A small-body nylon string with a Sitka spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, soft cutaway and Taylor ES-N electronics.
The flagship series of the acoustic/electric line traces back to Bob Taylor’s first rosewood guitars, which helped establish a modern acoustic guitar sound. The addition of Taylor’s easy-to-play 2012 812ce-N Rosewood/Spruce Nylon String Grand Concert Acoustic-Electric Guitar to the series speaks to the emergence of nylon tone as an increasingly popular acoustic flavor for contemporary players.
Grand Concert (GC)
Body Width: 15" / Body Depth: 4-3/8" / Body Length: 19-1/2"
A smaller bodied guitar ideally suited for fingerstyle.
The small-body Grand Concert debuted in 1984 to meet the needs of a new wave of adventurous acoustic fingerstyle players. In contrast to the traditionally darker, boomier voices of bigger body styles like dreadnoughts and jumbos, the GC’s compact size and tapered waist kept the overtones in check. It was also more comfortable to play while sitting down, and the guitar’s slightly wider neck gave players more room for complex fingerings. The GC’s smaller sonic footprint also fit cleanly in a mix with other instruments when tracking in the studio and with a band on stage, making it a useful tool for professional session and side players. The current generation of GC models continues to accommodate fingerstylists with finger-friendly traits like a shorter 24-7/8-inch scale length, which makes fretting easier and adds a slightly slinkier feel on the strings due to the lighter string tension. If you feel more comfortable with a small body or favor controlled overtones, a Grand Concert is a great option.
Indian Rosewood
One of the most popular and traditional guitar woods of all time, rosewood takes the basic sonic thumbprint of mahogany (which has a strong midrange) and expands it in both directions. Rosewood sounds deeper in the low end and brighter on the top end (one might describe the treble notes as zesty, sparkly or sizzly, with more articulation). If you look at its frequency range visually, rosewood would appear to be more scooped in the middle, yielding less midrange bloom than mahogany. Like mahogany, rosewood’s vintage heritage has helped firmly establish its acoustic legacy. It’s a great sound in part because we know that sound. In some music circles in which preserving the traditional sound helps bring a sense of authenticity to the music — certain strains of Americana, for example — rosewood has an iconic status. Also like mahogany, rosewood is a versatile tonewood, which has contributed to its popularity. One can fingerpick it, strum it and flatpick it. It’s very consistent, so players can usually rely on it to deliver.
ES-N®
Like the the ES-T, The ES-N is a single-source, under-saddle transducer, but the preamp design and tone controls were customized to complement the nylon-string voice. Standard ES control knobs enable plenty of tone-shaping and preserve the natural design aesthetic.
