Taylor Guitars 114ce

This is a 6-string Grand Auditorium-style guitar. It's Taylor's lowest-end full-size acoustic, but that says a lot about Taylor. Solid Sitka spruce top with laminate Sapele wood back and sides. Rosewood bridge and fretboard, mahogany neck, Tusq nut and saddle (very bright).

20-fret neck is pretty standard for acoustics; what isn't found anywhere else is a lower-end version of Taylor's proprietary Expression System electronics, called ES-T (the lowest-level guitar in this style with the full ES package is the 314), which allows for volume, treble and bass control using three black knobs fit pretty discreetly onto the front of the upper bout of the instrument, and a phase switch inside the soundhole on the preamp board that can help reduce feedback.

This model has a cutaway, rather unobtrusive-looking, that allows phenominal access to the upper frets, but the 114-level is also available without the cutaway (the ES-T system is also optional; you can save about $200 by getting the base model if you don't need to plug in). Black plastic bindings with a small sandwich of white, with a similar black and white plastic-inlaid soundhole rosette, and a tortoiseshell plastic pickguard complete the visual look.

For an acoustic, it's got a lot going for it. It could have been all-solid wood and had the full ES package, but then as I said it'd be the 314 (and roughly $1200). They market the 100-series as a beginner's or backup guitar, but it's got enough going for it (and is pricey enough) to be the last guitar the amateur musician will ever need.

The guitar comes strung with Elixir Nanoweb 80/20s, light gauge at that. Brand-new strings, Tusq saddle and nut, and Taylor's inherent "focused" tone gives this guitar a very bright, brassy character. However, give the strings some time to break in (or strum/pluck with fingers), and the edge comes off the tone resulting in a very balanced, slightly more bassy tone. There is ample bass in this guitar even with new strings; being a GA body style there's a lot of soundbox. Picking over or in front of the soundhole, as in most cases, results in a slightly darker, much fuller tone, while picking behind the soundhole brings out the twang.

As far as tonal variety, it's an acoustic; the major variations are in where you pick/pluck, how firmly, and with what. It is rather dynamic in that respect, but there are no pickup switches or tone knobs as such. The pickup/preamp package, though low-end as far as Taylors are concerned, reproduces the unamped sound of this guitar far better than any other comparable guitar I've played. It doesn't have a lot of tricks, but if you want an acoustic guitar that retains that same sound through an amp, this is your guitar.

When I first played a 114ce in the store, it was a deeper sound than the instrument I ended up with. No doubt that has a lot to do with a brand-new guitar with brand-new strings, versus their store demo which probably had not been restrung since it arrived. I do hope it loses a bit of the brassy character as the strings break in.

Guitar came perfectly set up and almost perfectly in tune. The top is beautiful; seems to be a single piece. There is just the slightest rise in the fretboard at the transition between heel and soundbox. I've played all over it and it doesn't affect tone, playability or action in the slightest.

Visually, the slab of rosewood on this guitar was quite a bit lighter than the one on the store guitar. It actually works very well aesthetically as the board matches the sapele and mahogany more closely. It did not appear to affect tone, as a second guitar right out of the box had a darker fretboard but the sound difference was imperceptible, so I picked the lighter over darker as it was different.

Being a solid-top guitar, humidity changes can affect the instrument. The guitar comes with no less than three seperate whitepapers on how to properly use a humidifier, and the symptoms of a guitar that has been under- or over-humidified and how best to correct it. The guitar appears to be in perfect shape in that respect.

The guitar balances pretty well on a strap; the front button's on the heel, so the neck, usually rather heavy, is entirely beyond that balance point. Doesn't bother this axe in the slightest; it hangs very comfortably in a slightly neck-up position (bout 10-15 degrees above level); perfect playing position.

It's an acoustic, and a solid top at that. It requires a certain amount more care and feeding. Having said that, I would definitely gig this guitar. The finish is satin, and could eventually wear down after a few decades, but that's just "mojo", not a durability problem IMO. Strap buttons, one in the heel of the neck and the other also forming the input jack at the bottom, are very solid; in fact it was very difficult to get the new strap onto them. With proper care, as with any other solid-top, I expect this one to last decades.

I would probably take my other acoustic as a backup to gigs, if for no other reason than this is now the most expensive instrument I own, and in an environment like Texas where humidity varies widely, I want to protect that investment. Having a second instrument also allows for quicker tuning changes (one can be in standard with the other detuned to Eb) and quick recovery in case of string breakage.

Haven't yet had to deal with customer service. The guitar has a limited lifetime warranty that even covers a certain amount of neglect with regards to where and how it's kept, but physical abuse is not covered. GC actually didn't try to push their service plan (unusual, as it's a huge cash cow for them), and I didn't ask.

I've only been playing guitar for about two years. I'm primarily a bassist, but my church praise group usually requires me on guitar more often. I needed a quality acoustic (certainly better than my first acoustic, a $99 all-laminate dread which still sees action as a camping/beater guitar) that could hold its own unplugged, and for recording purposes could also plug into the soundboard without changing its tone. This guitar fits the bill perfectly. I wish it were strung with slightly darker-sounding strings to offset the natural brightness of Taylor designs; I daresay they'll get there soon enough with the amount of playing I plan to do, and so any darker string set I put on would just get even darker and duller.

I compared this guitar to many other makes/models in similar price ranges; mid-level Takamines, entry-level Martins, high-end Parkwoods and Breedloves, etc. This was the only guitar I could find that didn't sound like rubber bands run through a synthesizer when I plugged in, no matter how good it sounded unplugged. Taylor's on to something with this ES system. As I said earlier, Taylor markets it as a beginner/backup instrument, but they didn't cut many corners to get there; it's good enough to be the go-to guitar of many a musician.