Taylor Body Shapes

Body shape is a great place to start your search for the right acoustic guitar model. That’s because the shapely curves and depth that define the body’s dimensions will influence both your physical relationship to the guitar and the type of voice it produces. Once you find the right shape, you can play and compare versions with different tonewood pairings. (For more on that, see our guide to tonewoods.) Here are a few considerations when it comes to comparing different body styles.

Feel

Comfort is important, so pay attention to how the body proportions feel when you play. A smaller guitar with a more tapered waist and slightly shallower body depth tends to create a more intimate feel. With larger bodies, consider the comfort of your picking/strumming arm in relation to the size of the lower bout, especially if you often play while seated. Body depth can also be a factor. Additionally, some Taylor models have advanced comfort features like chamfered (rounded) body edges or an armrest.

Neck-to-Body Relationship

Though not part of the body, the neck is connected to it, so the orientation of the two is another key comfort consideration. One factor is the point where the neck joins the body (12th or 14th fret). Another is the string scale length (the length of the string from the nut to the saddle), which in some cases varies based on the body shape. These design distinctions will influence how close together your hands are when you play, the amount of string tension, and the spacing between frets.

Sound

An acoustic guitar body is a natural amplifier for the strings. The body dimensions define the air capacity inside the guitar, and the amount of air volume tends to emphasize certain frequencies. In general, the smaller the air volume, the more focused the voice, often with an emphasis on upper-register frequencies. The greater the air volume, the bigger and deeper the voice, with an emphasis on low-end frequencies.

The Secret Sauce: Bracing

An acoustic guitar’s internal bracing architecture works in concert with the body shape and tonewoods to voice the guitar in unique ways. Our proprietary bracing patterns have been designed by master builder Andy Powers to optimize the tonal properties of each model. These include our award-winning V-Class^® bracing, featured on most of our U.S.-made steel-string guitars. The patented design enhances the response of the guitar body to the vibrating strings, putting them more in tune with each other and producing more volume, more sustain, and better harmonic agreement between notes. It’s also a framework that can be fine-tuned in unique ways based on the body style and tonewood pairing, which creates a more distinctive sonic personality for each model. Another proprietary voicing system, C-Class^™ bracing, is used with our Grand Theater body to coax more low-end warmth from the smaller guitar.

Travel-size Body Shapes

We also offer several scaled-down versions of existing body styles: the GS Mini (based on the Grand Symphony), the Baby Taylor (a three-quarter scale dreadnought) and the Big Baby Taylor.

How does a cutaway affect tone?

What people usually want to know is whether a cutaway diminishes a guitar’s tonal output. The answer: not in a discernible way. One might argue that it enhances the tone in the sense that it offers access to more notes along the treble-side of the fretboard where the neck meets the body. We recommend that you decide based on whether you want that extra upper-fretboard range or simply based on your aesthetic preference, as some people prefer the more traditional, symmetrical look of a non-cutaway, while others favor the sleek contouring of the cutaway. Many of our models can be ordered with or without a cutaway, but some guitars are offered exclusively in non-cutaway form: all Grand Theater, Grand Pacific and Grand Orchestra models, plus the Academy Series, GS Mini Series and Baby Series.