Taylor Guitars 2023 American Dream AD26e Baritone-6 Special Edition

BariTony! Toni! Toné!

Wildwoodians, we are proud to present the latest limited edition addition to Taylor's American Dream series: the AD26e Baritone. If you've never played an acoustic baritone guitar before, it basically makes you feel like you're operating a medieval siege weapon in the best possible way: both are complex, powerful machines capable of wreaking havoc and destruction, but they are also both wooden beasts that derive their powers from the earth.

That might seem hyperbolic, but when you hit that low B string, you'll immediately understand why the Wildwood Literary Department chose to compare it to a catapult. It's pretty powerful! Overall, these instruments have a warm, woody, earthy tone with plenty of punch. Thee AD26e has a depth and a velvety richness that you can get lost in, but it still has enough clarity and note separation to handle low chord voicings. And, it still has that signature Taylor sunny jangle in the highs (especially when you dig in).

The Power of the Baritone, As Explained by Joni Mitchell

An instrument like this reminds me of a Joni Mitchell quote from an article in Acoustic Guitar Magazine regarding her use of open tunings: "You're twiddling and you find the tuning. Now the left hand has to learn where the chords are, because it's a whole new ballpark, right? So you're groping around, looking for where the chords are, using very simple shapes. Put it in a tuning and you've got four chords immediately— open, barre five, barre seven, and your higher octave, like half fingering on the 12th. Then you've got to find where your minors are and where the interesting colors are - that's the exciting part...It's only through error that discovery is made, and in order to discover you have to set up some sort of situation with a random element, a strange attractor, using contemporary physics terms. The more I can surprise myself, the more I'll stay in this business, and the twiddling of the notes is one way to keep the pilgrimage going. You're constantly pulling the rug out from under yourself, so you don't get a chance to settle into any kind of formula."

While the baritone format certainly much more familiar than the open tunings Joni is talking about (the relationships between the strings are the same as a normal guitar, so all your shapes and patterns transfer over), an instrument like the AD26e does have tremendous inspirational power because it forces you to think outside of the box. As a pure creative tool, it's quite powerful because it shakes up your formula and helps you find new ideas to explore.

It's also a remarkably useful piece to have both live and in the studio. It provides a fresh, exciting timbre that blends beautifully with electric and acoustic ensembles, it can give your rhythm tracks additional depth, tonal color, and power, and it can give single-note lines a richer, deeper tone to help them sing out.

Basically, the sky is the limit for what you can do with the AD26e creatively! We have no doubt it will inspire intrepid acoustic adventurers to embark upon all sorts of fun fretboard adventures!

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