Taylor Guitars Wildwood-Exclusive PS24ce - Hand-Selected Presentation-Grade Koa

Description

The Apex of Koa Opulence
Wildwoodians, we’ve wanted our friends at Taylor to build us a run of Presentation Series guitars with the finest koa in the world. A little while ago, they found a supply of truly jaw-dropping koa, and they used it to make our pipe dream a reality. Wildwoodians, meet the Wildwood-Exclusive PS24ce. Our resident Acoustic Tone Scientist, Brian, painstakingly pored over dozens of sets of koa and hand-picked the wood for each and every top, back, and side of these guitars. Thanks to Brian’s eagle-eye and the superior craftsmanship of the good people at Taylor, these guitars turned out absolutely exquisite. Simply put, we believe that they are some of the finest koa-bodied acoustic guitars ever built. They set a new standard for beauty and luxury, and they are true sonic titans, too.
Anyone with eyes can see how jaw-droppingly beautiful these powerful Presentation Series guitars are, but let’s take a look under the hood and see how its tonewoods and bracing give it supercharged tone.
The Sweet Sounds of Koa
Koa is a spectacular tonewood that produces sweet, singing highs, focused midrange, and tight, well-defined bass. As a result, the all-koa Wildwood-Exclusive PS24ce has a clear, woody voice with that inimitable Taylor sparkle in the high end. Though it certainly sounds spectacular now, the cool thing about koa is that it sounds better and better the more you play it. The midrange broadens and becomes richer and more harmonically resonant, and the highs become lusher as you put in more play hours. So, the K24ce is a guitar that will grow with you and sound better and better as you practice and grow as player!
And that really is the heart of the PS24ce’s appeal. It’s a beautiful guitar of heirloom quality, it’s ridiculously comfortable to play, and when you pass it down to your children or grandchildren it will sound even better than it did the day it came out of the box. We’re proud to showcase such a spectacular instrument for our exceptional customers, and we know the Wildwood-Exclusive PS24ce will inspire you endlessly.
A V-Classic
I would be remiss if I did not mention how the Wildwood-Exclusive P24ce utilizes Taylor’s new V-Class bracing. It’s an elegant solution to a problem that has plagued luthiers for decades. For years, acoustic guitar builders had to compromise between volume and sustain. Flexibility equals volume, and stiffness equals sustain. Obviously, a piece of wood cannot be rigid and flexible at the same time, so builders had to go for one or the other.
Andy Powers wanted to have his cake and eat it, too. After much tinkering, V-Class bracing was his elegant solution to the problem that has plagued luthiers for centuries. As the name implies, V-Class bracing features two long pieces of wood that make a “V” shape together. The bracing is quite thin and flexible near the rear bout, but it becomes thicker as you get closer to the soundhole.
So, you get volume from the flexible parts of the bracing, and sustain from the rigid parts! Many areas of the guitar neck that typically sound weak (ninth fret on the G string, for instance) have just as much presence, resonance, and sustain as the low E. As a result, the Wildwood-Exclusive PS24ce sounds supremely balanced and sculpted. When you hear one played live in the room, you’d swear a mix engineer had already done a bunch of post-production work on it. And, it gives the guitar piano-like note separation and crystalline clarity even when you play fancy jazz chords!
Intonation Station
V-Class bracing also does wonders for the guitar’s intonation. Are you ready to have your mind blown? When I visited the Taylor headquarters El Cajon, Andy Powers explained that an acoustic guitar’s intonation is not necessarily just the sum of the typical adjustments like saddle height, nut slots, and neck angle (though they do a play a part). The way that the
actual guitar itself
vibrates also has a lot to do with how in-tune it sounds.
Andy told me to picture it like this: when you take close-up slow-motion footage of a guitar’s top with a high-speed camera as someone plays it, you can see the top move vividly. On a traditional X-braced guitar, the top vibrates in a disorderly, disjointed manner. This can cause a guitar with the perfect saddle height and neck angle to sound out of tune when you play a big open chord.
By contrast, guitars with V-Class bracing vibrate in a much more orderly manner. The graduated braces compel the energy from the player’s attack to move from the thin outer part of the bracing to the thicker inner part in an efficient manner. If you were to take a high-speed shot of a V-Class top, you would see it rock back and forth evenly in a pleasing pattern. Because of that V-Class magic, the Wildwood-Exclusive PS24ce sounds so in-tune that it’s scary.
Specifications:
Brand:
Taylor Guitars
Model
: Wildwood-Exclusive PS24ce
Type
: Grand Auditorium
Top Wood
: Solid Hand-Selected Presentation-Grade Koa
Top Finish
: Gloss Shaded Edgeburst
Bracing
: V-Class with Relief Rout
Back & Sides Wood
: Solid Hand-Selected Presentation-Grade Koa
Back & Sides Finish
: Gloss
Cutaway
: Venetian
Neck Wood
: Tropical Mahogany
Neck Dimensions
: .850 1st - .900 9th
Fretboard Material
: West African Crelicam Ebony
Fingerboard Inlays
: Nouveau, Shell, Mother of Pearl and Paua
Scale Length
: 25.5"
Nut Material
: Black Graphite-Infused Tusq
Binding
: West African Crelicam Ebony
Rosette
: Shell, Paua
Electronics
: Expression System 2
Tuners
: Gotoh 510, Antique Gold
Bridge
: West African Ebony
Saddle
: Micarta
Case
: Hardshell Case
Stock Code
: AK02002111000180048