The first will be the guitar you always see with her. Actually there are two. Those two guitars are really famous. You see those guitars, you think of Taylor Swift. And number one is the Taylor Presentation Series Grand Auditorium custom koa acoustic guitar. By the way the guitar name Taylor is a guitar manufacturing company name. The company and Swift just happen to have the same name.
The guitar is made of master grade flamed koa, AA grade, that is and is seriously eye candy and stunning. Sounds amazing, too. Grand Auditorium shape, Taylor Byzantine inlay design with her name on it and a Taylor Passive Expression Electronic System. Oh and my favourite cutaway on a guitar, a Florentine cutaway. She actually has two of these guitars. Most people would not notice or know but I noticed it. I take that maybe she has two of the exact same ones maybe cause one's for backup in case something happens to the other, I guess. Let's take a look at the first one. I call it the 'original koa'.
Notice the color of the wood is more brownish and has a darker tone to it. The headstock tuners are black and the thing covering the soundhole is called a Lute Hole. It's to prevent feedback during concerts and shows. When the Lute Hole is fitted in Original Koa, the color combination is a perfect fit. Matches the wood color very well. And that is why when this Lute Hole is taken out and fitted into the 'backup' version of Original Koa, it is quite noticeable that the two guitars may seem exactly the same but are not. And also notice the wood pattern on Original Koa. It is wide and spread out at the top of the guitar body and kinda makes a V going towards the bottom.
And which takes us to the 'backup' guitar. I'll call it. New Koa. It is used for: You Belong With Me (Speak Now World Tour) and Begin Again (Red Tour)
Note that the guitar on the right IS NOT the guitar that she uses. It;s just a different guitar with the same body shape, cutaway and inlay design.
Note: Guitar on the right is not the same as the left one
If you notice it, New Koa has a lighter brown tone to the wood, almost orange. And with the Lute Hole in the soiundhole, the color difference is more noticeable. Additionally, the headstock tuners on New Koa are gold tuners versus black on the Original Koa. Other features remain the same. Didn't think I notice, eh Taylor? HAH! GOTCHA! And also the wood grain pattern is more straight versus the V shaped pattern on Original Koa.
Next up is a Taylor GS6. The Taylor GS6 is a stock retail model, not custom made like the Koas. However, it has something that makes it stand out from Swift's collection of instruments. IT SPARKLES!! =D Known to many as the Sparkly Guitar, it really makes me want to have one too >< The crystals on it are Swarovski crystals glued onto the guitar top. The guitar made its debut in the 'Our Song' music video. It is used for the songs Our Song (Fearless Tour), Long Live (Speak Now World Tour).
Here are pictures of a standard GS6 model.
And here it is painted black and with the crystals stuck on it. I just love looking at this thing.
The GS6 has a solid spruce top with maple back and sides. It has a brighter tone to it versus the warmer balanced tone of the Koa which I like :)
Next up is the Taylor Living Jewels Koi Guitar. This guitar is a full on maple guitar and has fish swimming up from the body onto the fretboard! Like beautiful. It was a gift from Bob Taylor (owner and co-founder of Taylor Guitars) to Swift. The guitar is used for the song Last Kiss (Speak Now World Tour)
Next up is the beautiful sounding 12 string guitar that she plays on the her two major tours, Speak Now and Red. The guitar model is the Taylor K65ce. This happens to be the same model of her first Taylor guitar but I will cover that in Part 2. This one is a bit different because it has a Florentine cutaway versus the Venetian cutaway on the stock model. It also has a beautiful edgeburst finish to compliment the flamy koa.
It features a Koa top, back and sides, a classic Jumbo body shape, a Florentine cutaway, abalone/mother of pearl rosette inlay and 'Abalone' fretboard inlay. This guitar sounds like 12 string acoustic heaven in concert. The guitar is used for the songs Fifteen (Speak Now World Tour) and Sparks Fly (Red Tour).
And to end Part 1, the red Gibson Les Paul electric that she plays on her songs Mine (Speak Now World Tour) and Red (Red Tour). The Red Tour one is slightly different as she added red sparkles to it to match with the tour's name and theme.
And that concludes part 1! Stay tuned for Part 2 where I cover her other not-so-known guitars, guitars that she just recently started using and more!
Wow... very thorough
ReplyDeleteHaha yup Sam. A habit of mine xD
DeleteWhat is the model of the guitar in the "back up koa" section where you say it "IS NOT the guitar that she uses. It;s just a different guitar with the same body shape, cutaway and inlay design." not the one that taylor has but the one on the right!
ReplyDeleteHi, if I'm not mistaken it's a Taylor Presentation Sereis Grand Auditorium. Just Google Taylor PSGA. You can also find similar models here
Deletehttp://www.guitargalleria.com/taylorguitars.html
Thanks for stopping by my blog! :)
Thank you so much! :)
DeleteYou're very welcome! Thanks for reading! U R AWESOME =D
Deletedo u have any link that show all taylor swift's guitar collection model... ? u did many research for this ... nice job... very appreciate what u did ...
ReplyDeleteHi, first of all, thank you for your kind words! :)
DeleteI don't have any specific links that lists her entire collection. All the guitars that are featured in both the blog posts are from what I observe and I know those guitars quite well. I'm a guitar player too and that makes it a lot easier for me to identify the guitars. I'm sure Taylor has a lot more guitars in her personal collection but I only write about those that she uses in public :)
And thanks for reading! :D
Actually the Les Pauls she uses for Red and Mine are two different models. The one she uses for Mine on the Speak Now World Tour is a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe and the one she uses for Red on the Red Tour is a Gibson Les Paul Junior Special P90
ReplyDeleteThanks for spotting that! Heheh I don't normally have an eye for electrics especially Gibsons. I'm more familiar with the Taylor acoustics. Thanks for pointing that out. Have a good day and thanks for reading :)
DeleteSharp eye on the Koa guitars! I never noticed there were two! I wonder why she had two of the exact same custom guitar made? Koa wood isn't cheap...
ReplyDeleteMany artistes/musicians have duplicate copies of their instruments xD the reason why is something we are left to ponder :(
DeleteBut Taylor's been around koa guitars since young (seeing that her first Taylor acoustic guitar was a koa) so it pretty much makes sense that she might wanna have a duplicate copy for backup and stuff. Thanks for dropping by :)
There is a replica sparkly guitar and an original if you look close the sparkle pattern looks slightly diffetent. and there is no 13 on it :)
ReplyDeleteHey thanks for reading! :) yeah I noticed it too haha but I didn't point it out because replica or not they look almost the same except to a sharp like yours xD
DeleteWoww!
ReplyDeleteDo you think lute hole(in taylors original&new koa guitar) is made by mahogany or koa?
I think its mahogany,but still confused
Help please:)
I think she has one for each. For the old koa I think it is a koa one. Or maybe the Lutehole company made one to match the color of the guitar top. It's an option available on the website. For the new koa it does look like a mahogany because of the darker color :)
DeleteThanks for stopping by!
I notice that taylor have 3 koa guitar, if you look at one of the picture of the new koa guitar one of them have EQ at the top of her pick holder and the other new koa does not. Also, if you look closely at the grain of the koa guitar that have EQ controller, and the one that does not, they are different
ReplyDeleteIf I were Taylor, I'd have my precious original Taylor guitars locked away in a climate controlled room saved for recording with them. I'd take the duplicates on tour to deal with the wear and tear of travel.
ReplyDeleteBut what's the point of guitars if you don't play them tho. As Ed Sheeran said as he signed a guitar for a fan, “I don't want you to hang this on a wall, I want you to play this”
Delete