Taylor Guitars 114e

I recently bought this guitar new from the newly opened GC in West L.A. It's a 2007 model, with mahogany back, sides, headstock cover and bridge. It's got a solid sitka spruce top, the rest of the body is laminate. There are three knobs for volume and tone. Already this is better than the older Taylor electronics where they used to cut a huge hole int he side to insert the faceplate. There is a single pickup underneath the saddle, and it is powered by a 9 volt cleverly hidden under the bottom strap button. The finish is satin, which I prefer over the high gloss. There is also a cutaway version, the 114ce, but mine does not have the cutaway. The tuners are standard, supposedly made by Taylor, although they don't have the Taylor stamp on them like the higher end models. Comes with a gig bag. Overall, not too bad for the price, a very solid everyday use guitar. The addition of the Grand Auditorium (x14) body style this year to the 100 series was a great decision by Taylor, since this is really the body shape Taylor is known for.

The acoustic sound straight from the store needed some immediate tweaking. I've been playing for about 15 years now. My style varies between hard strumming and light-medium fingerpicking, so I like acoustics that have great sustain and really resonate without becoming overly "twangy" during rhythm work. I've only plugged it in to the acoustic amp at GC, and overall the acoustic tone reproduces adequately. I've never been a fan of the amplified acoustic tone unless separately mic'd with a condenser, but now that I may be playing live more I decided to go with this model for an everyday beater guitar.

The immediate tweaking I mentioned included some tricks I've picked up along the way which can really brighten up and improve the tone of an acoustic. I took a bit of a risk buying a guitar that didn't sound all that great at first impression. But I have owned several Taylors and I rely on the company's quality. First, I tuned up to standard tuning, and did a slight 1/8 turn on the truss rod, since I tend to play light strings. Then I removed the strings and polished down the guitar, and removed a couple of stray burrs and some glue residue. I added a Bob Colosi bone saddle, which I had to really sand down because the under-saddle pickup takes up a lot of space. I also added bone bridge pins and a new set of light elixir strings (12's). Finally, I took about an hour with a hairdryer and removed the pickguard (you wouldn't believe how much having that piece of plastic glued to the top of the guitar prevents the top from resonating.

All that being said, the tone when finished was incredible, and world's different from the factory settings. This baby really hums and strums. Sustain is incredible, tone is clear and bright, with solid highs and non-boomy but still solid lows. Very even across the board. It sounds great with light fingerpicking, and stands up to solid strumming without losing its musicality. I have a hard time giving a grade for this one, because now it sounds about a 9.5, whereas from the store it was about a 5. So I'm going to settle in between and give it a 8, because most people will only be willing to make minor tweaks, not all of the adjustments I made.

From the factory, the action was a little low, but I made sure to adjust for this when I installed the bone saddle (NEVER try to adjust the action by cranking the truss rod, this is very BAD NEWS and will just screw up your guitar and tone.... adjustments to the action and intonation should be made by shaping the saddle). The relief on the guitar was almost perfect, and I only tweaked the truss rod a 1/8 turn because I tend to use lighter strings. As far as I can tell, the pickup under the saddle works fine. The top is the perfect color I wanted, since I've seen the color on these range from a very bright, almost white, all the way to a darker aged and yellowed color. Mine is toward the more yellow color, which for me is great. The back and sides match each other perfectly, and even the neck closely matches the back and sides, even though it is a different type of wood. The headstock cover and bridge look like they were cut from the same piece of wood and have a great texture. My final tweak was to add a custom Bill Nichols truss rod cover.

For a new guitar, you expect both a great finish and solid hardware, and for the most part this guitar had both. I'm giving it a 9 here because there was some glue residue to remove, and I can see some "spurs" on the nut that I will eventually have to deal with unless I want to have a lot of broken strings down the road. Overall though, the quality of even the introductory level Taylor is head and shoulders above any Takamine, Martin, Guild, etc. at twice the price. In my opinion, only the Gibsons and maybe the Larrivees stand up to Taylors in terms of finish and tone.

Haven't had a chance to gig with this one yet, but I would depend on it, given my past experience with Taylors. Never had a problem playing live with any Taylor, and this one seems like no exception. I would always bring a backup, just in case a string breaks though. It's funny, even though I love my Taylors and have owned several, I've never kept them for more than a couple years because I tend to upgrade for newer models. Taylors definitely hold their value though, and I do notice that the tone improves with age on the solid body models (it remains to be seen how much this laminate version will "open up" over the years as most higher end models do).

No opinion. Never had to deal with the company, but I've heard they are very responsive.

After playing for 15 years and having owned more guitars than I can count, both electric and acoustic, Taylors are by far my favorite guitars. I was excited that I got a good deal on this model, which already was a tremendous value for the quality of the instrument. I've stripped down and sold all of my guitar and music equipment (no time to play much anymore unfortunately), so I only have this guitar left. That's really saying something since I have at times owned 7-10 guitars at once. This thing plays like an electric, sounds like a $2K high end acoustic, but at a price that I don't mind keeping it in the gig bag and throwing it in the trunk for jam sessions with friends. In short, I think it's the perfect guitar if you're only going to have one main axe. To my ear, this actually sounds better than the Taylor 414 I recently sold, which is almost three times as expensive.

I love the playability and versatility. The ability to maintain crisp tones when playing soft and loud is a trademark of the company. As you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of Taylors, and this model, even for being the entry-level series, is an incredible value. I would take this over any $1000+ Martin. If lost or stolen I would immediately get another. Try one out, but keep in mind that to get a GREAT tone, you may have to do some of the teaks I mentioned above (however, this should be done to any acoustic). Good luck!