NGD: Taylor 717e Builder's Edition Grand Pacific Wild Honey Burst

[SpruceTop]

I picked my Taylor 717e Grand Pacific Builder's Edition Wild Honey Burst from the palette of four samples based on the clear, straight, and moderately-close grain of its torrefied-spruce top. Getting a nice price on this Taylor 717e Grand Pacific Builder's Edition Wild Honey Burst, I pulled the trigger last Tuesday, and it arrived Thursday. Auditioning it Friday night for the first time, I was rewarded with a pleasant but not a knock me off my feet playing experience. The Taylor 717e has a nicely balanced and dark rosewood tone with plenty of sustain and fullness. The V-Braced bass on the 6th-string is strongly fundamental and sits well within the overall frequency mix of all the strings but doesn't overwhelm it--the notes quickly bloom and quickly release. The guitar sounds great wherever it's played on the fingerboard and would record well and be a nice live-performance instrument.

The new Builder's Edition neck carve feels comfortable and doesn't feel too much of a departure from the regular Taylor neck carve.

This guitar also features Taylor's typical, new-guitar "string-ping/sitar-thing" on its 4th string which can be easily remedied by slightly enlarging the 4th-string nut slot so the string seats better in its slot.

The latest ES2 in this guitar has noticeably less output than the previous ES2 versions but sounds nice although I need to slightly adjust the 5th/6th string's ES2 sensor screw to bring up the volume of these two strings a bit in the amplified mix.

Overall, my new Taylor 717e Grand Pacific Builder's Edition Honeyburst is a nice addition to my stable.

Sunday Addendum: Already, after only three days of playing, I'm delighted to say that the bass resonance of this Taylor 717e is already becoming more prominent in a good way in the overall frequency-mix of this guitar!

[sakar12]

Congrats. Keep playing it--it will change dramatically over the next few weeks.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by sakar12

Congrats. Keep playing it--it will change dramatically over the next few weeks.

Thanks! Just this afternoon, I've noticed it sounds a bit richer than last night's initial audition, which was after being in my machinist's noisy workday environment. I think I'm going to love this Taylor 717e!

[lowrider]

Yes, that's a beauty. Keep on playing it!

[boneuphtoner]

Many congrats! Yours is beautiful indeed. If you have followed this site at all for the past few months, you know there is no shortage of love for these great Grand Pacifics around here. I love my 317e and it may be the most versatile instrument I've ever played - it really does everything well. My 714 cedar may be a touch better at fingerstyle (which is what I mostly do), but it isn't as good of an all-rounder for strumming, etc. as the 317.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by boneuphtoner

Many congrats! Yours is beautiful indeed. If you have followed this site at all for the past few months, you know there is no shortage of love for these great Grand Pacifics around here. I love my 317e and it may be the most versatile instrument I've ever played - it really does everything well. My 714 cedar may be a touch better at fingerstyle (which is what I mostly do), but it isn't as good of an all-rounder for strumming, etc. as the 317.

Thanks, BoneUphToner! My introduction to the V-Class Bracing was auditioning a Taylor 317e at my local Guitar Center, and I was sold on its tone! My 717e sounds a bit darker than that 317e, and somewhat different, but not any better. In fact, I would recommend the Taylor 317e as a truly excellent guitar, tone-wise, and safe choice (price-wise) to get into the new Taylor V-Class Bracing guitars.

[dodge]

Congratulations on the 717e. I just snagged a 317 from the classifieds and it's a stellar guitar. I agree you can't go wrong with a 317 for the price.

[Tony Burns]

That is a beautiful instrument - the top is absolutely knock out gorgeous !

[SpruceTop]

Thanks, All! The more I play this Taylor 717e, both acoustically and amplified, the more I love it!

[Shades of Blue]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Thanks! Just this afternoon, I've noticed it sounds a bit richer than last night's initial audition, which was after being in my machinist's noisy workday environment. I think I'm going to love this Taylor 717e!

Its gonna change a lot over the next few weeks, especially if you put your favorite strings on it. Killer wood on this one!

What’s your scoop on the V Bracing pattern changing? Where did you hear that?

[chasingchet]

Beautiful! and congrats I played this guitar a few days ago here in nyc although I am not a Taylor guy I was blown away by its unique voice and loved the neck
interestingly --and I did not have alot of time playing her but i really liked it acoustically but love it plugged in ! how do you feel about it plugged unplugged so far? any preference! ?

[mikef]

Congrats on a really nice looking guitar! I love the Honeyburst and the top on that one is gorgeous. I've really been enjoying my 317e since I bought it. Enjoy!

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by Shades of Blue

Its gonna change a lot over the next few weeks, especially if you put your favorite strings on it. Killer wood on this one!

What’s your scoop on the V Bracing pattern changing? Where did you hear that?

The next V-Bracing-change thing is something I put forth and is based on my previous Taylor-bracing experiences. Taylor is always hedging its bets on what it brings out on whatever its latest "innovation" puts forth. This is not to denigrate what Taylor is currently putting forth in its new V-Class Bracing "innovation" but merely to point out what will likely come next.

[BluesKing777]

Congratulations!

Words don’t really describe my 717e after 3 months and a bit. Fab, that will do.

Now for plugged - it is ok plugged direct to my mixer or to my amp, the usual stuff really and handy to have controls....but it is fully sick and superb through my Tonedexter with the 2 different soundfiles I have made...one with a Neumann KM184 and the other with a plain old, probably really old, Shure SM57......thinking, thinking, bought about 1990? Swapping between these 2 sounds is like swapping from a bridge pickup to the neck pickup on an electric. Cool! But it shows how different results you get in Tonedexter. And surprisingly, I keep using the 57 file....it has more ‘bite’ for when I bite!

Back to acoustic only...I have, apart from just plan old playing the 717e, been tempted to stretch what I can play on it with various fingerpicking styles and it has taken anything I can do including country blues, pop, rock everything...and I got the old Real Book Jazz Standards out and it can turn into an archtop, of sorts! I have a book that has 4 guitar/music styles for each old song - lead sheet, chord melody, comping parts, jazz solo. I have made my way through a few of the tunes with a mix of the 4. (strum the chord, play the melody, impro a bit.) So blah, blah you say? I point all this out because some way better guitarists than I will find a very versatile guitar in the GP V braced? And I can’t wait to see what comes out.

BluesKing777.

[Groberts]

Congrats! Yours looks particularly great! Love the top, the wood grain and the Rosewood! Well done!