Dreadnought
Most Dreadnought players prefer a flatpicking, heavy-strumming guitar, able to put out some serious volume and beefy bass frequencies. Dreads (and Jumbo six-strings) have more bracing mass, so they shine as "plectrum" or "rhythm" guitars. Revoicing in 2003 (500 Series and up) created a completely new Taylor Dreadnought: louder, with deeper bass frequencies, yet manages to maintain the clarity and balance of our trademark Taylor tone.

Grand Concert
Smaller in size than the similarly-shaped Grand Auditorium, the Grand Concert is generally considered to be among the more "intimate" guitars. In 2004, however, we expanded its body depth by a quarter-inch and revoiced it to add volume and bass response (500 Series and up), giving it a tone that belies its size.

Grand Auditorium
The Grand Auditorium was Bob Taylor's first original design, introduced in 1994, on our 20th Anniversary. The GA, with its full body—larger than a Grand Concert, but easier to hold than a Dreadnought—quickly became the guitar that personified Taylor's trademark sound. The GA is a strong fingerpicking guitar that also can handle medium strumming. GA braces are narrower than a Dreadnought or a Jumbo. Because we removed mass from the width of the braces to enable the guitar top to move faster, the GAs tends to have a higher component of treble "zing" and a snappy, bell-like tone. That distinctive sound, and the full-but-not-overly-large body, makes the Grand Auditorium our most popular body style.

Jumbo
The bracing pattern we use for our Jumbo body-style allows these instruments to possess a deep, rich, thunderous voice without sacrificing any of the balanced Taylor-tone we are famous for. The Jumbo's size suits it perfectly for aggressive strumming, but it's capable of sublime subtleties as well. We use the Jumbo for many of our 12-string models because the deep bass tones nicely counterbalance the additional treble strings. We revoiced our Jumbo body-style in 2003 (500 Series and up), which allowed us to further enrich the bass tone and to provide even more volume. Up until that point, the Jumbo shared the same bracing pattern as our Dreadnought's, making the two guitars somewhat similar in tone (the main difference being the extra-deep resonance and volume delivered by the Jumbo's larger sound chamber). Now the Taylor Jumbo enjoys its own unique bracing pattern.

12-String
Twelve-strings generally employ heavier braces than 6-strings in order to handle the increased tension of twice the number of strings, and to prevent the top from being overdriven. Taylor 12-strings have thicker tops, thicker pin plates, and heavy, non-scalloped bracing, to support the top and adequately amplify the tone of the guitar. The one exception to this rule is our Leo Kottke Signature Model 12-string (LKSM), which has scalloped bracing designed to work with fat, heavy-gauge, low-tuned strings, to give the guitar its characteristic, "throaty-piano" tone.

Taylor 12-strings are available in either a Jumbo or Grand Auditorium body. Although the body shapes are quite different, the bracing pattern employed for both models is relatively similar.

Nylon String
The bracing on our Nylon Series guitars was inspired from patterns used by Jose Ramirez and Miguel Rodriguez, two builders who, in the 1800s and early 1900s, defined the style of modern classical bracing. Bob Taylor studied the work of these master builders, and after years of careful research and development came up with our unique nylon-string "fan-pattern" bracing. Because nylon strings generate less tension, a typical classical guitar has a thinner top and much lighter bracing, which makes the top prone to distortion. As always, Bob followed his ears while creating our unique ladder-style, asymmetrical fan pattern. His goal: an "open" sound that's clear and bright, strong in treble, and long on sustain.