Taylor Guitars 414CE

Grand Auditorium size, cutaway body. Fishman electronics. Spruce top, KOA sides.

Tried alot of higher end acoustics, Gibson, Martin, etc. They're all great guitars, but I kept coming back to the store to play this Taylor because of its unique tone and clarity. I have also experimented with various strings and found that the guitar responds well to the differences and allows you to tweak the tone to your indivdual liking, more so than other acoustics I've had. I keep coming back to the Elixirs, although I'm using the D'Addario EXP16s right now...so far I like them very much. Sounds great with heavy strumming as well as fingerpicking.

Its obvious this guitar is well made. I like the feel and weight. I like the American made Guilds but they feel like your're playing a truck......this guitar has a wonderful feel, balance and look. I love the neck width and action from the factory was perfect (I set up my own guitars).

I don't gig the guitar and I have a tendency to baby my guitars. But my estimation is that this guitar would be very reliable and durable. It seems very solid.

Never had to use them.

I know you are supposed to critical because no guitar is perfect. I can't find anything I don't like about this instrument. I love this guitar!!! I have owned a several guitars, both electric and acoustic. I get bored with some quickly and sell them to buy another, usually keeping 6 or 7 at a time (I'm a gear-head...I can't help it....I'm not in denial...that's the first step to recovery). I can't ever foresee selling this guitar. If I did, it would be to afford another Taylor.

2002 414ce bought used. Made in the USA. Heavy duty case came with it. Satin guitar with a gloss top. Cutaway body style. Built in tuner, really nice to use. For a 5 year old guitar, mine looks like it was made yesterday.

I play Bluegrass, soft Rock, Folk music and other styles. Great sounding guitar. This is why I bought a Taylor. I hook it up to Fender DECjr amp and have fun. I wish guitar came in a full gloss finish. This comes with a finger neck joint. Guitar stays in tune.

As far as 5 year old guitar this ones perfect. The onlt thing I need to do is clean it a little better. The case which came with it from the factory is one of the best factory cases iv'e ever seen. Nice black finish, black insides, nice tight fit.

It will last, with becare as I would with all of my guitars. This guitar appears as it was made with very good materials. This in my mine guitar, and im very happy with the choice I made

Never had to use it. I have ordered catalogs from Taylor, and they have always sent them to me. I would buy another Taylor in a Heartbeat!

Ive been playing for 2 years. If I lost this guitar, it would be the same as losing my right hand. The sound and shape,I love it. I wish you could buy these guitar cheaper! LOL

Solid ovangkol sides and bottom, solid sikta spruce top grand concert with cutaway and Expression system electronics. The neck is mahogany, the fretboard a beautful ebony, and the front of the headstock is also a gorgeous rosewood. The headstock is grafted on using a finger joint which, I have to be honest, is cosmetically not Taylor's strongpoint, despite it being supposedly a weak spot on other conventional necks.
Own brand tuners (I think!) which work extremely well, no slippage or looseness and feel just right when tuning up. My example was made in the USA November 2005 and I bought it in September 2006 at EarCraft Music, Dover, NH (although I had tried it out and decided to buy it in July 2006!). Thanks to my friend Terry who flew with it to Sweden via Frankfurt and argued for 90 minutes with customs in order to avoid the sales tax!
Like all solid wood Taylors it comes with its own form-fitting case, complete with truss wrench/screwdriver and ES DVD. Yes, the case is heavy, but when you have instruments like this you don't want to trust them to some half-hearted case or gig bag!
Sides, bottom and neck are all satin, top glossy. Natural woods throughout, no staining or painting.

I bought this guitar as I have been developing my fingerstyle skills (inspired by Tommy Emmanuel and Doyle Dykes although I doubt I'll ever be in TE's league...) and wanted a guitar with a cutaway and inbuilt pickup (my old Guild D35 has a Fishman Natural Matrix installed by a luthier friend as I couldn't bear the thought of carving a hole in the side for pre-amp controls). So to that end it suits my style perfectly. From new it has a very clean bright sound, with a lovely bass end that you can feel when holding the guitar to your body - not what I had initially expected on a guitar with this body style! I can hear it starting to mellow out with usage too. So acoustically this guitar is beautiful.
The ES system gets a lot of good press at the moment which is one of the reasons I was interested in Taylor in the first place. Yes, it sounds great when playing the lower frets/registers with a very natural amplified sound (inevitably one needs to tweak the sweep eq in the mid ranges if one is DI-ing to a desk etc but that applies to any guitar mike system). What is slightly disappoining (hence the 9)is the sound high up the neck: as the pickup sits under the fretboard it transmits quite a full rounded tone. This is not always what is wanted however when playing high up the neck, and I wonder if this was a deliberate result as far as Taylor's team were concerned...

The 414CE was well set up and the action was and is good, although the Elixir strings were past their best when i got it. I have since made the switch to Cleartones .12s which seem to suit the instrument perfectly. The finish in general on the guitar is quite awesome, although the top is not well bookmatched - there are a couple of grain fluctuations (if that is what they are called) which in themselves look attractive (and possibly why the guitar was a bit cheaper than a normal 414CE) but would look even better had they been visually balanced. There are also a couple of what look like smudges on the white binding which don't want to rub off, and I am reluctant to try anything too strong. Otherwise finish would have received 10 points.
The ovangkol back and sides look gorgeous: I am actually quite a fan of the satin finish - I don't care if it is cheaper, it looks and feels good!
All the joins - headstock veneer, stacked heel, etc - seem to be perfect and laser smooth.

Although I have owned the guitar for 7 months now it has ony been gigged twice: various issues and pressures at home have put a bit of a stop on my semi-professional career at the moment so have had to concentrate on the meat and potatoes job! It does get played nearly every day though. But on those gigging occasions it performed extremely well (as did I!). Although bought primarily as a finger- or hybridpicking instrument it copes very well in live situations with reasonably heavy strumming and lead work (bluegrass etc). The instrument is definitely dependable live and although I take a back-up to gigs (to save wasting time string changing mid-set) it hasn't been needed yet.

No experience yet I'm afraid. Taylor don't actually honour their warranty if the guitar is taken out of the USA, and the scandinavian importer (EM Nordic) have no obligation to service under warranty an instrument that they haven't provided. Shame they don't provide an international warrantly but I understand that such are very unusual in the music instrument world. Email hasn't produced answers to any questions I have had and the time difference means it is very difficult to ring them during their office hours! The dealer I bought it from have been very positive and helpful on the other hand, although it would be prohibitively expensive to ship the guitar from Stockholm to New Hampshire for service! Good job my best friend is a luthier...

I have been playing around 28 years, guitar and bass, in varying situations from pub gig to major UK theatre tours. I also own Fender Strat, G&L ASAT Semi-hollow and Guild D35 (all US made), and Ibanez Musician fretless bass (Japan). My wife owns an Ibanez Talman acoustic bought from the same store as the Taylor. In the store I had also tried the Taylor GS and a Garrison dreadnought. The Garrison was lovely, a very full sound but not the type of guitar I was after at the time (but maybe one day...). The GS was also nice but not the wonder that I had expected, probably also because it wasn't the type of guitar I was after at the time.
I love the guitar's sound and playability and I would definitely buy another one if I had to (if I ever get rich I want a rosewood backed dreadnought next time though!). I particularly love the neck in general, although with reservations about the cosmetically questionable head joint.
I understand that Taylor have modified the pre-amp to enable one to eliminate the sensors from the circuit. I wonder if some kind of blender control may not have been preferable, especially with the neck pickup providing such a round tone on higher fretted notes.