Taylor Custom Shop Guitars: What Makes Them Special?

Taylor Custom Shop Grand Pacific Western Red Cedar and Walnut

This is a Taylor Grand Pacific built from western red cedar for the top paired with walnut for the back and sides as well as a figured mahogany neck! Walnut is similar to koa in its density and stiffness that give a bright and snappy treble, but there's a more present midrange that 'splits the difference between rosewood and mahogany'. The western red cedar is less dense than spruce and has a nice softness to it - there's a bit of a ceiling to the volume of cedar that acts like a natural compressor as you drive it harder. For cosmetics, we went a unique way with this guitar: eye-catching bloodwood for the binding and rosette, with Diamond fretboard inlays carved from bloodwood and ivoroid.

Taylor Custom Shop Grand Pacific Hawaiian Koa

This is a gorgeous Taylor Grand Pacific built from AA-grade Hawaiian koa. Finished in a Shaded Edgeburst finish, we wanted to go all-out when it came to making this an ornate instrument. This Grand Pacific is bound in abalone and paua with the fretboard extension added in and the fretboard has the famous Spring Vine inlay made of the very same materials. This Grand Pacific has a crisp, bold tone right out of the case and we can only imagine how good it will sound once the koa starts to open up with more play time!

Taylor Custom Shop Grand Auditorium 12-Fret Hawaiian Koa

This might be our very favorite from our batch of Zoo-spec'd Taylor Custom Shop guitars: a 12-Fret Grand Auditorium of gorgeous AA-grade Hawaiian koa with a Shaded Edgeburst finish and Florentine cutaway. The guitar has a Shaded Edgeburst gloss finish with a smooth satin-finished figured mahogany neck and a Spring Vine inlaid ebony fretboard. The 12-Fret neck makes this guitar have a very slinky feel and a round bass, it's one of our favorites for fingerstyle playing. Of course, that koa is going to open up over the years to come, which is hard to believe since it already sounds so good!