Introducing the Taylor GT - Taylor Guitar Blog

Here at Taylor, we’re always working to meet the needs of our players with guitars that inspire creativity and expression in a way that’s accessible for guitarists of all types. Now, we’re proud to announce yet another major development: the Taylor GT, an all-new acoustic guitar built to inspire players with its comfortably compact body proportions, ultra-playable neck, and bold acoustic voice. Crafted at the Taylor campus in El Cajon, California, the GT represents a new category of acoustic guitar in size, sound and design.

The Body

In recent years, more and more players have been drawn to the playing comfort of smaller-bodied guitars. Here at Taylor, we’ve been asked about producing some sort of modern parlor-style guitar or an all-solid-wood GS Mini. It was clear that there was a significant demand for a smaller guitar that offers a comfortable feel without sacrificing tone. But the truth is that, sonically, an all-solid GS Mini won’t produce a dramatically bigger or more complex sound. Instead, you need a guitar with a longer scale length.

Enter the Taylor GT (Grand Theater). With a body that’s slightly bigger than the GS Mini and shallower and shorter than Taylor’s Grand Concert, the GT borrows the basic footprint of our much larger Grand Orchestra shape, but it’s scaled down to dimensions that make it incredibly comfortable to hold and play.

The Neck

Like the scaled-down body, the GT’s player-friendly neck proportions make it one of the easiest-playing necks in the Taylor line. Its scale length of 24-⅛ inches sits between the GS Mini (23-½ inches) and the full-size Grand Concert (24-⅞ inches), with the classic slender Taylor profile that has helped generations of new players feel at home on an acoustic guitar. Players will love the reduced string tension, akin to playing a guitar with a 25-½-inch scale length tuned down a half-step to E-flat. With less tension, the GT feels slinky and relaxed, enabling longer playing sessions without fatigue. The condensed fret spacing also makes it easier to form more complex chords.

To further enhance the GT’s playing feel, we’ve built it with a nut width of 1-22/32 inches, which provides ample string spacing for holding chords and plucking melodies. The GT’s neck width lands between 1-11/16-inch and 1-¾-inch, the sweet spot for ideal playability with this guitar. After all, the GT is about having fun while you play, whether you’re a seasoned acoustic player or just learning your first chords.

Small Frame, Big Sound

We knew that designing a more compact guitar would only inspire players if it could deliver a bold, full-voiced sound. For starters, we chose to craft GT models exclusively with all-solid tonewoods, delivering the kind of vibrant, textured, musically complex tone that you would expect from virtually any other guitar built in our American complex.

Even more exciting is the new interior bracing scheme developed specifically for the GT, which we’re calling C-Class bracing. It’s influenced by many of the tone-boosting properties that have made our V-Class bracing such a game-changer in the acoustic world, enhancing the volume and sustain of the GT for a bigger, richer sound. The difference is its asymmetrical architecture, which helps emphasize the GT’s lower frequencies, producing a surprisingly rich bass response not typically possible from a small body. The result is a focused, sweet and punchy sound that sounds great when plugged in with our ES2 pickup and preamp.

The Models

The Taylor GT debuts with two new models: the GT Urban Ash and its acoustic-electric counterpart, the GTe Urban Ash. These models feature back and sides of responsibly sourced Shamel ash collected from trees scheduled for removal from California municipalities. Both guitars also feature a solid spruce top. The solid ash/spruce pairing produces a rich midrange response flanked by a warm low end and pristine trebles, with a wide dynamic range that responds to both a light touch and an aggressive attack.

Other unique features were selected for tone and aesthetics, including a smoked eucalyptus fretboard, whose visual character and texture resemble rosewood with a tone profile closer to ebony. An ultra-thin, water-based matte finish preserves the GT resonance while adding a slightly raw aesthetic, in which the texture of the ash grain can be felt through the finish. Visual appointments include a rich Urban Sienna stain for the back and sides, along with Pinnacle inlays in Italian acrylic and a three-ring koa rosette.

Each GT includes a lightweight, yet super-durable AeroCase™ for easy and safe transportation. To keep these models accessible to a wide range of players, they’re priced as the lowest solid-wood guitars in the Taylor line, alongside the American Dream Series, also released this year.