You’ve probably had this experience: you meet someone at a party, instantly hit it off, and before you know it you’ve been talking for an hour. That’s how you’ll feel after picking up any one of our four charismatic limited edition acoustic guitars at an authorized Taylor dealer.

Fans of a detail-rich aesthetic will appreciate our marriage of flamboyant blackheart sassafras with our lavish 900 Series specs, featuring a full complement of premium features that include an ebony armrest. Within our 700 Series, our acclaimed small-body 12-string/12-fret design platform is flavored with the rich tonewood pairing of Indian rosewood and Lutz spruce, and the result is pure acoustic magic. Our first-ever spruce-top Dreadnought baritone pairs ovangkol from our 400 Series with Engelmann spruce and debuts a gorgeous vintage-look tobacco color treatment. Finally, two robust-voiced tonewoods, Tasmanian blackwood and Lutz spruce, team up on a 300 Series Grand Auditorium that feels remarkably alive in all the right ways. Below you’ll find a more detailed description of each, plus a short video demo.

914ce LTD
Body: Grand Auditorium (w/Cutaway)
Back/Sides: Blackheart Sassafras
Top: Sitka Spruce

We’ve had a thing for blackheart sassafras ever since we sourced some wild-looking sets a few years back from a Tasmanian timber supplier who specializes in removing overmature trees from family farms. Each set of bookmatched blackheart tells a unique story, displaying an exotic tableau of variegated blond, hazel, pink and other subtle hues. Dark lines that run through the heartwood (hence the “blackheart” name) come from fungi that form in the tree after branches break off during storms, allowing water to drip down through the tree while it grows.

Sonically, the slow-growing hardwood’s tone profile is pleasantly intriguing: it blends the woody midrange warmth of mahogany, the focus of maple, and a chimey, breathy top-end clarity and sparkle reminiscent of rosewood. This mix of tonal flavors translates into a player-reflective musical personality.

“It goes where a player pushes it,” explained Taylor master guitar designer Andy Powers the last time we released a limited run of sassafras guitars. “Depending on the player, a person might bring out more of a mahogany sound, or rosewood, maple, walnut or even something else.”

For this release we’ve chosen to feature our versatile Grand Auditorium shape, we’ve paired it with Sitka spruce, and dressed it in our 900 Series finest. That means tone-enhancing touches like Advanced Performance bracing, the use of protein glue, side braces, optimized wood thicknesses (in this case featuring subtly different dimensions for the sassafras back and sides than the rosewood used on a standard 914ce due to the different weights and densities of each wood), and our thin 3.5-mil gloss finish. Because the bracing scheme is borrowed from our pattern for a rosewood 914ce, it tends to coax a little more rosewood-like tonal flavor from the guitar. The voicing package also rewards players with a richer, more dynamic response.

Another inviting 900 Series feature is our beveled ebony armrest, which combines premium playing comfort with a luxurious look. Together with the ebony binding it visually complements the black veins that run through the sassafras back and sides. Other detail-rich appointments include paua and koa edge trim, with koa purfling along the fretboard and peghead.

752ce LTD
Body: Grand Concert 12-fret (w/ Cutaway)
Back/Sides: Indian Rosewood
Top: Lutz Spruce

By now you’ve surely heard that our 12-string Grand Concert is something special. That’s because the combined platform of a 12-fret/12-string design with a small body has delivered an incredibly accessible 12-string playing experience. So it’s no wonder that our all-mahogany 12-string 562ce has been hailed as a game-changer among dealers, reviewers and players alike.

This delectable variation, the 752ce LTD, pairs Indian rosewood with Lutz spruce and churns out a mini-symphony of sound in a remarkably easy-to-play package.

“This basic design gives the player a lot of headroom and dynamic range,” Andy Powers says. “When you incorporate rosewood with a spruce top you get even more high-fidelity shimmer. Each note, or octave note, has a luxurious kind of response. With that overtone series emphasized, the sound is thick and broad. As a whole, you end up with this surprisingly dynamic presence from a small instrument.”

The compact Grand Concert body helps contain the richness of the woods and the 12-string voicing. The result is an expressive tonal character that emphasizes the chimey octave courses while still preserving the sonic balance and intimacy. One chord will seduce you.

The guitar sports an array of our wood-rich 700 Series appointments, including koa binding, a herringbone-style rosette with Douglas fir and maple, and our weathered brown pickguard.

410e Baritone-6 LTD
Body: Dreadnought
Back/Sides: Ovangkol
Top: Engelmann Spruce

The vast majority of the baritone guitars we’ve crafted feature our Grand Symphony body. The only baritone Dreadnought we’ve made (outside our Custom program) was a limited run in the spring of 2014, featuring sapele back and sides and a mahogany top. It was loaded with husky-voiced baritone character, and the natural compression of the hardwood mahogany top helped spread the sonic warmth and woodiness evenly across the tonal spectrum.

But we’ve never made a spruce-top baritone Dread — until now. This 400 Series edition pairs African ovangkol with Engelmann spruce. Andy enjoyed working with the woods and the Dreadnought form to forge a baritone with no shortage of personality, as he explains.

“Ovangkol is similar to rosewood in its tonal characteristics, with a little more control and midrange balance, which fits the baritone’s personality,” he says. “Paired with a spruce top, the guitar has a powerful attack, and a complex voicing. Formed as a Dreadnought body, which tends to emphasize a strong lower midrange presence, this recipe serves up one of the most powerful baritone guitars that we’ve made. It’s got a lot of gusto.”

To match the guitar’s deeper, rumbling sonic register (it’s tuned B to B), Andy chose a dusky, neo-vintage aesthetic treatment featuring a tobacco sunburst top with color-matched tobacco shading on the ovangkol back and sides. A gloss finish heightens the rich appearance of the deep brown color, reflecting subtle hints of ovangkol’s variegation to add visual depth. The mahogany neck also received the tobacco color treatment to match the back, with a satin finish for a smooth handfeel. White binding accents the Dreadnought’s contours and adds a crisp counterpoint against the tobacco shading.

“The overall look really suits the sound of this guitar,” Andy says. “And it sounds really good. I was playing it and found myself thinking, why haven’t we done this before?”

314ce LTD
Body: Grand Auditorium (w/Cutaway)
Back/Sides: Tasmanian Blackwood
Top: Lutz Spruce

“I love blackwood,” Andy declares as he reflects on this acoustic guitar. “Right now I think it’s my favorite back and side wood for a flattop.”

More and more players who’ve discovered our blackwood 300 Series guitars also love what they hear, thanks to the wood’s strong projection, warm and focused midrange, and top-end sparkle.

“It’s got enough of mahogany’s dryness and warmth, but with splash of shimmer and overtone color giving it a special something extra,” Andy says.

For this limited edition Grand Auditorium, Andy swapped the mahogany top we normally pair with blackwood for Lutz spruce, whose properties lend a dynamic boost to the overall acoustic output.

“Lutz is another wood that’s become one of my favorites, he says. “The quality of the material we’re using, the way it’s cut — it’s a spectacular top wood. It has all the qualities I’ve loved about old Adirondack spruce without being too stiff or dense.”

Pairing the two woods on this guitar, he says, translates into a tone profile that sits in a musical sweet spot.

“Both of these woods live in the middle of the tonal spectrum, which gives a guitar made from them a really engaging personality,” he says. “You put those ingredients together and they sound super appealing to almost every type of playing style.

Featured appointments include faux tortoise shell for the binding, rosette and pickguard, the return of our “Twisted Ovals” fretboard inlay scheme (used on the 600 Series for several years prior to 2015), and vibrant abalone bridge pin dots that add a pop of color against the ebony bridge.

Now it’s time to go test drive. Locate your local authorized Taylor Dealer here and happy strumming!