The Next Generation of Taylor Tradition
Tried-and-true Taylor tradition meets forward-thinking upgrades — that’s exactly what you get with the Next Generation 514ce. A stellar reinvention of Taylor’s venerable 500-series Grand Auditorium with road-ready Claria electronics and bass-rich Scalloped V-Class bracing, this acoustic-electric guitar features a Western red cedar top, lending it a warm, intimate tonality that’s tailor-made for fingerstyle players. Meanwhile, a neotropical mahogany back and sides yield ample midrange and irresistible blooming harmonic overtones. However, Taylor’s Scalloped V-Class bracing imparts this Grand Auditorium with a deeper low-end thump and a more responsive resonance — all while retaining the V-Class bracing’s signature balance and projection. As for acoustic-electric tones, Taylor’s Claria under-saddle pickup system provides plug-and-play performance with handy soundhole-mounted Volume, Tone, and Mid-Contour controls. Finally, the 514ce’s ebony-capped mahogany Standard Carve neck comes equipped with Taylor’s trailblazing Action Control neck system that allows users to optimize the neck’s angle (and thus the action) while boosting resonance. Ultimately, the Next Generation 514ce stands as a masterfully engineered instrument that elevates every nuance of your playing.
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Plug-and-play Claria System electronics
Road-tested and refined for over two years with the world's biggest touring acts, Taylor’s Claria System represents the next step in the brand’s ceaseless pursuit of acoustic-electric excellence. As opposed to the more sensitive and microphone-like performance of Taylor’s ES2, the Claria System features a single under-saddle piezo transducer paired with a powerhouse preamp to supply you with the warmest, most accurate acoustic-electric tone possible with the least amount of tweaking required — simply plug in, adjust your sound to taste via the Volume, Tone, and Mid-Contour controls, and you’re ready to go.
So, how does the Claria System differ from a typical under-saddle pickup? Taylor’s expert engineers built Claria from the ground up to overcome the most endemic challenges of standard under-saddle setups, allowing the system to perform free from piezo distortion and avoid unwanted frequencies with its clear and focused voice. Moreover, Claria also avoids clipping by gain staging the preamp and the controls within the preamp. As for tone shaping, Claria’s Mid-Contour control offers a vast sweep of dynamic sounds to explore, from smooth, rhythm-ready warmth to a midrange-forward timbre that promotes lead playing and fingerpicking to the forefront of the mix. For the guitarist seeking a plug-and-play system that preserves their guitar's inherent acoustic character and excels in any environment without a fuss, Taylor’s Claria system is as good as it gets.
Rich and responsive Scalloped V-Class bracing
First launched in 2018, Taylor’s V-Class bracing revolutionized the brand’s sound with one of the most innovative advancements in steel-string technology in nearly a century. Here, Taylor has changed the game once again, tweaking the forward-thinking formula of V-Class by precisely paring away material from key locations of each brace.
The result is Taylor’s Scalloped V-Class architecture, a design that preserves all the defining sonic features of standard V-Class bracing with a more muscular bass response and a softer, warmer blend among notes. Strum an open cowboy chord, and Scalloped V-Class delivers the familiar low-end thump and harmonic cohesion that’s most often associated with typical X-braced instruments. However, as a direct descendant of Andy Powers’ original V-Class design, Scalloped V-Class bracing preserves the former’s spot-on pitch accuracy, rich sustain, impeccable balance, and crisp note-to-note definition — especially as you venture farther up the fingerboard with complex chords, intricate fingerpicked patterns, and rapid-fire leads.
Grand Auditorium body style delivers a full sound and sleek look
Acoustic players all over the world — including many here at Sweetwater — routinely reach for Taylor Grand Auditorium guitars like the Next Generation 514ce. This guitar boasts a comfortable waist, a full range of sounds, sharp definition, and a sleek appearance, making it an excellent intermediate option for fingerpickers and singer/songwriters alike. With this level of prestige, it's no wonder so many players depend on its rich sounds and smooth playing, set after set.
Cutting-edge Action Control neck joint
Taylor has led the charge in neck joint technology for decades, from Bob Taylor’s earliest bolt-on experiments to the dawn of the easily adjustable NT Neck at the turn of the 20th century. Under the leadership of Andy Powers, Taylor has once again pushed the boundaries of steel-string design with the Action Control Neck, a trailblazing bolt-on system that allows you to adjust the neck angle without requiring removal of the neck or strings.
From fine adjustments to optimizing the neck’s pitch over the top, the Action Control Neck gives you the power to set your string height from shred-ready specs to a higher, strum-friendly action with the turn of a bolt. Moreover, it also transforms repairs that generally require major surgery on traditional glued-in dovetail joints (such as neck resets) into a straightforward, routine procedure. Best of all, the Action Control Neck’s long-tenon joint protrudes well into the heel to properly mate your guitar’s neck and body, increasing the stiffness of the heel and resulting in a deeper tone with greater low-end resonance, even on higher notes.
A classic tonewood combination
The Next Generation 514ce is built from Western red cedar, which sits atop a neotropical mahogany back and sides. As a top tonewood, Western red cedar is less dense than spruce, yielding a warm, intimate sound that tends to accentuate soft notes — a quality that fingerstylists often find especially appealing. Used for the back and sides of the Next Generation 514ce, neotropical mahogany imparts harmonic-rich midrange frequencies, producing stacked, blooming overtones that add girth to the guitar’s overall timbre. Neotropical mahogany’s chewy, midrange-rich tone pairs well with a broad range of players and musical styles. Well balanced with a healthy dynamic range and a generous serving of overtones, neotropical mahogany is the tonewood of choice for blues and other roots-oriented players.
Taylor Next Generation 514ce Features:
- The Next Generation revision to Taylor’s time-tested 514ce platform, featuring the brand’s under-saddle Claria electronics system and Scalloped V-Class bracing
- Western red cedar top produces a warm, intimate tonality that’s tailor-made for fingerstyle players
- Scalloped V-Class bracing boosts low-end performance and results in a warmer, richer resonance
- Neotropical mahogany back and sides add midrange and irresistible blooming harmonic overtones
- Claria under-saddle electronics system provides acoustic-accurate tones and plug-and-play simplicity
- Soundhole-mounted Volume, Tone, and Mid-Contour controls for quick tone sculpting
- Mahogany neck in Taylor’s always-comfortable Standard Carve profile
- Action Control neck joint system gives users the ability to set the neck’s angle, allowing for easy action adjustment
- Long-tenon neck joint enhances your sound with a deep low-end resonance and a fuller-bodied tone
- 15-in.-radius Crelicam ebony fingerboard studded with Meridian Italian acrylic/faux pearl inlays
- Unfaltering Taylor standard tuning machines promise impeccable stability for set lists of any length
- Additional aesthetic appointments include a faux tortoise pickguard, white body binding, and a single-ring rosette
- 1.75-in. nut offers an exceptionally comfortable width for flat pickers, without excess bulk
