Rare and Exotic Tonewoods Meet Taylor's Next Generation Upgrades
A top-of-the-line collection of exotic tonewoods sets this Taylor Next Generation Builder’s Edition 814ce apart from the pack, kicking off Taylor’s new era of Next Generation tone with a bang. It all starts with Scalloped V-Class bracing — a feature first introduced in Taylor’s Next Generation series that opens up this Grand Auditorium’s low-end response with a deep, rich character. Coupled with a high-power Adirondack spruce top and the smooth, dense sound of Honduran rosewood, this Next Generation Builder’s Edition 814ce splits the difference between V-Class’s precise balance and a more old-school Taylor profile. Plug in, and Taylor’s refined Claria electronics faithfully capture the Next Generation 814ce’s complex acoustic character with plug-and-play simplicity, supported by soundhole-mounted Volume, Tone, and Mid-Contour controls. Plus, this 814ce’s Standard Carve mahogany neck and smoky ebony fingerboard are joined to the body via Taylor’s trailblazing Action Control neck system, thus allowing users to set the neck’s angle with the simple turn of a bolt. A high-class arrangement of Builder’s Edition upgrades ties this Next Generation 814ce together, including a radiused rosewood armrest, chamfered body edges, stunning inlays, and Grover 510 tuners.
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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.
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.
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 814ce. 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.
Treasure-grade tonewoods abound
Armed with an Adirondack spruce top, the Next Generation Builder’s Edition 814ce is a veritable cannon of an acoustic guitar. Adirondack spruce is revered among tonewood connoisseurs for its sheer sonic power — it was the tonewood of choice on the most treasured acoustics of the vintage era for a very good reason. Far stiffer than Sitka spruce, Adirondack is legendary for its tendency to develop and enhance in sound over time.
Honduran rosewood, used for the back and sides, is a sinuously figured tonewood with a distinctive and coveted sound characterized by its low damping factor, which gives it a richly layered harmonic response with lush, resonant overtones. Boasting clear, bell-like trebles and robust bass-register weight, Honduran rosewood’s creamy, authoritative voice is an ideal match for the Next Generation Builder’s Edition 814ce’s Adirondack spruce top.
Taylor Next Generation Builder’s Edition 814ce Features:
- A Next Generation refresh to Taylor’s venerable Builder’s Edition 814ce, boasting Scalloped V-Class bracing and road-proven Claria electronics
- Adirondack spruce top dishes out a powerful roar and a crisp, focused tonality
- Scalloped V-Class bracing boosts low-end performance and results in a warmer, richer resonance
- Honduran rosewood back and sides offer all the rich harmonic complexity of typical Indian rosewood, only with a smoother, more rounded-over tone
- 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 smoky ebony fingerboard laden with shell/MOP Element inlays
- Builder’s Edition upgrades include chamfered body edges, a comfortable beveled armrest, ebony bridge pins with green abalone dots, and gold Gotoh Antique Gold tuning machines
- 1.75-in. nut offers a just-right width for fingerstyle players, strummers, and flatpickers alike
