Taylor Guitars 314-CE LTD

314ce LTD Summer Strummer with koa back and sides and a sitka spruce top... all gloss finish. Chrome grover tuners and the ES pickup. All of the rest of the features are standard 300 series for 2003. Basic, but beautiful... especially considering my koa will stand up to almost any regular series koa out there. Absolutely top notch guitar!

Clear high ends and warm bass response. It's not quite as boomy as rosewood, but it holds it's own great. Plugged into a PA, the ES sounds great. Plugged into an amp, the ES sounds great. It's the best pickup system out there. I do a lot of worship music with medium to heavy strumming, and some fingerpicking. It always responds perfectly. The only issue I have is that tap-ons aren't as pronounced as I would like. That may be user-error more than anything though.

Everything is absolutely perfect. Perfect perfect perfect!

It's made with all top notch materials. Would I use it with a backup? No way man! You never know when a string might break. That has nothing to do with the reliability of the guitar. It's very solid

Taylor is great on customer service. I've called them several times and they've been nothing but helpful to me.

This is a 2003 314-CE-L2 Limited Edition with solid maple body and solid sitka top, built in 2003 in the USA. It has 14 frets to the body with a cutaway allowing access to the additional 6 frets that are beyond the neck/body joint. The guitar features the Taylor Expression pickup system, has gloss finish on the entire guitar and has the new Taylor tuners. This is a basic utilitarian guitar - nothing fancy here.

Before I get too far into this, I want to make it clear that I already own a 1987 Santa Cruz Tony Tice Model D, that is one of the finest axes I have ever touched, when used in a bluegrass context. This will hopefully help you in understanding my perspective more easily. Since I am primarily a bluegrass guitar player, but am an aspiring folksinger, I wanted to get something that would be good for plugging into a board and sound really good. With the Taylor ES pickup, I found the perfect solution for my needs. Currently I am flatpicking the guitar and it sounds great when flatpicked; soon I will be learning to fingerpick, so obviously I can't judge it on that count yet.

Compared to the Santa Cruz the Taylor 314 is bright, lively and zingy. I hate to reuse the words of other reviewers, but the sound of this guitar is very 'bell-like' and has great definition of each note as it is played. There is really not anything I dislike about this guitar. It is a wallflower, which is my kinda box.

I specifically wanted a bright guitar that I could do recording with and this is exactly what I wanted. I compared it to 7 other 314-CEs; 6 maple and 1 koa and a 310-CE maple dreadnaught. The dread had a little fuller body, but didn't have the balance, clarity and 'bell-like' tone I was looking for. After spending all that time with those boxes this is what I walked away with.

The guitar has the NT neck on it and plays very easily, with light action. I do not like light strings (I play bluegrass, for chris'sakes) and once I changed them to D'Addario EXP medium gauge I felt much more at home. The finish is actually better than on my Santa Cruz, which is saying a lot when you consider that a SCGC box is damn near custom built. I have looked this guitar over from top to bottom and cannot find even one flaw on it. I even put my hand inside to feel the bracing on the top and see what detail was put into cleaning them up from splinters and such and it came out very well; nothing of note.

Everything seems to be well constructed and is definitely heavier than my Santa Cruz, but then again, every guitar I ever pick up feels heavier. I haven't had it very long so I can't say much about the durability and reliability, but Taylor has a great reputation for building guitars that last. You will have to look to other reviews for that information.

Haven't tried customer support, but did order a free ES pickup DVD from their website and also registered online. The DVD showed up within 3 days of ordering it, which is pretty good for something they are giving away! If this is any indication of their support, I would think they are great to deal with.

I've been playing guitar for around 25 years and have owned several guitars. Seagull, Ibanez, 1986 Martin HD-28B (Brazilian, I still cry for getting rid of that axe) and my Santa Cruz mentioned above. This guitar is definitely a quality built instrument, being better built than any guitar I have owned to date. I guess the only thing I dislike about this guitar is that it has a cutaway. I have never been too fond of the cuttaway look, but the beautiful flamed maple more than makes up for the cutaway. I guess that makes it a wash... ;)

got a 314 c-es ltd 2003 yesterday in vienna /austria

sounds great for my fingerpicking, quite powerful considering the size,
best acoustic sound I ever heard on a 6 string,relatively bright, what i do like..tried martins, lowdens and larrivees, like this taylor much better
tried recording through es on my computer/creative soundcard..

good setup, flawless finish..but what do you expect from a 2370 euro
guitar

as I said, I got it yesterday, no opinion yet

I actually wanted a nonelectric taylor, because I dont like the big holes cut into guitars for the fishman system..the es system came at the right time for me..looks nice and my suggestion:try it, you wont believe this sound..
well, in europe with 20 % sales tax and no chance for a really good deal this sort of instrument is quite expensive..

2003 Summer Ltd. 314ce koa. Beautiful guitar! The Koa wood is awesome - grain is excellent - it couldn't have a better grain pattern, great mix of colors. Grand Auditorium body style, gloss finish, the ES- Expression System, Sitka spruce top; black fiber binding, an Indian rosewood peghead veneer, fretboard inlay of large pearl dots, a wood fiber rosette, and chrome Grover tuners.

Truely Taylor. Incredible bell like tones, but with more than adequate bass. Although other Taylor owners/players generally say that you can strum this guitar hard - I don't know what they are talking about. I compared this guitar to a brand new 2003 310ce and hit both equally hard. This 314ce ltd. produced about 95% the volume and bass of the 310ce; so although the 310ce has arguably more bass and volume, the 314ce comes real close, but combined with the other sound qualities of the 314ce, it wins.

Set-up seems to be fine, but I'm sure from time to time I'll have to tweek the truss rod.

Seems Rock Solid to me, but only time will tell. But I have a 2001 Taylor Big Baby that has held up fine with daily playing.

I've dealt with Taylor in the past and they have always been very helpful.

This is a high end Taylor at their low end price. Seriously - I would compare this guitar to any of the higher end 4-9 series Taylors. The only thing those guitar have over this guitar is the inlay work.

2003 Taylor 314-CE-LTD Made in the good ole' USA
Grand Auditorium body style. Exotically figured Hawaiian koa back and sides, gloss finish, the Expression System, Sitka spruce top. Other appointments follow the 300 Series specifications: black fiber binding, an Indian rosewood peghead veneer, a fretboard inlay of large pearl dots, a wood fiber rosette, and chrome Grover tuners

I love the sound of this guitar. It responds well to heavy strumming as well as light and delicate work. The koa/sitka is a wonderful ombination. It may be too bright for some people, but I like it. It has great bass. Not as much as rosewood, but it will hold its own. The ES system sounds great as well. I have played it through a SWR strawberry blonde and it soundes just like the guitar but louder, if that makes sence.

Its a Taylor....

we will have to see I have only had it for about 3 weeks

I have not had to deal with Taylor yet but I have heard nothing but good things.

Taylor has hit another huge home run with the 2003 summer limiteds. Now that the limiteds for the fall of 2003 are going to be $200 more than the regular line the 2003 summer limiteds are going to be a real great buy.