Taylor Builders Edition 517e Grand Pacific

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april 2019 Guitarist
reviewTaylor Builder’s edition 717e & 517e Grand Pacific Taylor Builder’s edition 717e & 517e Grand Pacific
from commenting on how the guitar would
fare when standing, but there’s nothing
here that would lead us to suspect you’d
experience anything untoward.
As to its voice, maybe it’s that change
of bracing, but that ripe ol’ dreadnought
thickness in the midrange has all but
disappeared. Let’s not forget, though, that
this is a modern dread, with a contemporary
pickup system and not something that relies
on an enhanced lower middle response
to be heard via a microphone in live
performance, as was once the case. Then
it was down to the more boom the better,
but today we live in a more technologically
enlightened world. Instead, here we are
treated to a smooth equality across the
frequency range, and while it might not
be the loudest dread we’ve encountered,
it certainly has charm.
Moving on to the 717e, we’re struck once
again by how similar both these models are,
to the extent that we had to keep checking
the internal labels to tell them apart.
Naturally, the rosewood’s presence here
on back and sides has a different cosmetic
appearance to the mahogany, but in a low
light, you’d be hard pushed to tell them
apart. Of course, with semi-identical twins
like this – in terms of body size and general
build at least – you’d expect a similar
playing experience, the sound coloured
by the different timber, and that’s almost
exactly what you get. The mahogany-
backed 517e is a little glassier sounding, the
rosewood 717e more earthy, with a smidge
more bass and lower midrange presence.
Always a case of personal preference, the
choice would be yours, depending on what
your ears tell you.
Through our standard issue AER
Compact 60, the twins’ slight difference
in sonic personality is delivered faithfully,
the 717e just having the edge to our ears,
but that could be down to a personal bias to
the charms of rosewood on behalf of your
humble scribe. Taylor’s tried-and-tested
Expression System 2 offers optimum
5. The ‘silent satin’ finish
on both Taylors is
reputedly squeak-free,
unlike some gloss
finishes. We put the
theory to the test and
didn’t hear a peep out
of either of them!
6. Despite the preamp
controls being
unlabelled, it doesn’t
take the player long to
learn which is which
7. The Taylor headstock
is the epitome of
understated elegance
8. The tuners are
nickel-plated and
Taylor-branded and, in
our tests, they were as
stable as a rock
7
8
THE RIVALS
At this price point, you’re probably going
to be looking over Martin’s fence first when
making a purchasing decision, with the
redoubtable D-28 reimagined at around
£2.4k or the D-18 at £2.6k being the main
challengers. Collings’ D2H puts another
grand on the price tag at £4.3k with the
option of an Adirondack top at £4.8k.
Yamaha’s prestige dreadnoughts are
worthy of note here, such as the LL26
ARE at just over £3k, and Takamine’s Pro
Series 7 range (prices vary) is definitely
worth checking out, too.
You could even swerve into the hand-
built world with an Atkin Essential
dreadnought at £2.6k or a D37 at £2.8k,
and Roger Bucknall at Fylde Guitars in
Penrith will build you a dreadnought-sized
Falstaff for £3.6k. The field is wide open,
just bring your ears!
Video demo http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT444.rev_taylor.indd 103 2/21/19 2:18 PM