Taylor Guitars has opened 2026 with an almighty mic drop, expanding its “heritage-inspired” Gold Label series and debuting the Next Generation of its flagship Grand Auditorium – introducing a trio of features that make its super-versatile high-end acoustic guitar even more refined.
At first blush, you would be forgiven for not noticing too many changes. The Taylor Grand Auditorium looks like the Taylor Grand Auditorium; immaculately built, pristine, business as usual. But the Next Generation Grand Auditorium has three new features that drive the design forward.
That promises to translate to more warmth, richness and low-end, with the same “pitch accuracy, projection and sustain” that made V-Class bracing such a ground-breaking proposition in the first place.
“Like any recipe, it’s a careful balance that you want to make, so that you don’t have one thing overpowering anything else,” says Powers. “On these guitars, you have this incredible, brilliant, real vibrant upper register – great accuracy, great balance – and yet, when I come down to the lower register, all the notes have this classic warmth, a nice presence.
“There’s a familiarity for anybody who’s played guitar for a long time. It feels great when you’re strumming chords, you’re a rhythm player, you’re accompanying a vocalist, something like that. It works really well.”
Secondly, these models come with Action Control Neck systems as standard, allowing players to make super-easy adjustments to their guitar’s action.
It’s pretty much a simple case of reaching into the soundhole and turning a bolt, and you can set it low for that quasi-electric guitar action, or a little higher so those strings have a bit more room to vibrate if you are strumming big open chords.
The Action Control Neck system features a long neck tenon that extends deep into the guitar’s body. Unlike traditional dovetail neck joints, it is supposedly easier to repair.
“We want the guitar to be playing an optimum condition, no matter where in the world you go, how old the guitar is, what the environment’s like,” says Powers. “And so this design was something that we rolled out this last year on our Gold Label guitars, where it has a tremendous amount of adjustability.”
Lastly, and by no means least, we have an all-new acoustic guitar pickup and preamp, the Claria, which Powers promises is a “best-in-class” system for amplified acoustic tone.
Given that it is replacing the Expression System 2, the Claria pickup/preamp has a lot to live up to. It, too, is based on an under-saddle piezo and is paired with an all-new preamp that allows players to really dial in their amplified acoustic tone with a minimum of fuss.
We like how the controls are relocated to the inside of the soundhole. We also like how easy this system is to use. There is a Level control for overall volume output. There is a Tone control. Then there is a Mid-contour knob that allows players to go from a sort lo-fi warmth to a brighter hi-fi sheen.
These Next Generation appointments are being rolled out across a wide range of different 300, 400 and 800 Series models, both Standard and Builder’s Edition, with prices starting from $2,499 for the 314ce.
Note; the 12-string 454ce and 854ce 12-string guitars will feature the quote-unquote "traditional" V-Classic bracing.
Taylor’s new Gold Label models. meanwhile, are voiced a bit more old-school. We’re talking dreadnoughts with broad, square shoulders, and big lungs, and no cutaways – Taylor’s “acoustic powerhouse” – and there are three dreads in the lineup.
The Gold Label 510e has the über-classic torrefied Sitka spruce top and mahogany back-and-sides tonewood combo. The Gold Label 710e pairs torrefied Sitka spruce with Indian Rosewood, while you can go a little more upscale with the 810e and its Honduran rosewood and spruce top. These are priced from $2,799.
“It’s like players are stepping into a different musical skin with our Gold Label guitars,” says Powers. “Songwriters, bluegrass players, Americana players, rhythm players, weekend strummers, worship leaders, all kinds of different players saying, ‘Wow, I love this sound. This is a whole different face of Taylor.’”
And before we leave you, there are a couple of new Gold Label models worth mentioning.
These are 900 Series dream machines, with the Gold Label 914e a Super Auditorium (think deeper body, deeper tone than the Grand Auditorium), and the round-shouldered dread profile of the Grand Pacific 917e (“stunning power in the bass range, without the muddy, woofy characteristics”).
Both have Adirondack spruce tops with Honduran rosewood on the back and sides, and Gold Label specs such as the aforementioned Action Control Neck, golden era aesthetic flourishes and the fanned V-Class bracing are present and correct on these new 2026 models.
To read more and see more on these new models, head on over to Taylor Guitars.
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