There’s no shortage of ultra-premium guitar offerings within the Taylor line. But the GS Mini is different. The design ethos has always been about making the playing experience as accessible as possible. From its compact dimensions to its friendly price tag, the Mini is meant to be fun, inviting and not too precious to take out into the world or pass around with friends.
Over the years, the GS Mini has grown into a robust series that features different tonewood options (plus a four-string bass). Lately, we’ve been exploring a new aesthetic frontier — an array of “art-top” editions. Advanced color application technologies have enabled us to experiment with vibrant graphic treatments in which the soundboard becomes an artistic canvas. This has opened the door to some cool creative collaborations with artists and other partners. We wanted to share some of our latest designs — part of our new Taylor CoLabs program. While we’re at it, we thought we’d revisit some eye-catching art-top models we’ve made with other partners over the years. Look for more art-top GS Mini models in the months to come.
2012
The Tony Hawk Foundation
One of our earliest art-top efforts was a collaboration with the Tony Hawk Foundation, in which we created a special collection of eye-catching custom axes inspired by several iconic graphics used on Hawk skateboard decks throughout the skating legend’s long and storied career. They were showcased as auction items at the foundation’s annual Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD Presents Stand Up for Skateparks fundraiser in 2012. The foundation supports youth recreational programs and provides funding to build public skate parks in low-income communities throughout the United States.
Four of the Taylor auction guitars were 214ce models, each featuring a different deck graphic that was redesigned for the guitar top and custom-printed using a flatbed digital imaging process. A fifth custom guitar for the series was a GS Mini with rosewood laminate back and sides, which blended well with the caramel, black and gold color of the “Crowned” Hawk top design.
2013
Copper Mountain Ski/Snowboard “Trophy” Guitars
Another interesting custom GS Mini design was spawned through a partnership with our friends at Copper Mountain Resort in Summit County, Colorado, who commissioned us to create guitars to be presented as trophies for the winners of the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix ski and snowboard competition. The event took place at Copper Mountain January 9-10, 2013, attracting some of the top freeskiers and snowboarders from around the globe.
Given the high caliber of competition, we wanted to create something unique to celebrate the winners and the event, so we designed a custom graphic treatment that was printed on three GS Mini guitars. The first, second and third place guitars were distinguished by a gold numeral “1,” silver “2,” and bronze “3,” respectively, with other customized graphic elements and logos to co-brand the event. The guitars provided the winners with both an eye-catching trophy and a trusty travel guitar to take wherever they go.
After the awards ceremony, many of the athletes shared on social media how blown away they were by the guitars, including Mike Riddle, the winner of the freeskiing event, who said it was “maybe the coolest trophy I’ve ever gotten.”
2012
Rascal Flatts “Changed” Contest
In 2012, we partnered with country music megastars Rascal Flatts and Country Music Television (CMT) to create a unique contest and promotion in the wake of their then-new album release, Changed: Fans were invited to submit a graphic design for the top of a Taylor GS acoustic guitar; the winning design would be incorporated into a custom GS that would serve as the official guitar of their tour, along with a matching GS Mini for a related promotion. (A the time, the band’s lead guitarist, Joe Don Rooney, owned several Taylors including a GS8e, 714ce and 810ce.)
The winning design, created by Peter Geiger from North Carolina, featured license plates from Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee (referencing the band’s roots), including a collage treatment that spelled out the word “Changed.” Unlike most of the other guitar designs submitted for the contest, Geiger’s entry was a photograph of an actual piece of industrial art he had fabricated. Geiger, an artist who has been designing guitar sculptures out of old license plates for about five years, had cut a few up, rearranged the parts to spell out “Changed,” and glued them to a wooden template in the shape of a Taylor GS body based on dimensions provided on the contest entry page. The tops ultimately received a gloss treatment that added a rich, high-end sheen to the graphic treatment.
2017
American Girl GS Mini
Remember the popular American Girl® brand of dolls and accessories? In 2016, the company’s creative team consulted with the folks at Nashville’s famed Bluebird Café music venue on the development of a new doll character: Tenney Grant, a young, aspiring singer-songwriter who pursues her musical dreams in Nashville. In addition to the doll, the Tenney collection of accessories included several music-inspired products, including a miniature version of an authentic Taylor GS Mini that featured custom artwork and played three songs.
Taylor was invited to collaborate on the guitar design project with American Girl through our friends at the Bluebird. In addition to the doll-sized guitar, Taylor designed a life-size, special-edition American Girl GS Mini to inspire young girls to explore their own musical aspirations. After American Girl developed the custom artwork for the doll-sized soundboard, we scaled up the graphic treatment to create a matching top for the Taylor-produced guitar. The vibrant teal top sported a white floral screen print, white faux pearl pickguard, and white/black soundhole rosette to match Tenney’s GS Mini.
To promote the launch of the Tenney collection, American Girl filmed an episode of their YouTube series AG Life at our Nashville showroom with Taylor artist and Radio Disney Country Correspondent Savannah Keyes.
2024
The Stio Collection
One of our recent collaborations was with the outdoor apparel brand Stio, yielding a vibrant collection of nine limited-edition GS Mini guitars, each featuring colorful custom artwork. Stio commissioned nine artists to create imagery inspired by outdoor landscapes and representative of their own personal artistic style. It made for a bold and diverse array of visuals. You can read more about the collaboration, see each guitar, and learn more about each artist and their creative inspiration in our blog.
2024
The Taylor x MLB™ GS Mini Collection
Our most recent creative collaboration invites lovers of guitars and baseball to combine their passions with a Taylor x MLB™ GS Mini. The guitar collection encompasses all 30 Major League Baseball™ teams, with each team’s GS Mini sporting a top emblazoned with the officially licensed logo and color scheme of that team. Not only do these guitars look great on display at home, they make crowd-pleasing musical companions when tailgating before a game.
2020
The Last of Us II GS Mini
Our collaboration with game design studio Naughty Dog, creators of The Last of Us, produced two Taylor limited-edition models, a 314ce and a GS Mini, in conjunction with the release of The Last of Us Part II in 2020. Fans of the franchise (which was adapted into an award-winning dramatic TV series produced by HBO’s Max) know that Ellie — the heroine and plucky survivor who makes her way through The Last of Us Part II’s post-apocalyptic world — plays an acoustic guitar in the game.
The mahogany-top GS Mini we made featured trans black back, sides and neck and an opaque black top showcasing a contrasting white botanical pattern that reflects Ellie’s tattoo from The Last of Us Part II. On the headstock, the game logo is paired with the Taylor logo. These guitars were exclusively available for purchase through the Playstation store.
2023
Pierce the Veil Jaws of Life GS Mini
We worked with the post-hardcore/pop-punk band (and Taylor acoustic players) Pierce the Veil, hailing from Taylor’s hometown of San Diego, to design a special-edition GS Mini with a top featuring custom artwork from their 2023 release, The Jaws of Life. The guitar was designed for fans of the band to be able to purchase. It’s another example of how the Mini can be customized for collaborations with artists.
2024
Year of the Dragon Special-Edition GS Mini
To commemorate 2024 being the Year of the Dragon, we produced a run of Special Edition GS Mini guitars featuring a colorful dragon motif for our Chinese market. The custom artwork showcases Chinese-style dragon imagery over an eye-catching patterned red background. Similarly, in 2023, we designed a model to commemorate the Year of the Rabbit.
2024
Hop on a Cure GS Mini & GS Mini Bass
For years, Taylor has had close ties to Zac Brown and the longtime members of his band, including founding member, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist John Driscoll Hopkins. In 2021, Hopkins, aka “Hop,” was diagnosed with ALS. In an effort to accelerate the search for a cure, he and his wife, Jen, launched the Hop on a Cure Foundation. Taylor recently worked with the foundation to design a small run of custom GS Mini guitars — actually, guitars and GS Mini Basses — to be auctioned at a charity event. The tops feature the foundation’s logo and artwork. You can learn more about the foundation here.
2024
Dolly Parton GS Mini Concept Guitars
Music legend Dolly Parton plays a highly customized (spangled) GS Mini (decorated by her creative camp). So when she and her team were exploring some radio promotion ideas, we produced several art-top GS Minis as concept guitars for consideration. Her fans will recognize the butterfly motif showcased on one of the guitars (her record label is Butterfly Records).
