Taylor 214ce Acoustic-Electric Guitar | Layered Walnut Back/Sides

Taylor 214ce Acoustic-Electric Guitar | Layered Walnut Back/Sides

6-String | Torrefied Spruce Top | Layered Walnut Back and Sides | Neo-Tropical Mahogany Neck | West African Crelicam Ebony Fretboard | Expression System® 2 Electronics | Venetian Cutaway | Structured Gig Bag Case

 

Overview

• Solid torrefied spruce top for warmth and power
• Comfortable Grand Auditorium body with versatile tone
• C-Class bracing adds volume and low-end presence
• Slim Taylor neck for easy, relaxed fretting
• Includes ES2 electronics and structured gig bag

 

With its highly versatile sound and comfortable feel, the 214ce is an ideal choice for virtually any type of player looking for a steel-string acoustic that can do everything. It starts with the Grand Auditorium body shape, which boasts player-friendly contours and an all-purpose tone profile. A solid torrefied spruce top serves up bold, clear projection with a touch of aged-in warmth thanks to our special roasting process, while the C-Class interior bracing dials up the response with more volume, longer sustain and a boost to low-end power. Taylor's always-comfortable neck design makes for relaxed fretting to accommodate players of all skill levels, and the built-in ES2 electronics mean you're prepared to plug in and play anywhere you go.

 

 

Grand Auditorium

Taylor’s signature shape embodies the ultimate all-purpose acoustic.

Our most popular and versatile body shape, the mid-size Grand Auditorium arrived in 1994 bearing refined proportions that fell between a Dreadnought and Grand Concert. While the bigger Dreadnought was traditionally considered a flat picker’s guitar and the smaller Grand Concert catered to finger stylists, the GA was designed to deliver on both fronts. The shape produced an original acoustic voice that was big enough to handle medium-strength picking and strumming, yet with impressive balance across the tonal spectrum, especially in the midrange, producing clear, well-defined notes that suited both strumming and fingerstyle playing. The GA’s overall presence tracks well with other instruments both in a studio mix and on stage, and singer-songwriters have embraced its utility both for composing and traveling with one guitar. Many people want a single guitar that can cover a variety of styles, which is why the GA continues to be our bestselling shape. If you want a great all-purpose guitar, the multi-dimensional GA won’t let you down.

Specifications:  Body Length:   20" / Body Width: 16" / Body Depth: 4 5/8"

 

Layered Walnut

Overview: Our layered wood construction features three wood layers: a middle core of poplar with a thinner layer on each side. Layered walnut’s rich brown hues lend a pleasing aesthetic warmth to the guitars that showcase it.

Sound: We use layered woods for the back and sides of some of our guitars for their blend of sound quality, durability, and affordability. Layered wood construction also enables us to preserve tonewood resources. Although layered wood guitars won’t yield quite the same level of tonal complexity as an all-solid guitar, all are paired with a solid wood top to produce a rich, responsive voice that will continue to improve with time and extended play. Layered walnut provides a strong backbone for our 100 Series, adding subtle touches of high-end sparkle together with midrange presence. An outer layer of walnut is overlaid onto a poplar core (with a layer of sapele on the other side). The layering process also allows us to bend an arch into the back for extra strength and produces a durable that travels well.

 

 

Torrefied Spruce

Overview: By far the most popular and common wood used for acoustic guitar tops, spruce has a long heritage in the music world. In typical Taylor style, we’ve developed our signature recipe for a process called “torrefaction” to make spruce sound even richer and more sophisticated, adding a new dimension to this much-loved wood.

Torrefaction is a process in which spruce tops (before being added to guitar bodies) are roasted in ovens typically used for drying out wood so that it can be worked. The roasting process lends the wood a slightly darker visual hue while also altering its structure slightly to give it new sonic traits. In particular, torrefied spruce tops tend to sound warmer and sweeter, giving them a played-in quality you would expect from a much older piece of wood. While torrefaction cannot replicate the effects of decades of age and play, it does provide a touch of extra sonic depth without losing spruce’s trademark clarity, articulation or volume.

Origin: Canada and Alaska

Goes Well With: Virtually all musical genres and playing styles.

 

 

Expression System® 2

The Taylor Expression System® 2 (ES2) is a revolutionary pickup design that delivers the latest in Taylor’s ongoing innovation in acoustic guitar amplification. The heart of the Expression System 2 is Taylor’s patented behind-the-saddle pickup, which features three uniquely positioned and individually calibrated pickup sensors. The location of the sensors enables a more dynamic range of acoustic sound to be captured than ever before. Together with Taylor’s custom-designed “professional audio”-grade preamp, this system produces exceptional amplified tone and responsiveness. On stage 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.

Behind the ES2 Design: Rethinking the Piezo Pickup

For decades, piezo-electric transducers have been positioned under the saddle of a guitar based on the long-held belief that the string and top vibration cause the saddle to “bounce” up and down. But Taylor’s electronics team, led by developer David Hosler, discovered that the vertical movement is actually heavily restricted, and that the saddle gets “locked down” due to the string tension’s downward pressure. That’s why a traditional under-saddle pickup with piezo-electric crystals often responds with a sound often characterized as thin, brittle, brash or synthetic, especially with more aggressive playing.

The saddle’s natural range of movement as the guitar is being played is actually back and forth like a pendulum. That revelation led Taylor’s design team to relocate the crystals from under the saddle to behind it. The new positioning enables the crystals to respond more naturally to the guitar’s energy as it is transferred through the saddle. Three pickup sensors are installed behind the saddle, through the bridge, with three tiny Allen screws that calibrate the position of the sensors in relation to the saddle.

Like the original Expression System, the ES2 features the same volume and tone control knobs. This makes it plug-and-play friendly both for artists and live sound mixers.

 

Venetian Cutaway

The Venetian cutaway is known for its soft, round lines. The sloping peak of the cutaway will vary depending on the shape of the body. The Grand Concert and Grand Auditorium have a steeper slope, while the Dreadnought is a bit flatter. Our Grand Concert nylon-string models also feature a subtle, flatter slope, while our 200 Series cutaway models incorporate our flattest slope.