Part of Taylor’s inaugural class of Grand Pacific guitars, the Builder’s Edition 717 builds on a long tradition of rosewood/spruce dreadnoughts but breaks new ground with an entirely new Taylor sound. The round-shoulder dreadnought shape, featuring Taylor’s award-winning V-Class bracing, produces warm, seasoned acoustic tone in which individual notes overlap and blend smoothly together, while the low-end power common among dreadnoughts boasts greater clarity here. V-Class brings extra punch and sustain, along with improved intonation and musicality across the entire frequency spectrum. Together with rosewood’s harmonic complexity and the played-in sound of the torrefied spruce top, players can expect rich, luxurious tonal character from top to bottom. It’s a voice comfortably rooted in a traditional sound, yet updated to offer more expressive musical range. As a Builder’s Edition model, the 717 also sports an array of premium, player-friendly features: chamfered body edges, rolled fretboard edges, and a new compound-carve neck profile, whose contours match the natural adjustments in the player’s hand position when moving up and down the fretboard. Even the bridge design was refined to add a more ergonomic feel for the player’s pick hand. Taylor’s noise-reducing Silent Satin finish displays the muted sheen of an older guitar, while elegantly understated appointments include mother-of-pearl Arrowhead fretboard and peghead inlays, with sapele binding. It all adds up to a Taylor like you’ve never seen, heard or felt before.