Taylor expands its Gold Label Collection with three Grand Concert models – including a signature model for singer-songwriter Ben Harper
Taylor has expanded its Gold Label Collection with three new Grand Concert models – including a new signature model for singer-songwriter and three-time Grammy winner Ben Harper.
The trio of new acoustics take Taylor’s classic, compact Grand Concert body shape and give it a deeper body for improved air resonance, warmth and low-end presence, while preserving the intimacy long-loved by Grand Concert fans.
And as new members of the Gold Label Collection – which launched in 2025 to blend vintage acoustic warmth with modern innovation – they feature Taylor’s signature Gold Label voicing, with fanned V-Class bracings and Action Control Necks, a patented neck system which offers improved resonance and on-the-fly string action control.
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Elsewhere, each of the three new models features a torrefied Sitka spruce top for a “seasoned, played-in sound from day one”, 24.875” scale length, Honduran rosewood “Curve Wing” bridge, cream binding with a black and white top purfling, cream/black rosette, cream Crest fretboard and peghead inlays, and a gloss finish.
Heading up the trio is the Ben Harper Gold Label 512 Special Edition, a new signature model for the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Having grown up working on instruments at his family’s Folk Music Center in Claremont, California, Harper brought “both a luthier’s ear and a touring musician’s practicality” to the partnership, Taylor says.
Features include mahogany back and sides paired with a Honduran rosewood fretboard, as well as an array of custom visual stylings, like a golden-brown shaded edgeburst top, cream pickguard, bronze mini tuners, bone bridge pins and a custom Ben Harper interior label. The model also incorporates Taylor’s new Claria electronics.
“If I could dream up a way to collaborate with a guitar maker, this would be it,” Harper says. “There was a simpatico relationship between what I do and what Taylor does that I recognised right away.”
Credit: Taylor Guitars
Meanwhile, the Gold Label 512e Grand Concert is marked as the collection’s “most approachable entry point”, with a solid mahogany back and sides paired with a torrified Sitka spruce top, plus a Firestripe pickguard and LR Baggs Element VTC electronics.
The Gold Label 712e Grand Concert pairs its torrefied Sitka spruce top with an Indian rosewood back and sides, as well as a West African ebony fingerboard, Firestripe pickguard and LR Baggs Element VTC electronics.
Credit: Taylor Guitars
“I wanted to feature the classic Grand Concert shape in its full, non-cutaway form and give it a warmer, more blended voice,” says Andy Powers, Taylor’s Chief Guitar Designer, President and CEO.
“The result feels instantly familiar in size and balance, yet delivers a richer, more robust sound with clear focus and a surprisingly strong lower register for a Grand Concert.”
Price-wise, the Ben Harper Gold Label 512e Special Edition is available now at $2,999, while the Gold Label 512e and 712e are priced at $2,799. All three models come with a Taylor Deluxe hardshell case.
Learn more at Taylor Guitars.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
