BAR-8-L Baritone Mahogany/Spruce 8-String Left-Handed Acoustic-Electric Guitar

A truly unique voice, the Baritone 8-String complements the lower tonal range by pairing two octave strings with the third and fourth strings, adding a touch of upper-octave brightness without too much 12-string jangle. The BAR-8-L Baritone Mahogany/Spruce 8-String Left-Handed Acoustic-Electric Guitar is a guitar with incredible tonal range, perfect for walking basslines and rich melodies. All Taylor baritones feature a GS body and are tuned to B with a longer 27" scale length, which maintains normal string tension.

Grand Symphony (GS)
Body Width: 15" / Body Depth: 4-3/8" / Body Length: 19-1/2"
The ultimate Taylor strummer.

The Grand Symphony shape joined the line in 2006 and delivers Taylor™s boldest, richest acoustic voice. Think of it as a Grand Auditorium with a turbo boost, thanks to expanded physical dimensions, including a slightly wider waist and a bigger lower bout. Strummers and pickers with a driving attack will love the fullness, volume and sustain. Yet for such a robust voice, the GS is also clear and responsive to fast picking runs or a light fingerstyle touch, so if you'e a dynamic player, this shape is a true contender. And the big voice doesn™t come at the expense of balance. The piano-like bass, meaty midrange, and thick, shimmering highs blend seamlessly. These traits also make the GS a great vehicle for 12-strings. If you like a lush, potent guitar tone that has the horsepower to compete with other acoustic cannons out there, the GS shape is a worthy choice.

Tropical Mahogany
Origin: Central and South America
Mahogany is a good wood to anchor a discussion of tones, as a lot of other wood tones can be described in relation to it. Its essential sonic profile is well represented in the midrange frequencies. Acoustic guitars in general tend to live in the midrange portion of the sound spectrum, but mahogany in particular displays a lot of midrange character. That thick, present midrange sound is sometimes described in guitar circles as meaty, organic or even œchewy ” wherever a player digs in on the fretboard, they'e tapping into the core of the harmonic content of what a guitar produces. Those great midrange frequencies produce overtones that stack up and produce bloom, giving the sound extra girth. When one hears the resulting harmonics, the œchewy tone serves up a big mouthful of midrange. As a popular tonewood for many decades, mahogany has been used on scads of old school acoustic recordings, and that sonic heritage carries across various strains of roots music, from blues to folk to slack key.

Goes well with: A broad range of players and musical styles; people who like a well-balanced tone, nice dynamic range and a healthy serving of overtones. Blues and other rootsy players tend to respond well to mahogany™s midrange character. A smaller body mahogany guitar (GC or GA) might appeal to fingerstyle players, whereas more aggressive flatpickers might opt for a mahogany Dreadnought or GS. For versatility, a mahogany GA is a good bet. Because of mahogany™s midrange, a player with œdark hands will tend to sound darker on a mahogany guitar. A bright player will sound slightly less bright.

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™s why we spent several years developing the onboard acoustic pickup and preamp. Taylor™s 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™s 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 their acoustic guitars, which allowed Taylor 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.