The folks at Taylor® Guitars haven’t slowed down in 2020 and in fact have been inspired to think outside the box and create new guitars with new features. Today, the California manufacturer debuts their newest model, the Grand Theater.
Known as the Taylor GT™, it has a few unique and interesting components to its storyline. Guitarists will immediately recognize the mid-size body places it right in between a compact GS Mini and the Grand Concert. It is the smallest of Taylor’s full-body shapes, making it ideal for grab-and-go moments or airline carry-on travel, yet still projects a full, rich sound.
“It felt like a whole other size category was hidden from existence,” said builder/designer Andy Powers. “I wanted to make something that was big enough to sound good, yet small enough to take comfort and playability to a fun new level.”
The GT also features their new C-Class bracing architecture, developed by Powers. The “C” refers to the cantilevered, asymmetrical design, which, according to Taylor, combines stiffness and flexibility in a way that helps accentuate the lower frequencies to produce a surprisingly warm bass response for its compact dimensions. This bracing borrows some of the functional benefits of Taylor’s V-Class® bracing, including greater stability, yielding impressive volume, sustain and intonation that sonically helps the guitar punch well above its weight.
“V-Class is intended to be very linear in how it responds over the whole register,” Powers explained in a statement. “Every note you play has a remarkably uniform characteristic. Working with this perfectly proportioned smaller body and string length, however, I wanted a more asymmetrical sonic response. With the asymmetrical architecture, I can exaggerate the guitar’s lower frequency response. It’s typically a challenge to make a small body respond well on the low end of the frequency spectrum — it doesn’t have as large a surface area to flex and move the air required. Using this altered bracing pattern, the response belies the overall smaller size, seriously upping the fun factor.”
The wood used in the new Taylor GT, coined Urban Ash™, was also sourced responsibly from trees in California that were at the end of their life. Sourced from Shamel ash trees scheduled for removal from municipal areas in Southern California, its tonal properties rival those of old-growth Honduran mahogany — dry, woody and clear, with pleasing midrange warmth. The GT also features a spruce top that is responsive to a light touch yet capable of impressive tonal output, offering players a dynamic and expressive musical palette to explore. The GT gives Taylor a platform to use another durable tonewood for its fretboard, bridge and peghead overlay — eucalyptus (also featured on Taylor’s new American Dream Series), which offers great potential alongside ebony. Its comparable weight and density are ideal for holding frets.
“The GT delivers a mix of super-nimble handling and a high-performance response, and it’s been refined to the degree that it becomes incredibly fun for everyone to play,” Powers noted. “The guitar’s comfortably compact proportions and low string tension make the GT the easiest-playing solid-wood guitar in the Taylor line — enabling longer playing sessions without hand fatigue.”
The new Taylor GT starts at $1,399 and will be available with and without electronics. A new durable and ultra-lightweight AeroCase is included with the guitar purchase.
For more info, visit: https://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/gt
