The Taylor Guitars Legacy Collection: Recrafted to Reinspire
Throughout 2024, Taylor’s celebration of its milestone 50th anniversary has produced a steady stream of commemorative limited-edition model offerings across our entire guitar line, from the GS Mini to the Presentation Series. This fall, the festivities culminate with a special suite of five guitars that mark the debut of a separate historically inspired category: The Legacy Collection.
Taylor 815e Legacy Jumbo Acoustic Electric Guitar Features:
- Jumbo Body Shape
- Pays tribute to Bob Taylor's ingenuity and instincts for guitar-making
- Warm, richly textured sound with clear trebles, throaty lows & a slight scoop in the midrange
- Solid Indian Rosewood back and sides
- Solid Sitka Spruce Top
- Tropical Mahogany neck with African Ebony fretboard
- Modern Taylor neck profile offering relaxed fretting and simple adjustability
- Legacy X Bracing
- LR Baggs Element VTC active electronics
- Soundhole-mounted controls
- Deluxe hardshell case included
The Legacy 815e stands alone in the Taylor line as a Jumbo, non-cutaway acoustic-electric that blends elements of Bob Taylor's original designs with subtle upgrades to provide a modern feel. This model is crafted with back and sides of solid Indian rosewood paired with a Sitka spruce top in a big, powerful body that yields a commanding voice. Featuring the traditional X-bracing pattern favored by Bob in the early days, the 815e serves up a warm, richly textured sound with clear trebles, throaty lows and a slight scoop in the midrange, all complemented by beautifully blooming overtones. A modern Taylor neck profile offers a hand-friendly feel and relaxed fretting, while older elements like the mustache bridge and a "straight-ear" peghead silhouette capped with a rosewood veneer. Finished off with the sleek appointments Bob furnished for his original builds, this model sports white binding, a three-ring rosette in green abalone, ebony bridge pins with green abalone dots, a faux-tortoiseshell pickguard, a gloss-finished body and neck, and non-engraved Large Diamond fretboard inlays in mother-of-pearl. It includes a special Legacy interior label and an LR Baggs Element VTC undersaddle pickup with volume and tone controls mounted inside the soundhole. It ships with a deluxe hardshell case.
The Design Approach: A Blend of Old and New
With previous Taylor milestone anniversaries, co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug were never inclined to celebrate the past with their anniversary model design. For years, as a company focused on guitar innovation, the view was always forward-facing because Bob felt there was more to be done to advance the design and performance of the company’s guitars.
Instead, such anniversaries often provided a springboard to launch a bold new design (e.g., the Grand Auditorium at year 20, the patented Taylor neck at 25). But 50 years is different; for the first time, Bob feels ready to reflect and acknowledge some notable guitars that put Taylor on the map — and that players have loved.
These guitars are not pure reissues: While the guitars in the Legacy Collection pay tribute to past models, they’re not intended to be 100% authentic replicas of the original versions. They’re “inspired by” or “reimagined.” The guitars will be “composite” designs featuring elements curated (by Bob) from different periods to offer players a better performing version of a classic guitar (e.g., the 810e features appointments from the ’70s, a slightly more refined version of our dreadnought shape that came years later, X-bracing, and our more modern, patented Taylor neck).
All Legacy Collection guitars will feature a specially designed “Legacy” label inside the guitar.
Origin/Inspiration
Three models trace back to some of Bob’s earliest guitars, which helped establish Taylor. They’re an essential part of our history, representing the first two body styles Bob made (dreadnought and jumbo shapes that Bob inherited from Sam Radding at the American Dream shop, which he and Kurt purchased to start Taylor) and featuring a 12-string jumbo, which Neil Young famously played in the Rust Never Sleeps concert film.
Bob wanted to preserve some of the original aesthetic elements he still loves to this day and capture the X-bracing sound that characterized the guitars for years, but with the more modern Taylor neck because it’s better. (Bob’s analogy: You couldn’t build a ’65 Mustang today because it wouldn’t pass today’s safety standards. So these guitars have that modern touch where appropriate.)
The Dreadnought is one of the most traditional acoustic guitar shapes. Taylor's version has been refined to blend its trademark robust low-end tone with a snappy midrange and brilliant treble notes, producing a pleasing balance of power and articulation. If you're a flatpicker or strummer who likes to dig in on lead or rhythm, the Taylor Dreadnought will serve you well.
A guitar's top is the primary filter and distributor of vibrating string energy through the guitar, which means it has a huge impact on its sound. Sitka Spruce is the most prevalent guitar top wood of the modern era.