Taylor Builders Edition 517e Grand Pacific

review
TAYLOR BUILDER’S EDITION 717E & 517E GRAND PACIFIC
102
Guitarist april 2019
endpoints giving a little more comfort,
like the noticeably chamfered edge of the
binding along with a more rounded nose to
the heel (which, incidentally, has no strap
button). Subtle, yes, but both help with
making the design feel more comfortable
and more hand-tooled.
While pure acoustic models are offered,
our electro versions feature the Taylor ES-2
with its trio of discrete controls – volume,
bass and treble – on the upper shoulder. The
output doubles as the only strap button on
the base of the guitar where you also change
the battery to power the preamp.
As with any of the new V-Class models,
you’ll see a new Taylor label along with a
black graphite loaded nut. Peer through the
soundhole and you’ll also see the angled
back braces and, as ever, Taylor’s exemplary
craft is hard to fault, but there are numerous
changes to the recipe beyond its internal
voicing. Its neck shape, for example, is
classed as having a “compound carve neck
profile, which subtly transitions from a
slight V at the nut to a rounded C, and
features a rounded ridge-less heel”.
There appears to be a little more heft
to the neck with a front-to-back width of
approximately 22mm at the 1st fret and
24.3mm by the 10th. The fingerboard edges
are lightly rounded, too, which gives the
neck a less pristine feel, while fretting from
Taylor’s standard medium/small gauge
and the new ‘arrowheads’ inlays (grained
ivoroid on the 517 and mother-of-pearl on
the 717) are typically sharply done.
There’s a new ‘curve wing’ bridge design
that rounds the sharp points of the bridge
Feel & Sounds
Picking up the 517e, the first thing you
notice is the satin finish, which feels smooth
and has a very old-world quality to it. We
put the ‘silent satin’ through its paces and,
sure enough, it didn’t squeak once!
The neck feels comfortable, the advances
here – the transition from V to C – are
subtle and certainly don’t throw anything
unexpected under the wheels of your
playing style. Just like most compound
radius fingerboards we’ve tried in the
past, if you didn’t actually know they were
there, you wouldn’t immediately detect any
change of feel while casually polishing up
your ditty repertoire. Once informed, you
might conclude that Taylor’s Compound
Carve is aiding your transit from low
positions to high, but many, we suspect, will
be content to remain in blissful ignorance,
so subtle is its effect.
The 517e is well balanced on the lap when
playing in a sitting position. The lack of a
second heel-mounted strap peg prevents us
Taylor’s craft is hard
to fault, but there are
numerous changes to
the recipe beyond its
internal voicing
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GIT444.rev_taylor.indd 102 2/21/19 2:18 PM