Gold Label. Grand Pacific.

Taylor builds acoustic guitars in two facilities: our headquarters and factory in El Cajon, California (just outside San Diego), and factory in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico, located an hour away.

The guitars completed in our California facility feature all-solid-wood construction (meaning the top, back and sides are crafted with solid wood). In terms of our lineup and model number designations, that means all guitars from the 300 Series up through our Presentation Series are completed in the U.S. That also includes guitars from our Gold Label, Legacy and Builder’s Edition collections. Because these Series and Collections comprise the more premium side of our lineup, you can also generally expect U.S.-made Taylor guitars to have more decorative elements, such as fretboard inlays, binding, finishes, rosettes and purfling. We also build electric guitars under the Powers Electric brand in our California factory.

Guitars produced in Mexico consist of backs and sides made with layered woods, which we always pair with a solid-wood top. Using layered woods allows us to craft guitars that are structurally stable and rich-sounding at a lower price than guitars made with all-solid woods. And because an acoustic guitar’s top has the most influence over its tone, you’re still going to hear bold, clear, balanced sound from a Taylor guitar built in Mexico—and the price may be more attractive to a less experienced player. Likewise, our factory in Mexico boasts exceptionally sophisticated manufacturing technology that ensures a consistently high standard of quality for every instrument. We also produce Taylor hardshell guitar cases and some of our gig bags in our Tecate facility.

As mentioned above, we believe that playing comfort is by far the most important factor when it comes to a new player picking up an acoustic guitar. Young learners and first-time players will benefit greatly from learning on a guitar that is comfortable to hold and easy to play. Because Taylor has always prioritized playability and comfort, we think that’s a great reason for new players to consider a Taylor for their first guitar.

In addition to building guitars with slender, comfortable necks and a wide variety of body shapes to accommodate every type of person and player, we also offer a few features that are beneficial to first-time and younger players.

• We include a protective guitar case with every model—another factor that sets Taylor apart from other manufacturers. No matter what type of Taylor you buy or how much you spend, you will receive some type of case for your new guitar. For guitars built in our California factory, that means you’ll get either a deluxe hardshell case or our proprietary AeroCase, a soft-sided guitar case that is exceptionally durable despite its lighter weight. Taylor acoustic guitars built in Mexico usually include a padded or structured gig bag, an AeroCase, or for deluxe models, a hardshell case.
• Most Taylor acoustic guitars include built-in electronics. While musicians are usually attracted to acoustic guitars for their unique non-amplified sound, many players will at some point want to amplify their guitar, whether for a gig, an audition or a recording situation. With a few exceptions, Taylor acoustic guitars feature built-in pickups that make it easy to plug in and play through an amplifier, PA, mixing board or recording interface. Our ES2 (Expression System 2) is a proprietary pickup and preamp combination that delivers clear, authentic tone when you need to plug in. Some models will include other types of acoustic pickups, such as the ES-B (which features a built-in digital tuner that is very helpful for new players), the ES-N (specifically for guitars with nylon strings) and the LR Baggs Element VTC (mostly featured in more premium guitars like those from our Gold Label Collection).
• We carefully set up every single guitar before it leaves our factory. Another element of our commitment to an accommodating, comfortable playing experience, our Final Assembly department performs a complete setup of every guitar to ensure that it arrives in the store with perfect, easy-playing action and clear sound. That means as a new or young player, you can count on Taylor guitars being comfortable and easy to play right out of the case—you won’t find yourself fighting the instrument as you try to develop your skills.
• We offer a wide range of guitar accessories to enhance your development as a player. The TaylorWare shop boasts everything from padded guitar straps and a broad variety of guitar picks to guitar stands, guitar care products and the Beacon multi-tool, which includes a digital tuner, metronome and timer.
• We provide industry-leading customer service. Taylor’s customer service and repair departments are among the most respected in the guitar industry, and we believe in doing everything we can to ensure that you have a great experience with your Taylor guitar as long as you own it. In the event that your guitar needs repairs, we have an extensive network of highly trained, authorized service centers around the world in addition to our in-house service department in El Cajon, California. 

Every Taylor guitar is covered under our limited warranty. Specific coverages vary by country. You can learn more about the warranty coverage for your region from the warranty section of our website.

To initiate any service requests, warranty issues or simply to get help with your guitar, we recommend contacting our customer service department.

Like other questions related to sound, this one is challenging to answer because tone is so subjective. However, we can provide some general concepts to help you navigate the Taylor guitar lineup. Since we covered body shapes above, let’s start with woods.

Taylor builds guitars with a variety of different tonewoods, which we break down into top woods and body/back and side woods. Here’s a rundown of the most common tonewoods.

Top Woods:

• Spruce: By far the most common top wood for acoustic guitars, spruce offers a combination of flexibility and strength that makes it ideal for soundboards (tops). It tends to produce a clear, balanced voice with rich projection and volume, while also remaining sensitive to a soft touch so that players can explore the dynamics of music with a softer or more aggressive attack. Spruce is highly versatile and performs beautifully across virtually every playing style and genre.
• Mahogany: A tropical hardwood, mahogany produces a focused midrange character with a dry, woody quality. When used as a top wood, it also offers a touch of natural compression that helps to even out an aggressive attack, providing a balanced voice that makes it a good choice for flatpickers. 
• Hawaiian Koa: Also beloved for its rich visual beauty and striking coloration, Hawaiian koa produces a bold, sparkling tone that grows warmer as the wood matures with play and time. It also generates a bit of treble presence that makes it a good choice for flatpickers or fingerpickers.
• Cedar: A softer wood than spruce, mahogany or koa, cedar has historically been used as a top wood for nylon-string guitars. It offers a warm, round tone with a clear response to a soft touch, making it a good choice for classical or fingerstyle players.

Body Woods

• Indian Rosewood: Usually combined with spruce, Indian rosewood is one of the most common and beloved back and side woods for acoustic guitars because of its warmth, treble-range clarity, slightly scooped midrange and rich, blooming overtones. That tone profile makes it a great choice for almost any playing style or genre, and it’s also ideal for musicians who sing while they play.
• Mahogany: As a back and side wood, mahogany generates a focused, fundamental-strong quality with controlled overtones—the note you play is the note you’ll hear. It also produces greater midrange presence than rosewood, making it a versatile wood that is especially beloved by strummers.
• Hawaiian Koa: As when used as a top wood, koa as a back and side wood generates a punchy, vibrant voice with a bold top end and a bass range that grows more pronounced as the wood matures. It serves up an articulate sound and can be especially appealing to players who perform flatpicked lead lines or intricate fingerstyle patterns.
• Maple: Typically thought of by guitar players as a “bright” tonewood with a pronounced treble range, Taylor utilizes techniques that help balance out maple’s top end with more presence in the midrange and low end. Maple is known for cutting through a sound mix with other instruments, allowing the guitar to be heard clearly. 
• Sapele: A cousin of mahogany, sapele shares many of that wood’s sonic traits, including its midrange focus and controlled overtone response.

Other back and side woods are often included in the Taylor line, such as Honduran rosewood, walnut, red ironbark and Shamel ash.

When it comes to matching an acoustic guitar body shape to a particular genre or playing style, it can be helpful to think in terms of size. Generally speaking, a more compact shape like the Grand Concert tends to be preferred by fingerstyle players who value articulation over power and volume. Larger body shapes like the Grand Pacific, Dreadnought or Jumbo tend to produce more projection and volume, making them ideal for strumming styles. For players who want a guitar that can handle strumming, flatpicking and fingerpicking equally, we recommend the Grand Auditorium, which we consider to be a Swiss-Army-knife shape that performs well in virtually any application.