Taylor 317e Grand Pacific with V-Class Bracing - Natural

Grand Pacific: innovation and evolution

With the Grand Pacific, Taylor master luthier Andy Powers has fulfilled the potential of V-class bracing as a robust tone-shaping platform. The Grand Pacific demonstrates proof of concept that V-class architecture is an ideal cornerstone for guitars with a versatile range of musical personalities that will appeal to a broad swath of players cross-genre. Inspired by the diverse acoustic guitar sounds on the records he heard while growing up in Southern California, Andy set out to diversify Taylor’s tonal palette by designing a guitar with a different sound profile.

A bold new round-shoulder guitar from Taylor

Although V-class bracing gave Andy more ways to control a guitar's tonal character, Andy also knew a new body shape would be required, something with roughly the dimensions of a dreadnought. With V-class, he could eliminate the undesirable sonic characteristics generally ascribed to dreadnoughts. All this led to the round-shoulder dreadnought design Taylor calls the Grand Pacific. The Grand Pacific’s overall sound is warm and seasoned, producing notes that overlap more to create a smooth, blended sound. Its wider waist delivers more low-frequency power, the problematic low-end woodiness often associated with dreadnoughts being eliminated by the V-class bracing.

Exceptional tonewoods deliver timeless tone

As a top tonewood, Sitka spruce offers a combination of strength and elasticity that delivers a broad dynamic range with crisp articulation that's ideal for a wide range of playing styles, from delicate fingerpicking to aggressive flatpicked strumming. Sapele, used for the back and sides of the 317e Grand Pacific, is tonally similar to mahogany, but its higher density tends to produce a slightly brighter sound with more high-end shimmer. The characteristic sapele sound is consistently balanced across the tonal spectrum, which makes it, again, suitable to a broad range of playing styles.