Editor’s Note: For this special GS Mini issue of Wood&Steel, we’ve included a few pieces that originally appeared in previous issues. This article, which originally appeared in the Fall 2021 issue, highlights the growing popularity of more compact acoustic guitars like the GS Mini. It also mentions the Taylor GT (Grand Theater), which is still available in the 811e and K21e.

Acoustic guitars didn’t start out big like this. The early Stauffer and Martin guitars of the 1800s cut a svelte figure, serving as precursors to the compact parlor guitars that arrived later that century.

Body proportions started growing in the early 20th century, in the wake of important design innovations like X-bracing and steel strings, which worked in concert to pump up the volume in order to compete with banjos, mandolins and orchestras (think drums and horns) in larger venues.

Over time, with the evolution of acoustic amplification, pickups began to be added to acoustic flattop guitars. By the end of the 1960s, Glen Campbell was playing an acoustic-electric Ovation with a piezo pickup on his weekly TV show, and in the years that followed, Takamine was pushing the envelope with its own acoustic pickups while other pickup designers offered aftermarket options to acoustic guitar makers. For some traditionalists, putting a pickup in an acoustic guitar was heresy, but Bob Taylor heeded the calls of performing players and started putting Barcus-Berry pickups in some of his guitars. And even though the amplified acoustic sound produced by most pickups of the day wasn’t great compared to today’s pickup standards, it meant that, in this modern era, acoustic guitars no longer had to be big to be heard.“

People like smaller guitars,” Bob Taylor says. “They’re comfortable to play. And during that time, we felt like we could start to focus on the intimacy and the tonal qualities of a smaller guitar, because someone could always plug in if they wanted.”

Baby Taylor | Body Length: 15-3/4″

GS Mini-e Koa Plus | Body Length: 17-5/8″

GTe Urban Ash | Body Length: 18-1/2″

Academy 12e | Body Length: 19-1/2″

The Grand Concert Is Born

Taylor’s first small-body guitar, the Grand Concert, debuted in January of 1984, a decade into Taylor’s existence and a decade before the Grand Auditorium. In addition to the arrival of pickups, there were other factors that informed the design of the smaller guitar. One was a desire among electric players for a more compact acoustic body.

“A lot of our earliest customers were primarily electric players,” Bob recalls. “They loved our slim necks, but they didn’t want a big old guitar. They were used to a small guitar against their body. So they’d say, ‘How can we get a small guitar that plays like these guitars you make?’”

Meanwhile, Taylor co-founder Kurt Listug, who’d become the company’s traveling salesman, had been returning from long road trips after visiting dealers and reporting that they were asking for a smaller-body guitar. (Kurt reflects on this period in his column this issue.)

Fingerstyle Fever

Around that same time, a new breed of envelope-pushing instrumental fingerstyle acoustic players had emerged. Many were drawing from diverse musical influences — blues, folk, classical, jazz, pop, Celtic, ambient, you name it — and synthesizing them in exciting new ways. Many were exploring alternate tunings, percussive tapping techniques, and other forms of melodic and harmonic musical expression. Between their original compositions and inventive fingerstyle arrangements of popular songs, they were expanding the sonic palette of the acoustic guitar, and many were actively seeking new types of instruments capable of optimizing their expressive range.

One talented fingerstyle guitarist was Chris Proctor, the 1982 National Fingerpicking Champion at the annual Walnut Valley Festival, held in Winfield, Kansas. For years, Proctor had been on a quest to find a guitar builder to craft his dream fingerstyle instrument.“

I had been frustrated with the lack of appropriate choices in the marketplace for instrumental fingerstyle players,” he wrote in an essay in Wood&Steel in 2006. “I had begun to imagine a smaller-bodied guitar that spoke with clarity and balance between bass and treble, that offered a cutaway and wider neck options, that stayed stable during multiple re-tunings, and that ‘played like a Taylor.’”

A lot of our earliest customers were primarily electric players. They loved our slim necks, but they didn’t want a big old guitar.

Bob Taylor

At the time, Taylor’s 6-string dreadnought and jumbo guitars featured a 1-11/16-inch nut width, which, at the time, was common among acoustic guitars but was narrow for the types of fretwork an instrumental fingerstyle player was doing. And the bulky body size wasn’t conducive to playing in a seated position, which fingerstyle players, like classical players, tended to do.

Proctor met with Bob and Kurt at the 1983 Summer NAMM Show, at which point Bob was already tinkering with ideas for a small-body guitar. More conversations ensued, and Bob built a custom guitar for Proctor, which would turn out to be the first Grand Concert. It had koa back and sides, a Sitka spruce top, a sharp Florentine cutaway, and an extra-wide 1-7/8-inch neck to accommodate Proctor’s spidery fingers and fretwork. Taylor officially launched the new shape at the Winter NAMM Show in 1984 with two models: a mahogany/spruce 512 and a rosewood/spruce 812, both with a 1-3/4-inch nut width.

More wood pairings followed, including the cutaway maple/spruce 612ce, which caught the attention of Nashville session players and recording engineers. As Proctor observed: “It was a great instrument for adding shimmering additional rhythm tracks to country and Americana recording sessions. The clarity of voice of the Grand Concert made it ideal for adding to the complexity and sparkle of these songs, without muddying up the vocals or getting in the way of the lead lines or other guitar parts. Soon, the 612ce became more or less standard Nashville session equipment.”

Bob Taylor remembers getting similar feedback from engineers about the Grand Concert’s sonic virtues for recording compared to bigger-bodied acoustics.

“Engineers told us they normally had to spend all their time trying to take sound out of a mix because there were too many overtones, too much boominess, too much woofiness,” he says. “They’d tell us, ‘But with this little guitar, we don’t have to do that. We can put a mic in front of it and record. We get our job done and have a track that sounds good.’”

The smaller body was also more responsive to a lighter touch because the top could be set in motion more easily. And not having to put as much energy into the guitar made it easier to play for more extended stretches with less hand fatigue.

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Taylor artists Samuel Yun, Daniel Fraire, Cameron Griffin and Francisca Valenzuela talk about how smaller guitars can play unique musical roles thanks to their versatility and playability.

12-Fret Grand Concerts

Over the years, Taylor has continued to refine the Grand Concert in interesting ways. In 2006, the standard scale length was modified from 25-1/2 inches to 24-7/8 inches. In terms of handfeel, the shorter scale length reduces the string tension, creating a slinkier feel, and results in slightly condensed fret spacing for easier fretting, especially with more sophisticated chord forms that span several frets.

Since his arrival in 2011, master builder Andy Powers has embraced the Grand Concert body as a framework for other unique designs and playing experiences, including an array of 12-fret and 12-string models. Our 12-fret models feature a slotted peghead and a slightly shorter neck than our 14-fret editions. The neck-to-body orientation also shifts the position of the bridge farther from the soundhole and closer to the center of the lower bout. This placement changes the movement of the top in a way that generates more sonic power, more tonal warmth and sweetness, and a vibrant midrange.

Despite its compact size, the 12-fret Grand Concert can produce a surprisingly husky voice, with great dynamic range.

Andy Powers

“Despite its compact size, the 12-fret Grand Concert can produce a surprisingly husky voice with great dynamic range,” Andy says.

And ever since our Grand Concerts were revoiced with Andy’s V-Class bracing architecture in 2019, our 12-fret models have become even more versatile, producing a beautifully clear low end and articulating the tonal characteristics of each particular wood pairing more distinctly than ever. (For more on our V-Class Grand Concerts, see our story in the winter 2019 [Vol. 19] edition of Wood&Steel.)

12-Strings Too

Andy also leveraged the intimate dimensions and ultra-playability of our 12-fret Grand Concerts to design new 12-string models — traditionally built with larger body frames — making the 12-string playing experience much more physically accessible. As he explains, the smaller body tends to be a naturally stronger, more efficient design, so as a 12-string, the guitar didn’t have to be braced as heavily.

“The Grand concert body is optimal for the smaller individual strings of a 12-string set,” he says. “A player can set it in motion easily. In addition, the smaller resonant cavity wants to accentuate the kinds of frequencies that the smaller strings and octave courses are making.”

And sonically, especially for recording applications, the smaller body delivers just the right amount of 12-string shimmer and chime — tone that stays in its lane without overwhelming a mix. Our latest Grand Concert 12-strings boast other unique features that enhance their performance: V-Class bracing for beautifully accurate intonation; our double-mounted string anchoring system, in which each string pairing shares a bridge pin, giving all the strings a consistent break angle over the saddle; and a dual-compensated saddle, which aligns the fundamental and octave strings in the same plane for a smoother strumming experience.The ultimate player-friendly 12-string Grand Concert might be Andy’s Builder’s Edition 652ce, released in 2020. It features a maple body and torrefied spruce top; a beveled armrest and beveled cutaway to heighten the playing comfort; and a reverse-strung setup that emphasizes the fundamental note and produces a cleaner 12-string voice.

Francisca Valenzuela with her GS Mini Mahogany

More Small-Body Taylor Models

The Baby Taylor

The guitar that helped establish the travel guitar as its own category, the Baby Taylor, was originally supposed to be a ukulele. It was the mid-’90s, and a respected Taylor dealer at a trade show had made a strong case to Bob that there was a growing revival in interest in ukes and that Taylor would benefit by adding them to its instrument line.

Bob went home and started working on a design, but he had an epiphany along the way.

“When I design something, at the exact same time, I’m thinking about how I can make it,” he explains, “because if I can’t make it, I’m not going to design it. And I thought, am I really going to make all these tools to be dedicated to a ukulele? If I put the same effort into tooling to make a little guitar, I think we’ll sell more.”

Bob also had been thinking about a new approach to making guitar necks, and the Baby project gave him a vehicle to test it — along with some other new production ideas.

“Any time we decide to make a new model based on a fresh idea that needs new tooling, we take advantage of that situation,” he says. “It gives us an opportunity to try a new method of building that we can’t easily introduce into our existing run rate of other guitars. This is one of the ways we can continue to innovate, to incorporate dynamic design in our factory. We use that new guitar and new tooling as a way to test these things out and see if they can be built into the way we do things in the future. For example, we might decide to make a contoured cutaway for a Builder’s Edition guitar, and if it ends up being incredible and we can do it on other models, great. But if it only works on this, it’s still worth it.’”

With the Baby, Bob decided to invest in his first laser to cut out the tops and backs and etch the rosette. We now cut all our guitar tops and backs with a laser. And the neck construction ideas Bob explored with the Baby? They directly led to the design of the patented Taylor neck joint we currently use on all our guitars.

As for the Baby Taylor itself? After its introduction in 1996, the three-quarter-size mini-dreadnought became the most popular travel/kids’ guitar of all time (although one could argue that distinction now belongs to the GS Mini). And while the Baby’s voice clearly isn’t as big or deep as a full-size guitar, pro musicians have recognized its legitimacy as a musical instrument and embraced its unique voice in interesting ways, like high-stringing it for recording to add a splash of octave chime to a mix, or capo-ing it to get mandolin sounds. In the Latin music world, we’ve even seen people convert the Baby into a Cuban-style tres guitar.

GS Mini

Another resounding testament to the appeal of small-body guitars is the GS Mini, hands-down the most popular guitar design Taylor has ever offered. Released in 2010, the Mini started as a redesign of the Baby. After nearly 15 years, Bob wanted to upgrade the Baby’s sound, so he and Taylor design partner Larry Breedlove tried everything to supercharge it, but nothing moved the needle enough, at least working with its original proportions. (In 2000, Taylor had introduced the Big Baby, which had also become a popular offering, but it was nearly a full-size dreadnought — 15/16 scale — with a 25-1/2-inch scale length, although its shallower four-inch body depth did create a more intimate feel against a player’s body.)

Bob and Larry realized they’d need to make the body bigger and deeper, and the scale length longer (the Baby’s was 22-3/4 inches), but they wanted to retain the inviting, accessible feel that a compact, portable guitar offered. So they borrowed and scaled down the curves of Taylor’s Grand Symphony body, which had been introduced in 2006, chose a longer scale length of 23-1/2 inches, and incorporated Taylor’s patented neck design, which would ensure precise neck angle geometry, including a full heel for extra stability.

“It was a guitar I felt I could be proud of,” Bob says. “It felt better, it was a little bigger, you could still get it in the overhead [compartment on a plane], and it came in a gig bag,” he says. “Little did I know it would become ‘the people’s guitar.’ It really has established its own unique identity and I think in some ways might be our best accomplishment — a guitar that’s not so precious, that everybody loves, that’s known around the world, and that a beginner, a grandmother and a pro all want to have.”

The GS Mini has also been expanded as a series to offer a range of wood options and aesthetic treatments, including the gorgeous GS Mini-e Koa Plus, featuring a koa top and shaded edgeburst. And Andy Powers added his own design imprint on the series with the design of the GS Mini Bass, which managed to translate the normally longer scale length of a bass guitar into the GS Mini proportions, giving players an easy-playing, great-sounding acoustic bass that has become an inspiring musical tool for all types of players, including kids.

Academy 12 / Academy 12-N

That same spirit of making guitars physically comfortable to play and not too precious also informed the design of our Academy Series. This time around, Andy Powers was at the design helm, and he wanted to distill a great guitar into its essential elements to make it more affordable (a theme that we recently revisited with our American Dream guitars). Two of the three models feature Grand Concert bodies: the steel-string Academy 12 and the nylon-string Academy 12-N (both also available with electronics).

Both models feature a solid spruce top, a layered sapele body, and a simple armrest to enhance the playing comfort. The steel-string version has a nut width of 1-11/16 inches and a 24-7/8-inch scale length, and also makes a great full-size starter or utility guitar; the nylon-string has a 12-fret neck, a nut width of 1-7/8 inches (to accommodate the slightly thicker diameter of the nylon strings), a 25-1/2-inch scale length, and offers an incredible feel and sound. Given the popularity of nylon-string guitars in other cultures around the world, it’s a great model for international markets, and for steel-string players looking to add some nylon flavor to their music, it’s arguably the best guitar you’ll find at that price point. (We also produce nylon-string Grand Concert models within other series in our line.)

The GT

The most recent addition to the Taylor line, our new GT guitars continue our efforts to blend playing comfort and great tone into a compact form. In the same way that a desire to improve the sound of the Baby led to the GS Mini, a desire to improve the sound of the GS Mini led to the GT. The challenge, once again, was to preserve the compact proportions that make an acoustic guitar feel physically inviting and accessible, while pushing the dimensions enough to produce a pro-level, full-size acoustic voice. And to retain the fun, approachable vibe that makes smaller guitars great couch companions.

Andy’s design dimensions add up to a guitar that lives in that sweet spot: a scaled-down Grand Orchestra body with a body length that sits between the GS Mini and the Grand Concert; a “mid-length” 24-1/8-inch scale length, which sits between that of the Mini (23-1/2) and the Grand Concert (24-7/8); and a nut width (1-23/32 inches) that provides comfortable string spacing, sitting between our narrowest nut width (1-11/16) and the 1-3/4-inch width that is standard on most 6-string, steel-string models. And with all-solid-wood construction.

The string feel — a combination of light-gauge strings and the mid-length string scale — has the slinkiness of a guitar with a 25-1/2-inch scale length that’s been tuned down a half step, yet still with a pleasantly focused, punchy response. Sonically, Andy designed our new C-Class^™ bracing architecture (borrowing from his V-Class ideas) to tackle one of the biggest challenges of a smaller-bodied guitar: to give it enough lower-frequency response to produce ample fullness and depth.

To further underscore our desire to offer players another accessible small-body guitar option, the first GT model released, the GT Urban Ash, was priced at the entry threshold for our all-solid acoustics. That model was soon followed by the rosewood/spruce GT 811e and the all-koa GT K21e.

Though the GT has only been out in the world for a short time, it has quickly carved out its own place among Taylor’s compact guitar offerings in both feel and sound. “Intimate,” “nimble,” “sweet,” “focused” and “fun to play” are among the refrains we hear from players and reviewers after they have a chance to play it.

Samuel Yun with his GT 811e

Small for All

Editor’s Note: Elsewhere in this “mini” edition of Wood&Steel, we revisit our 2010 story about the birth of the GS Mini. In keeping with that theme, we thought we’d also bring you the origin story behind its innovative spin-off sibling: the GS Mini Bass, which made its debut in early 2017. By this point, Andy Powers had taken the reins as Bob Taylor’s guitar design successor. The idea of making a musically functional acoustic bass using the Mini’s compact physical proportions (particularly its short string scale length) seemed improbable. But some innovative thinking and a creative collaboration with our friends at D’Addario opened the door to a supremely fun, inspiring and accessible instrument. Read on to learn how they pulled it off.

A few years ago, Taylor’s Jesus Jurado, a longtime fabricator on our product development team, was musing with colleague David Judd about the idea of making a bass version of the GS Mini.

“We thought it would be something any guitar player would like to have around the house,” Judd recalls.

One day the two playfully pitched the idea to Andy Powers, egging him on to make one.

“Andy happened to have some ukulele bass strings,” Judd says, “so I modded the poor thing to work as a bass. The strings couldn’t take the extra tension from the longer scale length of the Mini and broke, so I put on a set of electric bass strings and an ES2 pickup. It didn’t sound great, but it was at least good enough to get Andy’s juices flowing.”

As someone who has played bass in different professional settings over the years, Andy thought the idea of a GS Mini bass was a fun conversation starter, but as a seasoned guitar maker, he was skeptical that it could actually work with such a short scale length.

“I’ve always had a thing for short-scale basses,” he shares. “But often they can’t make accurate bass frequency notes very well due to the quirks of their short string length. They’re fun to play but have some limitations.”

The GS Mini Bass at a Glance

Back/Sides: Layered Sapele
Top: Solid Sitka Spruce
Fretboard/Bridge: Genuine Ebony
Scale Length: 23-1/2 Inches
Nut Width: 1-11/16 Inches
Strings: D’Addario GS Mini Bass Custom Light with EXP Coating
Bridge Pins: Polycarbonate Dual Prong
Finish: Matte
Electronics: ES-B
Case: GS Mini Bass Hard Bag

For reference, the scale length of a standard bass guitar is usually between 32 and 35 inches. The average scale length of a short-scale bass is about 30 inches. The Mini’s string length is 23-1/2 inches.

“Changing a guitar’s scale length a half an inch from 25-1/2 inches to 25 inches is a big deal,” Andy says. “Compared to the standard scale length of a bass guitar, the GS Mini is about 10 inches shorter. It’s almost not the same instrument at that point.”

Putting a regular bass string on the GS Mini and tuning it up, Andy says, would never produce a usable note. An electronic tuner wouldn’t even recognize the resulting vibration as a note. (For a quick primer on string theory and the basic physics of string vibration, see our sidebar on page 14.)

Nonetheless, the idea stuck with Andy (“I really wanted it to exist,” he says), so he began to explore what it would take to make a bass frequency note work with a string length that short. The idea all along, he says, was to work within the basic structural parameters of the existing GS Mini form, for a few reasons. 

“I wanted to see if it was possible to build a small, ergonomically friendly bass instrument that lived outside the borders of a typical bass guitar,” he explains. “The hope was to make a bass comfortable and approachable to a guitar player who’s used to a smaller instrument, to a child, or to a seasoned bass player looking for something sized for the couch or tour bus with a different feel and voice. From a manufacturing perspective, there were practical benefits to sharing existing tooling infrastructure with the GS Mini to allow us to make it and have it be affordable.”

Developing New Strings

Off and on for a good year or so Andy experimented with different weights of string, different core sizes, and other variables to determine if he could get a string to make accurate notes with the GS Mini’s scale length, but to no avail. Then he had an epiphany based on some classical guitar prototypes he’d been building.

“I realized I’d been going about it the wrong way,” he says. “It needed to be a nylon string, because the way they are constructed gives them a completely different set of characteristics than steel strings.”

Andy reached out to our development friends at D’Addario, whose strings we use on our nylon-string acoustics, and explained what he was trying to do. Together they walked through all the approaches Andy had already tried.

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“They brought in their expertise in making nylon strings for other kinds of instruments,” Andy says. “It’s pretty amazing because they make strings for every kind of string instrument you could name, in just about every kind of material and method. In the end we were able to come up with something that worked really well, which is basically a nylon-core string overwound with a traditional phosphor bronze wrap wire. That combination worked great. Without these strings, I’m not sure this instrument would have been possible.”

The custom string set was developed exclusively for what would become the GS Mini Bass. For more on the strings, see our sidebar.

A New Bridge Pin Design

With the important string issue resolved, Andy turned his attention to another major design challenge: how to properly secure the strings below the bridge and get a good sound.

“With a traditional guitar bridge pin, the string has to come up out of the bridge through a little groove and make an acute bend over the saddle,” he says. “Bass strings are quite large and have a tough time making the bend because the string has such a different stretch factor on the inside of the bend compared to the outside — the strings would deform so much that they would no longer make a correct note. To make the bend more gradual, the bridge would need to be so bulky that it physically wouldn’t sound or work well anymore. Not to mention that it would look ugly and disproportionate on a small instrument.” 

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After exploring other ideas, Andy devised a new bridge pin design that Taylor has since patented.

“It looks like an old-fashioned clothespin,” he says, holding one up for closer examination to show how the pin splits into two prongs (see photos above).

The dual-prong design accomplishes several things that lead to a better sounding, better-functioning instrument. First, the ball of each string is anchored on the opposite side of the pin (rather than the side closer to the soundhole), which allows the string to pass in between the prongs.

“This extra clearance allows a more gradual bend over the saddle,” Andy says. 

Second, a wedging action is created when the string is tuned up that forces the two prongs apart, tightening the pin into its hole. 

“The pin essentially becomes self-locking,” Andy explains. “Rather than the typical method of holding your thumb on the bridge pin so it doesn’t go flying out as you tune the string, this new design automatically pulls the pin into the bridge. For restringing, once you loosen the tension on the string, the pin gets looser — it self-releases. As a result, stringing up this guitar will be easier both here in the factory and for the player.”

Together, the gradual bend over the saddle and more secure string anchoring help the instrument sound its best.

Voicing and Other Refinements

With the bridge pin issue resolved, Andy was able to focus on voicing the rest of the instrument, which, by comparison, was relatively easy.

“It’s funny, the two things that held this instrument back for so long were what seem like afterthought details of strings and bridge pins,” he says. “But good instruments need all of the components to be working in a cohesive way.”

Though the internal architecture of the Mini’s body was modified to optimize the voicing of the bass frequencies, Andy says it wasn’t a radical change. 

“One of the interesting thoughts that guide an instrument’s design is looking at the body as a mechanical amplifier,” he elaborates. “When it’s a fundamentally good amplifier, it responds remarkably well over a large range of frequencies. As long as the structural considerations don’t change dramatically, you can make something work for a wide range of sounds.”

One of the final design elements to be worked out was the tuners. A couple of the early prototypes featured traditional bass tuning machines, but once it was time for aesthetic refinement, our development team worked closely with one of our tuner suppliers to produce something that was more proportionate for the scale of the GS Mini.

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“They have the big post that allows a bass string to work well, but put into a small enough package that you don’t have these giant knobs and extra weight throwing off the visual and physical balance of the bass,” Andy says.

The bass will come equipped with Taylor’s ES-B pickup, which features an onboard preamp with tone and volume controls and a built-in digital chromatic tuner with an LED display for tuning and low battery indication. Andy says the tuner provided one of the measures of success for the design.

“One of the criteria I was using all along was whether or not a tuner could recognize the notes,” he says. “Once we got into the fidelity range where a tuner recognized the pitches, we knew the note had a predictable enough motion to be musical.”

The bass will also come with a customized GS Mini Bass hard bag, which features the bass’s stylized logo treatment on the outside. The hard bag incorporates the same design features as the original GS Mini hard bag, blending protective structure and lightweight portability, with external and internal storage pockets and sewn-in adjustable backpack straps.

The Playing Experience

Considering the massive popularity of the original GS Mini guitar since its release in 2010, the ability to offer players an equally portable and accessible bass sibling — especially given a bass’s typically larger, more prohibitive size — was gratifying for Andy and the design team to bring to production. For starters, it falls in line with Taylor’s heritage of innovation, of pushing instrument design into fresh and inspiring new musical territory. And there’s really no other instrument quite like this on the market. Naturally, with its compact design and slinkier feel, it won’t perform like a conventional bass, nor is it really intended to. It’s made for guitar players like many of us, and like Jesus Jurado and David Judd from our product development team, who thought it would be fun to have an acoustic bass around the house. And that’s what makes it cool — it invites more people to explore the instrument.

“If bass isn’t your primary instrument but you want an acoustic bass on hand for writing, for recording some demos, to have when your friends come over to jam, this is the bass you want,” Andy says. “Anybody can play it. You don’t need calluses on your fingers. It’s physically easier than a guitar. The short string length and the nylon core strings make it so comfortable to play that even a kid or a beginner could walk up to it and not be intimidated. It’s easy enough that my 6-year-old son can press these notes down and play.”

Like its 6-string Mini siblings, the bass is lightweight and portable enough to fit in a plane’s overhead compartment for globe-trekking adventures. And never again will bass players be left empty-handed around a campfire.

As a small-bodied, short-scale instrument, the slinky string response probably won’t be ideally suited for slapping or a heavy attack. But as a bass instrument with a unique feel and good sound, Andy thinks it has a lot to offer.

“It’s no substitute for an upright bass, but there is no other instrument quite like this,” he says. “For a touring bass player doing vocal warm-ups on the band bus, the bassist often has to fake their bass lines on a guitar since not many have an amp to plug their electric bass into. In other scenarios, this instrument does a good job of serving a bassist who simply doesn’t want to haul a big instrument around.”

As Bob Taylor has said, people love the fact that Taylor continues to make products of discovery. When we introduced the Baby Taylor, we didn’t know how many different ways people would end up using it. We’ve seen the same thing happen with the GS Mini. And there’s a good chance it will happen with the bass too, sparking fresh musical ideas as players interact with it. 

David Judd, one of the original instigators of the design, is certainly happy with the way the bass turned out.

“It’s a lot of fun to play,” he says. “It’s hard to put it down.” 

For Andy, he sees the bass as a kindred spirit of our new Academy Series design philosophy.

“These are all physically and economically approachable instruments that have a lot of musical goodness built in,” he says. “They’re wonderful gateway instruments that encourage people to make playing music part of their lifestyle. With this bass, I would love to see a whole bunch of kids say, ‘I want to be a bass player.’ We need more of you!”

Look for the GS Mini Bass at authorized Taylor dealers starting in February. For complete specs, photos, video content and more, visit taylorguitars.com.

From product development to the production floor, it was a busy summer on the Taylor campus. Alongside our standard production models, we’ve been crafting other exciting new designs all season long — truthfully, all year long —  following a diverse rollout of releases across the first part of the year with a fresh batch of inspiring new models. Here’s a selection of our latest offerings.

Builder’s Edition 814ce Blacktop

This sleek refinement of a Taylor classic is as elegant as evening formalwear.

Our cover story in the summer edition of Wood&Steel announced the first-ever Builder’s Edition version of the 814ce, our flagship rosewood/spruce Grand Auditorium guitar. That evolution came nearly a decade after master designer Andy Powers reworked Bob Taylor’s original 814ce design, refining virtually every material component of the guitar as a demonstration of our envelope-pushing pursuit of acoustic performance.

With the Builder’s Edition model, Andy embraced the challenge of further elevating a guitar that was already viewed by generations of Taylor players as a quintessential modern acoustic-electric voice (particularly for lovers of rosewood guitars) and a remarkably versatile instrument for virtually any musical application.

Advances in our tooling and manufacturing capabilities enabled Andy and the Taylor design team to level up to the mission of our Builder’s Edition standards: to enhance the overall playing experience in feel and sound. Ergonomic refinements include a beveled mahogany armrest, which offers a smooth surface for the picking arm on the guitar’s lower bout, and a matching beveled cutaway, which provides a comfortable anchor point for the fretting hand when accessing the guitar’s upper register. Chamfered body edges and subtle body sculpting round out the comfort-focused Builder’s Edition upgrades. (If you’re curious about the level of woodworking craftsmanship that goes into our ultra-premium guitars, see our video spotlight this issue on the art of making an armrest.)

One other noteworthy design detail was the introduction of a four-piece Adirondack spruce top. Used for acoustic guitar soundboards prior to World War II, Adirondack is beloved for its dynamic range (especially its volume ceiling), sweet midrange and harmonic detail. Because today’s generation of Adirondack spruce trees tends to be younger and smaller than those of past eras, we chose a four-piece configuration that requires a higher degree of woodworking craftsmanship (which we’re happy to do). It also offers a glimpse into the future of guitar making as Sitka spruce trees used for tops are increasingly smaller in diameter than the old-growth (500-600 year-old) giants of yore. You can read more about the switch to the four-piece Adirondack top in last issue’s cover story and our deep dive into the spruce-cutting process with our wood supplier, Pacific Rim Tonewoods.

This fall’s blacktop riff on the Builder’s Edition 814ce is largely an aesthetic variation, but one that dramatically transforms he visual presentation of the guitar. It boasts the same comfort-enhancing touches as its natural-finished counterpart, including a stunning full-body gloss finish that sets the 814ce apart from the rest of the Builder’s Edition family (the glossy black top is an especially luxurious touch) and the alluring Kona edgeburst color treatment for the rosewood back and sides. Other appointments include premium Gotoh 510 tuners in antique gold with a super-precise 21:1 gear ratio, a single-ring green abalone rosette, a rosewood pickguard, and Element inlays in mother-of-pearl.

You’ll find the Builder’s Edition 814ce Blacktop online at TaylorGuitars.com and at authorized Taylor dealers.

Builder’s Edition 814ce Blacktop Specs

» Top Wood: Adirondack Spruce
» Back/Side Wood: Indian Rosewood
» Neck: Neo-Tropical Mahogany
» Fretboard: West African Crelicam Ebony
» Bracing: V-Class
» Electronics: ES2
» Strings: D’Addario XS Coated Phosphor Bronze, Light
» Case: Deluxe Hardshell, Brown

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212ce/222ce-K DLX

Spruce-top and koa-top Grand Concert models join the 200 Series.

With an array of tonewood pairings, body shape options and aesthetic treatments, our 200 Series boasts a stunning variety of possibilities for guitar players of every style and skill level. Matching solid-wood tops with various layered-wood backs and sides within the series gives us the latitude to add new model options on a regular basis. This summer, we expanded our 200 Series palette with a pair of new Grand Concert guitars: the 212ce and the 222ce-K DLX.

The 212ce features a solid Sitka spruce top paired with layered Indian rosewood back and sides. Together with the compact contours of the Grand Concert body shape, that wood combination delivers a clear, balanced tone with an articulate character that will be especially enticing to fingerstyle players or flatpickers who like to deploy single-note lead lines along with strummed chords. The smaller body serves up a comfortable, intimate feel and can be especially appealing to players of smaller stature. Onboard ES2 electronics deliver faithful plugged-in tone, and the patented Taylor neck ensures smooth, relaxed fretting all the way up the fretboard. Clean appointments include white binding, Italian acrylic dot inlays and a thin matte finish. The 212ce ships with a structured gig bag for storage and transportation.

212ce Specs

» Top Wood: Sitka Spruce
» Back/Side Wood: Layered Indian Rosewood
» Neck: Neo-Tropical Mahogany
» Fretboard: West African Crelicam Ebony
» Electronics: ES2
» Strings: D’Addario XS Coated Phosphor Bronze, Light
» Case: Structured Gig Bag

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This Grand Concert acoustic-electric is crafted with beautiful Hawaiian koa and appointed with aesthetic upgrades worthy of our Deluxe moniker. Layered koa matched with a beautifully grained solid koa top deliver a bold, punchy midrange response with clear treble notes and a focused, woody character. Hawaiian koa’s tendency to mature with time and play means that this model’s tone will grow warmer and sweeter as the wood ages, promising years of evolving musical inspiration across genres and playing styles thanks to the guitar’s highly versatile sound.

Like its 212ce counterpart, the 222ce-K DLX features a slightly narrower nut width of 1-11/16 inches, complementing the accommodating feel of the compact body shape with a highly responsive, easy-playing feel for your fretting hand. Visual details for this deluxe model include a stunning full-body gloss finish with a shaded edgeburst treatment, black binding, a black pickguard, a single-ring rosette in Italian acrylic, Small Diamond fretboard inlays and gold hardware. This model also includes onboard ES2 electronics and ships with a deluxe brown hardshell case.

222ce-K DLX Specs

» Top Wood: Hawaiian Koa
» Back/Side Wood: Layered Hawaiian Koa
» Neck: Neo-Tropical Mahogany
» Fretboard: West African Crelicam Ebony
» Electronics: ES2
» Strings: D’Addario XS Coated Phosphor Bronze, Light
» Case: Deluxe Hardshell Case, Brown

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AD26e Baritone-6 Special Edition

Looking for a different acoustic voice? Try exploring the rich and resonant tonal palette of a baritone guitar.

Fans of our baritone guitars will be pleased to know that there’s a new model heading to stores this fall. The AD26e Baritone-6 Special Edition arrives on the heels of the recent 326ce Baritone-8, complementing its 8-string partner with a more traditional six-string configuration with a B-to-B tuning.

Like the 8-string, this edition features our Grand Symphony body style, but in its traditional form (without the soundport cutaway that’s built into other GS models). The body’s full-figured dimensions and robust acoustic “lung capacity” lend themselves to a baritone voicing, and together with its longer 27-inch scale length and lower tuning, deliver a uniquely rich bass-forward sound with a deep register that opens a whole new swath of musical terrain for players to explore.

The AD26e Baritone-6 follows the distilled, essentials-first philosophy of our American Dream Series, crafted with all-solid sapele back and sides topped with mahogany. The result is a focused sound with a smooth attack thanks to mahogany’s natural compression effect when used as a soundboard. For this model, we’ve topped our easy-playing neck with a fretboard of eucalyptus and finished the body with a shaded edgeburst and super-thin matte sheen. And as part of the American Dream Series, it’s our most accessibly priced baritone ever.

Though a baritone guitar may seem like a specialty instrument with limited practical musical applications, the reality is that the AD26e, like its 8-string sibling, can serve many purposes for a creative player. Tuned a fourth lower than a standard guitar, the AD26e opens up a lower range for vocalists who struggle to hit the higher notes often demanded by songs composed for standard tuning. You can return a baritone guitar to standard tuning by placing a capo on the fifth fret.

To learn more about the varied musical applications of both 6- and 8-string baritone acoustic guitars, read Shawn Persinger’s “Baritone Basics,” which originally ran in our summer 2016 issue.

AD26e Baritone-6 Special Edition Specs

» Top Wood: Neo-Tropical Mahogany
» Back/Side Wood: Sapele
» Neck: Neo-Tropical Mahogany
» Fretboard: Eucalyptus
» Electronics: ES2
» Strings: Elixir Baritone Set
» Case: AeroCase, Gray

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T5z-12 Classic DLX Special Edition

This 12-string T5z is reverse-strung and comes in Black, Arctic White or Cherry Sunburst.

A few years back, when master builder Andy Powers was designing the acoustic 12-string Builder’s Edition 652ce, he made an intriguing choice: to offer it with a reverse-strung setup — featuring the heavier fundamental string on the top of each octave string rather than the traditional pairing with the octave course on top. The reverse-strung setup is perhaps best associated with Rickenbacker electric 12-strings, notably embraced and popularized by the Byrds, the Beatles and Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

This fall, we’ve decided to bring the reverse-strung setup to the electric side of our line with a trio of special-edition 12-string T5z guitars. The sonic effect of the string setup is to emphasize more of the fundamental note since players typically have a more powerful downstroke. The result is a warmer, punchier response compared to the high-frequency octave jangle that you’ll hear from other 12-string guitars. The T5z-12 Classic Deluxe Special Edition, as we’re calling these models, will be available in a limited run in three striking colors: Black, Arctic White and Cherry Sunburst.

As with all T5z models, these are hollowbody hybrid electric-acoustic guitars, boasting our proprietary three-pickup electronics controlled by five-way switching. With a visible bridge humbucker, a concealed neck humbucker and an acoustic body sensor on board, these guitars allow the player to access a highly diverse range of tonal flavors ranging from mellow acoustic sounds to high-octane electric tones. In between, you’ll find an array of blended sounds mixing both acoustic and electric tone profiles, which can be further dialed in with two tone knobs and a volume control positioned above the fretboard extension.

In terms of playing comfort, these guitars feature a nut width of 1-11/16” and a scale length of 24-7/8”, which combine for a remarkably relaxed fretting feel that makes the neck easy to navigate for players of all skill levels. The 12-inch fretboard radius offers a pleasingly accommodating contour for everything from open chords to arpeggios and more complex phrasings.

If you’ve been keeping up with Wood&Steel or the Taylor universe in general, you might know that Andy recently updated the T5z design with an Urban Ash body, repositioned tone controls and a single F-hole compared to the two that have typically been featured in these hollowbody guitars. For the T5z-12 Classic DLX Special Edition, we’ve opted to retain the “traditional” T5z construction, which features both F-holes and the sapele body that have been standard in these guitars for many years. All three are topped with neo-tropical mahogany and are detailed with black fretboard binding, nickel hardware, Small Diamond fretboard inlays in Italian acrylic and a full-body gloss finish. Each guitar ships with a hardshell case.

You’ll find the T5z-12 Classic DLX Special Edition at TaylorGuitars.com and authorized Taylor dealers this fall.

From the start, our American Dream Series guitars were designed to fill the needs of virtually all types of players — weekend warriors, songwriters, recording gurus, touring pros and first-timers alike. Initially released during the pandemic, the first wave of guitars sported our Grand Pacific dreadnought body shape, were voiced with our tone-enhancing V-Class bracing architecture, and were priced to deliver an all-solid-wood acoustic at our most accessible price point. Between their workhorse musical versatility and earthy, vintage vibe, they were broadly embraced.

Since then, we’ve expanded the American Dream Series to include Grand Concert and Grand Theater body styles and mahogany-top models. And those models have found their way into studios, venues and hands of artists across the U.S. —  Al Bettis in Detroit, Sincere Engineer and Nathaniel Murphy in Chicago, Haley Knox and Joseph Solomon in Los Angeles, Maggie Baugh in Nashville and many more. Here’s a look at just a few of the artists who have come to lean on these guitars as creative tools, featuring original music by Keith Goodwin.

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In a similar vein, we sent an assortment of American Dream models to one of our favorite content collaborators, artist/producer duo Daria Musk and RAM, and simply asked them to create whatever piece of music the guitars inspired them to make. They responded with the aptly titled “Spontaneously Dreaming,” a layered fingerstyle instrumental that shows off just how rich these guitars can sound in the hands of seasoned players.

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You can find American Dream Series guitars at TaylorGuitars.com and authorized dealers everywhere.