Taylor GS7e

Top wood: Western Red Cedar
Back and sides wood: Indian Rosewood
Body type: 6-string gs
Body width: 16 1/4”
Depth: 4 5/8”
Length: 20”
Width at waist: 10”
Overall length: 41”
Neck width: 1-3/4”
Heel length: 3 1/2”
Scale length: 25 1/2”
No. of frets: 20
Binding material: ivoroid (body, fretboard, heel cap)
Purfling material: plastic
Rosette size: 3-ring, material: abalone
Inlays peghead logo: mother-of-pearl, fretboard: 4 mm abalone dots
Finish back/sides: gloss
Top: gloss
Neck: satin
Tuners: Taylor gold
Buttons: gold
Nut/saddle: tusq
Bridge pins: ebony w/abalone dot
Taylor Expression System electronics

UTILIZATION

This is a fairly interesting GS shape in terms of the woods used. Me and 3 friends recently pooled all our acoustics together for a day of testing. This was surprisingly the only cedar topped acoustic in the bunch. At first glance it looks like a more traditional design but as someone who has played quite a few GS shapes, they are pretty much jumbo guitars that lend themselves to strumming more than anything. It is a pretty cumbersome guitar if you are a smaller person. I am a small guy and I ended up selling and traded the two GS shapes I owned simply because they dwarfed me. The guitar in question worked fine. Electronics are great and I've always loved the expression system a lot. Sometimes the GS can get a little bassy through some systems so you have to fiddle with the bass knob a bit. Action and everything is nice. Taylors seem to play very well and that is their strong point in my book. Great playability.

SOUNDS

The first thing you hear when playing a GS is how bold it is. The GS7 has a particularly deep sound because of the woods used. For some it will be too bold actually. This guitar likes to be played pretty hard, but does have a good dynamic range. It can do the fingerpicking thing but is really more suiting to dynamic strumming. There's a lot of bass on tap. This is a good guitar for solo playing. It can be overpowering in the mix.

OVERALL OPINION

I think the best thing about this guitar, and most other Taylors I have played is the sheer playability. They just feel really good. The necks are very nice. Unfortunately the GS is a bit large for me. Which is too bad because I think these are the best strummers that Taylor makes. The price point is pretty good too. The GS6 is a better choice if you want a less bassy and more snappy sound. Make no mistake they both have that bold sound. If you can afford it, I think the Koa GS is better than all of them. But it's quite a bit more money.