfy players across many genres and musical styles. The feedback Andy has received from artists who played prototype models backs this up.
“Initially, I thought the traditional players will dig this,” Powers shares. “Well, they did, and they wanted to claim it for themselves—‘Finally you built one for me,’ they’d say. But at the other end of the stylistic spectrum, the super modern players like Edge from U2 were saying, ‘Yeah, I like this one.’ [The Edge played a Grand Pacific prototype on U2’s most recent tour.] And all the modern fingerstyle folks were saying, ‘Wow, I don’t like dreadnoughts, but I love this guitar. This is great.’”
Grand Pacific Guitars
We’re launching the Grand Pacific body shape with three guitars.
Builder’s Edition 717
Our Builder’s Edition models showcase player-friendly features not found in our standard models. With the 717, the pairing of rosewood and torrefied spruce, together with our Grand Pacific body contours and V-Class bracing, take the natural harmonic complexity of rosewood to another level. Every note resonates with thick, rich power. A new compound-carve neck profile with rolled fretboard edges naturally complement your hand position for smooth playing comfort.
Builder’s Edition 517
Mahogany’s strong fundamental focus and midrange presence, together with the played-in sound of a torrefied spruce top, add up to an inspiring mix of warmth, clarity and tonal balance on this Builder’s Edition Grand Pacific. V-Class bracing enhances mahogany’s dry, woody character, while the refined contouring of the neck, body edges, and bridge serve up a player-friendly feel that will coax expressive acoustic tone from the hands of any style of musician.
317
For players craving the tonal warmth and power of the Grand Pacific in its most accessible form, the sapele/spruce 317e delivers. Sapele’s voice occupies the sweet spot between rosewood’s rich overtones and mahogany’s dry, woody sound. With our V-Class bracing, this Grand Pacific makes a dynamic and versatile guitar that’s perfect for performance with vocals or other musicians.
