Taylor has made a tradition of celebrating milestone years by looking forward rather than back. Taylor’s 40th anniversary year is no different. Guided by the design strokes of luthier Andy Powers and the manufacturing expertise of Bob Taylor, Taylor has re-conceived its flagship rosewood/spruce 800 Series, infusing it with a sweeping array of tone-enhancing refinements. Virtually every element of the guitar’s material construction was optimized: bracing, wood thicknesses, glues, finish, strings and acoustic electronics, topped off with a refreshed design aesthetic. The end result is the perfect type of musical celebration: a more inspiring playing experience.
While there are certain core qualities that Andy Powers says he strives to bring to any guitar — volume, sustain, clarity, uniformity of character — one of his driving goals in redesigning the 800 Series was to accentuate the unique characteristics of each different shape. “I want these models to have a family resemblance, but I don’t want them to sound the same,” he says. “I wanted to consider the 812ce, for example, not as it relates to the 810ce, but as it relates to itself.”
The resulting tonal distinctions between each shape, Bob Taylor feels, are far from subtle. “I think players will really enjoy experiencing these new guitars and comparing different models,” he says. “In a way, there’s a rebirth of every one of them.”
Each model in the 800 series claims a distinctive sonic identity. To showcase the tonal nuances of each guitar “sibling” and the way they all mesh together as a guitar family, Andy wrote, arranged and recorded a composition that incorporates six different 800 Series models: the Grand Concert 812ce, the 812ce 12-Fret, the Grand Auditorium 814ce, the Grand Symphony 816ce, the Dreadnought 810e, and the Grand Orchestra 818e. The tracks were recorded at Studio West in San Diego, California.
Taylor guitars distributed in Australia by Audio Products Group