Taylor Gold Label Grand Pacific 517e Acoustic Electric Guitar with Case
Golden Tone, Part Two: Introducing the Gold Label Grand Pacific
Taylor’s warm-voiced Gold Label Collection grows to feature a powerhouse new
Grand Pacific with a deeper body and sound. Launched in January 2025, the Gold Label Collection introduced a rounder, warmer, more robust flavor of acoustic tone inspired by an older, more traditional acoustic sound — a dramatically different sonic personality from anything previously crafted by Taylor.
Andy Powers has reimagined his Grand Pacific shape with a deeper-bodied design for the Gold Label Collection — it’s 3/8-inch deeper (5-inch body depth at the soundhole). The extra depth gives the guitar extra “lung capacity” and a deeper resonant frequency. This translates into more low-end expansiveness, power and projection — the guitar has more sonic push toward an audience or a microphone, yet with pleasing musical clarity. Even the treble notes have enhanced warmth and depth. Compared to the Gold Label Super Auditorium, the curves and depth of the Grand Pacific produce even more volume and tonal depth. Its voice is earthy, honest and uncomplicated — like sonic comfort food. A reliable acoustic workhorse — both seasoned and soulful.
The Grand Pacific 517e enters the world as another great offering from Taylor, for players that desire a deeper sound, with the traditional tonewood of mahogany for the back & sides. That's matched with a torrefied spruce top that even distributes vibrations to help create a well-balanced sound.
Exclusive to the Gold Label Collection, the new Action Control Neck design combines the tonal benefits of a long-tenon neck joint with easy neck angle micro-adjustability, allowing the string height (action) to be tweaked with unprecedented ease and precision. The long tenon extends deeper into the guitar body and, together with the heel structure, enhances the wood coupling to produce greater low-end resonance and a sound comparable to traditional neck designs. Like Taylor’s existing neck, the neck joint is glueless, but
instead of incorporating tapered shims to calibrate the neck angle, the design is shimless. The string height can be adjusted literally in seconds by using a quarter-inch nut driver (or standard truss rod wrench) on a bolt in the neck block, accessible inside the soundhole. Neither the neck nor the strings need to be removed to make adjustments. The design serves players by allowing them to adjust their string height for different playing styles, applications or climate conditions as often as they like
Fitting into the distinctive design aesthetic of the Gold Label Collection, the guitars feature Andy’s modified headstock shape with an angled back cut and scriptstyle Taylor logo inlay, a different pickguard shape, and a Honduran rosewood Curve Wing bridge. They feature a full-gloss body with three finish options for the top: here we have the 517e in Natural.
Clean, understated appointments reflect a down-to-earth, workhorse spirit. The guitar has the “Crest” inlay motif in cream featuring simple dot/diamond position markers in the fretboard and is crowned with a new headstock inlay. Cream binding with simple black/white top purfling and a single-ring rosette in cream and black with black/white purfling. Other features include a Firestripe pickguard and Indian rosewood bridge pins.
This model includes LR Baggs Element VTC electronics for warm, balanced amplified sound and ships with a deluxe hardshell case featuring a British Cocoa exterior.
- Back and Sides: Mahogany
- Top: Torrefied Spruce
- Neck: Mahogany
- Fretboard: West African Crelicam Ebony
- Tuning Machines: Taylor Nickel
- Nut Width: 1-3/4”
- Scale Length: 25-1/2”
- Bracing: Fanned V-Class
- Bridge: Honduran Rosewood “Curve Wing”
- Bridge Pins: Indian Rosewood
- Nut: TUSQ
- Saddle: Micarta
- Finish: Gloss Body, Satin Neck
- Electronics: LR Baggs Element VTC
- Strings: D’Addario XS Coated Phosphor Bronze Light
- Guitar Case: Taylor Deluxe Hardshell Case, “British Cocoa” Vinyl Exterior
SKU A525042018105750000