Taylor 914-CE Grand Auditorium Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Guitar
This is Taylor’s top of the line grand auditorium featuring master grade Engelmann spruce top and Indian rosewood back & sides. Along with the beautifully elegant abalone top purfling and fingerboard inlays, the exquisites woods make this instrument a feast for the eyes, a delight to the ears, and freedom for the fingers!
I bought my first 914 second-hand (in perfect condition) from the CEO of a bank near Boston early in 2003. Every time I pick it up, its a delight to look at, handle and play. Maybe you can tell, I’m a bit of an enthusiast!
So much so, that I bought a second 914ce a few years later, because I was impressed with the Taylor Expressions System. Very different in design concept and, results, but both guitars have superb sound, whether unplugged, or through my trusty Trace Acoustic TA100R.
So just what are they made of, these Taylor 914ce’s?
The 914 premium woods:
- Solid Engelmann spruce top
- Solid Indian rosewood back and sides
- Tropical American mahogany neck
- Ebony fretboard and bridge
- Ebony headstock veneer
Combining the width and depth of a Dreadnought with a narrower waist, these woods form the distinctive Grand Auditorium body style of the 914. This produces a clarity in the treble end while retaining a rich bass along with the sensitivity and responsiveness great fingerstyle players look for.
Taylor developed the finish used to create this guitar’s lustrous gloss top, back, and sides especially for maximum durability and resistance to cold-checking. Its an ultra violet-cured finish, which means it is more environmentally friendly than traditional lacquer finishes.
You can select from several finish options available in this series:
- natural back, sides, and top
- natural back and sides with a tobacco top
- natural back and sides with a honey sunburst top
(More on Spruce below…)
To help achieve Taylor’s famed intonation, the guitar features a compensated tusq bone bridge nut and bone saddle.
The neck – renowned for playability and comfort – features a 25-1/2″ scale length, and 1-3/4″ nut width, and an ivoroid-bound ebony fingerboard. Elegant mother-of-pearl inlays adorn the fretboard, bridge, and headstock, complementing the decorative abalone rosette and top accents.
The headstock is set off with striking Gotoh 510 antique gold tuners, providing easy tuning thanks to a 21:1 ratio.
But although words can be descriptive, have a look at photos over here:[TU2]
Tone – Expression System electronics with tone controls
Describing tone is like trying to explain what vanilla ice cream tastes like. We describe it in relation to something else, or by using subjective terms. Yet, words fail to describe what the ear never fails to hear. While most players would agree with our descriptions, let your own ears be the judge.
The new Taylor Expression System, is designed – by the distinguished audio pioneer, Rupert Neve, no less – to faithfully reproduce the guitar’s native tone. The Expression System utilizes patented Dynamic Sensors to capture top and string vibration like never before. The result is a beautifully balanced, warm tone.
Onboard tone controls provide added flavor, or set flat for an uncolored, exceptionally clean amplified sound.
Spruce
Fantastic feel and sound with the solid A grade Engelmann spruce top. Engelmann or Sitka spruce tops produce a warm, mature tone. Rosewood’s deep, rich tone meets its ideal counterpart in the spruce top (which is also available in a magnificent Tobacco Sunburst finish).
Engelmann spruce is available on the 500 Series, 700 Series, 900 Series, Presentation Series, Nylon Series, and select limited editions.
A question I discovered the answer to only recently, is:
“How does an Engelmann spruce top differ from a Sitka spruce top? And why is Engelmann more expensive?”
According to Taylor, Sitka spruce is a dense, straight-grained wood, found in a coastal pocket running from Northern California up to Alaska. Sitka spruce has the highest strength and elasticity-to-weight ratio among available tonewoods. Its strength and toughness make it an ideal soundboard material for steel-string acoustic guitars
Engelmann spruce is found in the Rocky Mountain range (much of the best Engelmann comes from New Mexico, Idaho, and Montana). It shares many of the desirable traits of German spruce – like workability and a lustrous “ivory” hue. But its stiffness and weight differ from that of Sitka spruce, so Engelmann soundboards produce a different, rather mellower tone. Many players describe it as “more mature.”
These factors, and Engelmann’s scarcity, explain its use in Taylor’s higher-end guitars.
Has anything changed in the Taylor 914 over the years?
Not much, actually.
If I compare my 2001 model Taylor 914CE with my 2007 model, the grand auditorium body, Venetian cutaway, gloss natural finish, all solid woods, Engelmann spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, 14-fret mahogany neck, 20-fret ebony fingerboard, rosewood bound body and fretboard, rosewood peghead overlay with pearl “Taylor” logo and fancy inlay, abalone top purfling and around fretboard extension, abalone soundhole rosette, all remain unchanged.
I can identify only 2 significant items different:
- gold Grover Rotomatic tuners (2001 914ce)
- Gotoh 510 antique gold tuners (2007 914ce)
- Fishman Prefix Stereo Blender pickup (2001 914ce)
- Taylor Expression System pickup (2007 914ce)
As another player said of the Taylor 914-CE:
“Inspiring and, overall, comparatively most accurate amplified tone”.
The Taylor 914 is certainly a superb guitar.
