Taylor 814ce Special Edition Blacktop

An Adirondack spruce top, gorgeous Blacktop and ergonomic enhancements lift Taylor’s flagship rosewood Grand Auditorium to a new level of musical sophistication with the Taylor 814ce Builder’s Edition Blacktop acoustic-electric.

The 814ce has long been considered the quintessential Taylor guitar thanks to its classic rosewood/spruce tonewood pairing in tandem with Taylor’s flagship cutaway Grand Auditorium body style. Together, the rich tone, musical versatility and signature playability have given players a refined workhorse tool for many different playing styles and musical applications. Now, Taylor brings the 814ce to their Builder’s Edition collection, further enhancing its performance virtues with a suite of premium craftsmanship details.

Among the suite of material refinements are a soundboard upgrade from solid Sitka spruce to a carefully matched multi-piece top of solid Adirondack spruce. The high-end craftsmanship reflected in the Builder’s Edition philosophy acknowledges the evolving future of the world’s forests, where a great soundboard will require careful woodworking joinery to utilize smaller sizes of the high-grade timber preferred for an heirloom instrument. The artful craftsmanship yields a high-quality soundboard and displays a beautifully consistent grain structure.

Additional comfort-enhancing woodworking details that distinguish this edition from its standard-model counterpart include an elegantly sculpted beveled cutaway for effortless high-register access, along with a beveled mahogany armrest that provides a smooth surface for the player’s strumming arm. Other refinements include nuanced alterations in the taper of the body, a modified V-Class voicing and a subtle alteration to the gloss finish. (This is the only Builder’s Edition model to feature a gloss finish to highlight the beautiful contouring of the body.) The back and sides boast Kona Edgeburst.

Other premium appointments include Gotoh 510 tuners in antique gold, which offer a highly precise 21:1 gear ratio, mother-of-pearl Element inlay pattern, a contoured curve wing bridge (exclusive to Builder’s Edition models), alternating maple and black top purfling with rosewood edge trim, and a rosewood pickguard. The Builder’s Edition 814ce ships with ES2 electronics and a deluxe brown hardshell guitar case.

Body Shape
A Taylor original, the Grand Auditorium helped establish the Taylor acoustic sound. The popular body shape is an extremely versatile guitar that responds to light fingerpicking, medium strumming and fingerstyle playing with a clear, balanced sound across the tonal spectrum. If you want a great all-purpose guitar, the Grand Auditorium is an excellent choice.

Tonewood Pairing
A guitar’s top is the primary filter and distributor of vibrating string energy through the guitar, which means it has a dramatic impact on its sound. The upgraded multi-piece Adirondack spruce soundboard offers an extremely consistent, rich tone that exabits clarity and projection that is unsurpassed. The body is fashioned of Indian rosewood, a tonewood that is famous for its strong bass response and slightly scooped midrange. Rosewood’s sweeping frequency range—deep lows that assert a throaty growl with sparkling highs—rings out with bell-like, high-fidelity clarity. It yields a full-range acoustic voice with complex overtones and extended sustain. Together, this combination of tonewoods deliver an exceptionally pleasing sound with a lot of power and projection. The BE814ce is an instrument that will bring hours of enjoyment.

V-Class Bracing
Taylor’s V-Class bracing is essentially a “sonic engine” that optimizes the response of an acoustic guitar in three key ways: by boosting volume, sustain, and by largely resolving the intonation (in-tune-ness) issues that have long plagued acoustic guitars. V-Class bracing creates purer, more orderly notes that don’t cancel each other out. Because of V-Class bracing, notes have clearer, more consistent response, and the whole fretboard is brought into greater auditory alignment for an improved musical experience. Guitars with V-Class bracing are easier to tune; the pitch sounds purer and more solid, and electronic tuners can more easily locate notes for quick, precise tuning. Other benefits include uniform harmonics ring down the neck, louder projection and sustain, and more evenness across the entire fingerboard.

Electronics
At the heart of Taylor’s Expression System electronics is Taylor’s patented behind-the-saddle pickup, which features three uniquely positioned and individually calibrated pickup sensors. Because the pickup doesn’t sit under the saddle, the bottom of the saddle comes in full contact with the bridge, allowing all the nuance of the guitar’s tone to come through clearly, whether playing acoustically or plugged in. The location of the sensors enables a more dynamic range of acoustic sound to be captured than ever before while playing plugged-in. Together with Taylor’s custom-designed “professional audio”-grade preamp, this system produces exceptional amplified tone and responsiveness. Onstage through a PA, plugged into your favorite acoustic amplifier, or direct into recording software, the Expression System 2 faithfully conveys the voice of your Taylor guitar. The Taylor Expression System 2 operates through a proprietary 9-volt battery compartment and easy-to-use volume, and active bass and treble controls.