Earlier this year, we debuted our Gold Label Collection, a new family of guitars that blends contemporary design elements with a heritage sound unlike anything Taylor has ever offered before. The collection launched with a pair of models featuring the Super Auditorium body, a new shape crafted on the foundation of our ultra-popular Grand Auditorium frame with slightly increased dimensions that help produce that rich, warm old-school voice.
Now, we’re thrilled to expand the Gold Label Collection with another pair of new models: the mahogany/torrefied spruce Gold Label 517e and rosewood/torrefied spruce Gold Label 717e, both featuring a modified version of our Grand Pacific body shape. Like their predecessors, this second wave of Gold Label guitars continues to explore a warm, deep, open response that’s sure to surprise players familiar with the modern Taylor sound.
Grand Pacific, Golden Tone: A Deeper Body for a Deeper Voice
These new Gold Label guitars match the footprint of our Grand Pacific body shape, a round-shoulder dreadnought designed to produce a rounded, blended sound with clear low-end power and less of the “woofy” character that players and recording engineers sometimes find frustrating about dreadnought guitars.
However, the Gold Label variant of the Grand Pacific shape boasts a body that’s ⅜-inch deeper than the standard version of the body, lending it a larger lung capacity and a deeper resonant frequency. For players and audiences, this means an even fuller low-end response with increased power and projection across the frequency spectrum without losing clarity and articulation.
Like their Super Auditorium counterparts, the Gold Label 517e and Gold Label 717e feature fanned V-Class bracing, a modified take on our revolutionary interior voicing framework that adds more midrange punch and depth while also contributing the exceptional volume, sustain and pitch accuracy inherent to the V-Class architecture.
“Compared to the Super Auditorium body, the curves and depth of the Grand Pacific produce even more volume and tonal dimension,” says Andy Powers, Taylor’s Chief Guitar Designer, President and CEO. “Its voice is earthy, honest and uncomplicated. It’s a reliable acoustic workhorse — both seasoned and soulful.”
The Action Control Neck™: Rich Sound Meets Unmatched Adjustability
Another crucial element distinguishing our Gold Label guitars is the new Action Control Neck, which combines the tone-enhancing characteristics of a long-tenon joint with an innovative shimless heel structure that allows for precise microadjustments to string height in seconds. Players and techs can adjust the action on a Gold Label guitar by turning a bolt in the neck block (accessible through the soundhole) with a quarter-inch nut driver or standard truss rod wrench—without removing the strings or the neck.
Grand Pacific Gold Label Appointments: Distinctive, Yet Understated
The Gold Label 517e and Gold Label 717e both feature the modified headstock shape that we introduced with the first wave of Gold Label guitars, which consists of an angled back cut and script-style Taylor logo inlay. These models feature a new pickguard shape as well as a Curve Wing bridge in Honduran rosewood, also matching their Super Auditorium siblings.
Other details include:
- A cream-colored Crest inlay motif with simple dot/diamond fretboard markers
- Cream-colored binding with black/white top purfling and a cream/black rosette with black/white purfling
- Taylor nickel tuning machines
- LR Baggs Element VTC electronics
- Full-body gloss finishes
- Indian rosewood bridge pins
- D’Addario XS Coated Phosphor Bronze Light strings
- Taylor Deluxe Hardshell Cases with British Cocoa vinyl exterior
Both the Gold Label 517e and the Gold Label 717e are available in four unique visual configurations:
- Natural finish with firestripe pickguard
- Blacktop finish with cream-colored pickguard
- Sunburst finish with firestripe pickguard
- Sunburst finish with cream-colored pickguard
Meet the New Gold Label Guitars
Gold Label 517e
Key Specs:
- Back/side wood: Mahogany
- Top wood: Torrefied Spruce
- Neck: Mahogany
- Nut width: 1-¾”
- Scale length: 25-½”
- Electronics: LR Baggs Element VTC
Blending the old-school voice of the deeper Grand Pacific body with the classic tonewood pairing of mahogany with torrefied spruce, the Gold Label 517e serves up a dry, woody voice with minimal overtones and a strong fundamental focus. (Pictured: Gold Label 517e SB)
Gold Label 717e
Key Specs:
- Back/side wood: Indian Rosewood
- Top wood: Torrefied Spruce
- Neck: Mahogany
- Nut width: 1-¾”
- Scale length: 25-½”
- Electronics: LR Baggs Element VTC
The beloved combination of Indian rosewood with spruce here yields a deep, richly textured response with a robust low-end character, articulate trebles and exceptional warmth and power across the frequency spectrum. Players can expect an extra dash of played-in sweetness thanks to our proprietary roasting process for the spruce top.
Gold Label guitars are available exclusively at authorized Taylor dealers, and you’ll find these Grand Pacific models in stores this summer.
