Grand Designs

Taylor has revamped its 'workhorse' rosewood and spruce 400 Series for this year to feature sunburst tops and new inlays. Then we have the innovative V-Class bracing, not to mention the ES2 electronics. A match made in heaven?

- Neville Marten

Taylor’s chief designer and CEO Andy Powers has been working his way through each of the company’s acoustic guitar ranges, upgrading and modernising them to the latest specs. This has included the launch of new body styles, such as the Grand Pacific shape featured in the American Dream Series and on the 417e we see here, adding the groundbreaking V-Class bracing system along the way, and sourcing alternative timbers such as urban ironbark, and some less outrageously figured koa.

The 417’s longer scale on its 14-fret neck join feels as spacious and welcoming as the cutaway 412ce

The 400 Series represents “the most accessible presentation of solid rosewood/ spruce guitars in the Taylor line”, we’re told: a pairing of Indian rosewood and Sitka spruce. There are three instruments in the series, the two we have on review, plus the Taylor classic shape, the Grand Auditorium 414ce, which sits in the middle, size-wise, of the trio. All three are priced identically and, other than the obvious differences in outline, share identical specifications.

So, what we get is dark and straightgrained East Indian rosewood on the bodies, solid Sitka spruce tops with tobacco sunburst finish, neo-tropical mahogany necks and Crelicam ebony fingerboards. Taylor’s evergreen Expression System 2 powers all three, the shoulder-mounted volume, bass and treble controls there to tailor your tone with the minimum of fuss.