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 855e Jumbo 12-String Acoustic-Electric Features:
- 12-string Jumbo inspired by the original Bob Taylor design
- Pays tribute to Bob Taylor's ingenuity and instincts for guitar-making
- Clear, balanced voice with warm lows, chime-like trebles, & beautiful octave sparkle
- Large air chamber delivers exceptional power without losing touch sensitivity
- 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
Longtime Taylor players and fans are sure to find inspiration in the Legacy 855e, a 12-string acoustic-electric that honors the ultra-playable 12-strings that helped put Taylor on the map in its early days. This model returns the classic Jumbo body shape to the Taylor line, and with its generous dimensions, it's a perfect fit for the signature sound of a 12-string. Made with back and sides of solid Indian rosewood and a Sitka spruce top powered by the traditional X-bracing that Bob favored in the early days, the Legacy 855e serves up a clear, balanced voice with warm lows and chime-like trebles textured with beautiful octave sparkle. The large air chamber delivers exceptional power without losing touch sensitivity, ensuring a wide dynamic range that's responsive to the player's touch. This model features a modern, easy-playing Taylor neck to provide a contemporary feel, but also includes classic elements like the straight-ear peghead with a rosewood veneer and the stylish mustache bridge. Appointments reflect the straightforward aesthetic of Bob's early builds, including white binding, a three-ring rosette in green abalone, a faux-tortoiseshell pickguard and a gloss finish for the body and neck. It includes LR Baggs Element VTC electronics with soundhole-mounted controls and a special commemorative Legacy interior label. 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.)
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. It blends stiffness and elasticity in just the right proportions which translates into broad dynamic range with crisp articulation. Solid Indian rosewood back and sides complement the Sitka top with sound that's made it one of the most popular tone woods ever. Rosewood produces the strongest bass response among the tone woods commonly used for guitars, with a slightly scooped midrange.
