NAMM 2025: Taylor is a brand that always goes big for NAMM, and this year has proven to be no exception.
The company chose the occasion to unveil its new Gold Label Collection, a line of acoustic guitars that it says possess “a sound and visual aesthetic unlike anything Taylor has ever offered.”
Featuring four models in total – one with Honduran rosewood back and sides, and one with Hawaiian koa back and sides; each available in either a natural or sunburst finish – the collection most notably features the debut of an entirely new body shape, the Super Auditorium.
The '30s and '40s-inspired Super Auditorium body design is said to build on the company's Grand Auditorium body shape, but features a slightly longer body and wider lower bout.
Sonically, it aims to deliver room-filling resonance with even a light attack, while rewarding more spirited playing with a booming sound.
“The harder you play, the louder the guitar gets,” explains Taylor's Master Guitar Designer, President, and CEO, Andy Powers.
“But, it naturally starts to compress the sound into a more controlled, focused tone rather than becoming mushy. Yet these guitars also respond to delicate articulation with a broadly rich voice. When you play a simple note softly, the guitar naturally amplifies it with surprising warmth and volume.”
Whether you choose the Honduran Rosewood back and sides or Hawaiian Koa back and sides option, you get a torrefied Sitka spruce top and a neo-tropical mahogany neck – attached via Taylor's own long-tenon neck joint – with a West African Crelicam Ebony fretboard sporting mother-of-pearl continental inlays.
Chrome Gotoh 510 tuners with ebony buttons and a distinctive, new-for-this-model pickguard design add to the visual flair.
Modern elements that balance out the guitar's vintage inspiration include LR Baggs Element VTC electronics with soundhole-mounted controls, and a fanned variation of Powers' trademark V-Class bracing system.
We're eager to see if the Gold Label design – particularly that new body shape – eventually makes its way down Taylor's price range, but for now, it sits at just about the tip top.
The natural-topped Gold Label 814es are priced at $4,499 and $4,799 (for the Koa model), while the sunburst examples ring up at $4,699 and $4,999 (for the Koa model). Each guitar comes with a deluxe hardshell case with a British Cocoa exterior.
For more info on the guitars, visit Taylor.
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