Taylor Gold Label 517e Acoustic-electric Guitar - Natural with Firestripe Pickguard
Acoustic-electric Guitar with Spruce Top, Mahogany Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, and Ebony Fingerboard - Natural with Firestripe Pickguard
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Price:$2,799 and 00 cents
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Taylor Gold Label 517e Acoustic-electric Guitar - Natural with Firestripe Pickguard
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Tech Specs
- String Type: Steel
- Number of Strings: 6
- Left-/Right-handed: Right-handed
- Body Shape: Dreadnought
- Back & Sides Wood: Tropical Mahogany
- Top Wood: Sitka Spruce
- Top Finish: Gloss
- Color: Natural
- Body Bracing: Fanned V-Class
- Binding: Black, White Plastic
- Neck Wood: Tropical Mahogany
- Neck Finish: Satin
- Neck Shape: Standard Carve
- Radius: 15"
- Fingerboard Material: Crelicam Ebony
- Fingerboard Inlay: Dots
- Number of Frets: 20
- Scale Length: 25.5"
- Scale Length Type: Standard-scale
- Nut Width: 1.75"
- Nut Material: White Tusq
- Electronics: LR Baggs Element
- Strings: D'Addario XS Phosphor Bronze Light, .012-.053
- Case/Gig Bag: Hardshell Case
- Manufacturer Part Number: A525042018105750000
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Reviews
Taylor Gold Label 517e Guitar - Sounds Great!
This Taylor Gold Label 517e guitar is the second Andy Powers' designed Taylor acoustic guitar I have acquired. I am an unabashed acoustic guitar geek and Mr. Powers has continued the Tayor tradition of innovation and, IMHO has upped the game. His "tone target" for this guitar is the "prewar" sound, which has traditionally been Martin territory. Unsurprisingly a number of luthiers have chosen prewar Martins to imitate. I own a Santa Cruz D/PW which is a dreadnaught also designed to capture that prewar muse. I compared the two and also to a number of other dreads.
The first thing I noticed when playing this guitar is how LOUD it is. It is a round shoulder dread, but Mr. Powers added quite a bit of depth to the body. This improves the bass response some but really makes this one of the loudest acoustic dreads I have played. It was easy for it to shout over my Brazilian rosewood D-35 and the Indian rosewood Santa Cruz D/PW. As a mahogany guitar it carries that tonewood's crispness as well. It has excellent mid-range clarity, partly a result of the mahogany I'm sure, but also a Taylor hallmark. The overall sound is big, and broad. As a mahogany instrument it should really be compared to a prewar D-18 which I do not have in my possession. I have only played one prewar D-18 and in my recollection, it was more responsive to bare fingerpicking than this Gold Label 517e, but much quieter. It has a more even treble-bass response than my rosewood dreads, although the D-35 does a much better job of that than a D-28 does, being a more modern design. The guitar sounds great, whether finger picked, flat picked or strummed. Very satisfying to play.
There is much more designed into this guitar than just a big "prewar" sound. It has Mr. Powers new bracing scheme which Taylor calls "V-class bracing" which Mr. Powers claims gives him more control over voicing the guitar than traditional X-bracing. It also has Taylor's new "Action Control Neck." These are innovations that appeal to guitar geek in me. I cannot comment on how V-class bracing allows for better voicing than x-class braces. I can say it sounds great, and all my other guitars that have X-bracing sound great also. The action control neck is something I have not tried out yet, but it is supposed to eliminate the need for saddle changes when doing setups or string height adjustments. Since I have long done my own guitar set-ups and adjustments I am looking forward to trying that out.
As the guitar arrived new from Sweetwater the guitar was immaculate. Sweetwater's pre-shipping checkout of the instrument was very thorough. And though the guitar is quite playable at factory specs I will be deepening the nut slots a bit, after which I will measure the string height at the 12th fret and maintain that at .080-.090" with the "Action Control Neck". Neck relief seems about right for me.
If you like a big, bold dreadnaught sound with deep bass and crisp mids and trebles for soloing you won't be disappointed with this guitar.
Fantastic neck
See also:
6-String Guitars, Taylor, Taylor 6-string Acoustic Guitars, Taylor Acoustic / Electric Guitars
