2012 Fall Limited Presentation Series Grand Auditorium Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Macassar ebony and sinker redwood together are both visually and tonally special. Add the stunning aesthetic details of Taylor' Presentation Series and the guitar becomes a playable piece of art. Tonally, sinker has a level of warmth and brilliance that has spawned the characterization œcedar on steroids, and Macassar' slightly darker tone is a great match. Together the warmth and complexity yield a more mature sound, the opposite of bright and punchy. If you play a variety of styles and have a light to medium touch, the Grand Auditorium version is a great choice. If youa crave a bigger, bolder sound, the Grand Symphony is a good fit.

Grand Auditorium (GA)
Body Length: 20" / Body Width: 16" / Body Depth: 4 5/8"
Taylor' signature shape embodies the ultimate all-purpose acoustic.

Their most popular and versatile body shape, the mid-size Grand Auditorium arrived in 1994 bearing refined proportions that fell between a Dreadnought and Grand Concert. While the bigger Dreadnought was traditionally considered a flatpicker' guitar and the smaller Grand Concert catered to fingerstylists, the GA was designed to deliver on both fronts. The shape produced an original acoustic voice that was big enough to handle medium-strength picking and strumming, yet with impressive balance across the tonal spectrum, especially in the midrange, producing clear, well-defined notes that suited both strumming and fingerstyle playing.

The GA' overall presence tracks well with other instruments both in a studio mix and on stage, and singer-songwriters have embraced its utility both for composing and traveling with one guitar. Many people want a single guitar that can cover a variety of styles, which is why the GA continues to be our bestselling shape. If you want a great all-purpose guitar, the multi-dimensional GA won™t let you down.

Macassar Ebony
Origin: Indonesia
Another dense hardwood, Macassar boasts a lot of presence and is typically clear and loud with a broad dynamic range. It seems to be a wood that is uniquely responsive to different playing styles. It has a strong bass and lower mids; clear and transparent highs that respond like an accelerator pedal as you move your right hand closer to the bridge and dig in a bit; and a slightly scooped midrange.

Macassar likes to be played hard, and tends to take a slightly longer period of playing time to open up. When it's used with a softer top wood like cedar or redwood, it makes a balanced instrument. When topped with Adirondack spruce it becomes an all-out cannon. Some players tend to pull more brightness out of the wood; others, like Bob Taylor, tap into its darker side.

"To me, Macassar has a great 'low-fi,' old Gibson vibe," Bob says. "It's dark, it's dense, it's heavy. It's killer for a very manly, old school strum. We put a super clear 'finishing salt' on its tonal flavor using our style of construction to brighten it up, but to my ear the tonal beauty of this wood is the low-fi vibe. I love the sound. I bought one."

Goes Well With: Old-school strummers and players with a heavy picking hand who like a thick old school sound; players who struggle to get enough brightness and articulation from traditional woods.

Expression System
Natural Sound Made Simple
People love the clear, full acoustic tone of their Taylors. Why should it be any different when they plug in? That' why we spent several years developing our own onboard acoustic pickup and preamp. Taylor' ground-breaking Expression System (ES) was designed to naturally amplify the warm acoustic sound of your guitar.

The ES is an all-magnetic acoustic guitar pickup system that works like a microphone to produce a pure signal and a warm, natural acoustic sound. When you plug in, you'll hear the sound of your guitar, not the sound of the pickup. No complicated controls. No tone simulators. Just a clean amplified acoustic guitar sound supported by three simple controls ” volume, bass and treble.

Breakthrough Technology
Years of research brought Taylor to a simple realization: Nothing sounds as true and musical as a microphone. With that as a starting point, Taylor' David Hosler led the team responsible for the Expression System's breakthrough technology. Utilizing a unique Dynamic Body Sensor mounted to the soundboard, a Dynamic String Sensor embedded beneath the fretboard, and a discrete preamp, the advanced ES technology is unlike any other guitar pickup system.

Integrated Design
The ES was designed in-house, alongside our acoustic guitars, which allowed us to build the ES seamlessly into the design of the guitar, for an integrated pickup system unlike any other. From the design and location of the body and string sensors to the voicing of the preamp, the ES is fully optimized for the Taylor sound. The elegant design, including the non-intrusive control knobs, also preserves the aesthetic of a Taylor guitar.