TAYLOR: 724ce Koa Grand Auditorium

SOME PEOPLE ARE obsessed with power; some are obsessed with fame. Taylor chief guitar designer, president and CEO Andy Powers is obsessed with koa, and that's the name of the game for the new additions to the 700 series: the 722ce Grand Concert and 724ce Grand Auditorium, the latter of which is on review here. It's a totally different take on the lovely Hawaiian hardwood from a manufacturer who is passionate about koa.

- JIMMY LESLIE

"I love building guitars out of koa," Powers says. "I love the look, the smell and the sound. This guitar started from materials as we furthered our relationship with our colleagues at Pacific Rim Tonewoods."

Whereas Taylor's luxurious Koa Series guitars are made from the highest instrument-grade wood, full of curls and swirls, and laced with copious organic appointments, these koa additions to the 700 series take a more workmanlike approach.

This essentially straight-grain koa is more uniquely streaked and less extravagantly figured than the Koa Series. And rather than a beautifully polished, multilayered high-gloss finish with a dark stain, the treatment here is super thin and practically unfinished, for a lighter appearance.

To be clear, Taylor's koa comes from the same sustainably managed Hawaiian forest. Some wood simply appears different inside the tree. It's analogous to some people having curly hair while others have straight hair. Powers saw it as an opportunity to make a more straightforward guitar with a different voicing for a different style player. He says, "I want the guitar to look the way it sounds, and sound the way it feels."

There is a direct correlation to Taylor's Ebony Project. Prior to it, everyone from loggers to manufacturers to players assumed that the only desirable ebony was solid dark wood. But that turned out to be a purely cosmetic concern resulting from collective expectations. When Taylor bought a West African ebony mill and started marketing "striped ebony" in a positive light, both in terms of forest management and aesthetics, lots of players agreed. Perfectly fine ebony trees no longer waste away in the forest after being cut open, and many players prefer the unique nature of striped ebony.

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