Taylor Gold Label 517e Tropical Mahogany Acoustic-Electric Guitar - Natural

Grand Pacific Body: Built on the sonic engine of V-Class bracing and inspired by classic acoustic guitar recordings, the Grand Pacific is a round-shoulder dreadnought that ushers in a new era of Taylor tone.

• Warm, seasoned sound with powerful low-end presence


• Clear bass range without muddiness


• Round notes that blend seamlessly into a harmonic whole

Released in 2019 following the successful launch of Taylor's innovative bracing design, the Grand Pacific marks a departure from what many would consider the quintessential Taylor sound: bright individual notes that resonate separately, with plenty of high-end sparkle and and clarity.

The Grand Pacific boasts a dramatically different flavor of sound. Thanks to the contours of the shape (especially the wider waist) and the tone-shaping power of the V-Class architecture, notes are rounder and broader, overlapping to create a more blended sound with a warm, seasoned personality. The guitars also produce stunning power in the bass range, without the muddy, woofy characteristics that create sonic problems, making for a more musical, usable voice in virtually every application. 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.

With the launch of Taylor's Gold Label Collection, the Grand Pacific body has been adapted to be 3/8-inch deeper than the standard version. This modification applies exclusively to Gold Label models featuring the Grand Pacific shape and contributes to the exceptionally warm, powerful, open response of those guitars.

Grand Pacific Body Specifications: Body Length: 20" / Body Width: 16" / Body Depth: 5"

Tropical Mahogany: Mahogany is known for its meaty midrange character, featuring a strong fundamental focus often described as “punchy,” “woody,” or “dry,” because it doesn’t produce a lot of ringing overtones. Mahogany’s earthy voice has been featured on many roots music recordings over the years.

Origin: India/Guatemala

Sound: Mahogany is a good wood to anchor a discussion of tones, as a lot of other wood tones can be described in relation to it. Its essential sonic profile is well represented in the midrange frequencies. Acoustic guitars in general tend to live in the midrange portion of the sound spectrum, but mahogany in particular displays a lot of midrange character. That thick, present midrange sound is sometimes described in guitar circles as meaty, organic or even chewy; wherever a player digs in on the fretboard, they're tapping into the core of the harmonic content of what a guitar produces. Those great midrange frequencies produce overtones that stack up and produce bloom, giving the sound extra girth. When one hears the resulting harmonics, the chewy tone serves up a big mouthful of midrange. As a popular tonewood for many decades, mahogany has been used on scads of old school acoustic recordings, and that sonic heritage carries across various strains of roots music, from blues to folk to slack key.

Goes Well With: A broad range of players and musical styles; people who like a well-balanced tone, nice dynamic range and a healthy serving of overtones. Blues and other rootsy players tend to respond well to mahogany's midrange character. A smaller body mahogany guitar (GC or GA) might appeal to fingerstyle players, whereas more aggressive flatpickers might opt for a mahogany Dreadnought or GS. For versatility, a mahogany GA is a good bet. Because of mahogany's midrange, a player with "dark hands" will tend to sound darker on a mahogany guitar. A bright player will sound slightly less bright.

Long-Tenon Neck Joint: Taylor's proprietary long-tenon design features a tenon that protrudes beyond the neck heel and extends deeper into a precision-routed pocket in the body’s neck block. This changes the wood coupling in a way that’s comparable to traditional guitar necks. The long tenon increases the stiffness of the heel, which translates into more low-end resonance and a deeper, warmer, more open sound.

Instant Action Control: The Action Control Neck refines the micro-adjustability of Taylor's standard neck design with a new shimless design that allows a player to make easy, quick micro-adjustments to dial in the string height for any situation. You don’t have to remove the neck or even the strings.

Sitka Spruce Top Wood: As a guitar soundboard, or top, Sitka spruce is the tonewood standard of the modern era. It’s used on 85-90 percent of the guitars that Taylor makes. Its combination of strength and elasticity translates into a broad dynamic range, yielding crisp articulation and allowing for everything from aggressive strumming and flatpicking to fingerpicking. Sitka spruce is Bob Taylor’s personal favorite for an all-around great guitar.

Origin: Canada

Goes Well With: All styles of guitars and players.

LR Baggs - Element VTC: Taylor introduced the LR Baggs Element VTC acoustic pickup to Taylor's lineup with the Legacy and Gold Label collections, a choice that reflects the old-heritage sound and classic design inspiration of those guitars.

An undersaddle pickup similar to Taylor’s proprietary ES2 electronics, the Element system utilizes an ultra-thin sensor that minimizes the effect of string pressure and vibration on its tonal output, instead detecting sound from the movement of the guitar’s top. This results in a clear, warm voice that channels exceptional detail while dialing down the treble-range edge that players often associate with acoustic electronics.

VTC—Volume, Tone, Compression—refers to a studio-standard method of mixing acoustic sound that delivers remarkable warmth, balance and accuracy, mirroring the subtle changes in dynamics that give each player their signature sound. The Element VTC pickup boasts an onboard low-frequency compressor tuned specifically to the natural texture of acoustic guitar tone.

The Element VTC pickup features volume and tone controls tucked neatly under the top edge of the soundhole, making them nearly invisible to audiences—an ideal placement for musicians who prefer to preserve the traditional look of all-acoustic guitars. It is powered by a traditional 9-volt battery and includes an input jack mounted within the guitar’s end pin.

LR Baggs Element VTC pickups are manufactured in California.

General

• Number of Strings: 6 String


• Orientation: Right Handed


• Body Shape: Grand Pacific


• Bracing System: Fanned V-Class with Tonal Rout


• Color: Natural


• Electronics: LR Baggs - Element VTC


• Case/Bag: Gold Label Hardshell Case British Cocoa

Body

• Top Wood: Sitka Spruce


• Back/Side Wood: Neo-Tropical Mahogany


• Rosette: Cream (.075")/.032" Black/Cream (.075") Single Ring


• Back Configuration: 2-piece No Wedge


• Body Binding: Cream


• Armrest: None


• Top Finish: Gloss


• Back/Side Finish: Gloss

Neck

• Neck Wood: Neo-Tropical Mahogany


• Fretboard Wood: West African Crelicam Ebony


• Neck Profile: Standard Carve


• Fretboard Inlay: Cream Crest


• Fretboard Binding: West African Crelicam Ebony


• Neck Finish: Satin

Peghead

• Nut Width: 1-3/4"


• Peghead Veneer Wood: West African Crelicam Ebony


• Scale Length: 25-1/2"


• Peghead Inlay: Cream Crest


• Peghead Type: Paddle


• Peghead Binding: None


• Peghead Finish: Gloss

Other

• Bridge: Honduran Rosewood


• Nut & Saddle: White TUSQ Nut, White Micarta Saddle


• Bridge Pins: Indian Rosewood


• Strings: D'Addario XS Coated Phosphor Bronze Light (.012 - .053)


• Pickguard: Firestripe


• Tuners: Taylor Nickel with Nickel Buttons


• Strap Pin: Black


• End Pin: Bronze