Limited Edition 514ce Grand Auditorium Acoustic-Electric Guitar

This Custom Taylor Grand Auditorium features serious upgrades that make it special beyond its price. The team at Taylor Guitars comes across very rare and special wood sets and holds them aside for guitars like this. The unique and stunning bearclaw spruce tops are full of character and they reveal the wonderful figuring of this Sitka spruce. The aesthetic packages consists of a variety of woods (ebony binding, koa top trim, and koa and boxwood fingerboard inlays) which give this instrument uncommon natural beauty.

As for sonics, this Custom's bracing architecture is that of Taylor's 800 series. The finish on the top is also a mere 3.5 mils thick - just like on the Taylor 800 series. This lets the top vibrate more freely and adds a touch of responsiveness as you play. Truly a unique Taylor guitar that's built for tone, this custom Taylor also has a depth of beauty that will keep you intrigued and appreciative of this highly individual instrument for a lifetime.
 
Body Shape
A Taylor original, the Grand Auditorium helped establish the Taylor acoustic sound. The popular body style makes for a versatile guitar that yields ample volume in response to light fingerpicking, and reacts to medium strumming and flatpicking with a clear, balanced sound across the tonal spectrum. If you want a great all-purpose guitar, the GA is an excellent choice.

Tone Wood Pairing
A guitar's top is the primary filter and distributor of vibrating string energy through the guitar, which means it has a huge impact on its sound. Sitka Spruce is the most prevalent guitar top wood of the modern era. It blends stiffness and elasticity in just the right proportions which translate into broad dynamic range with crisp articulation.

Visually, the "bearclaw" phenomenon results from a rippling along the fibers in asymmetrical patterns which shimmer, or appear as if a bear clawed the top. Sonically, this bearclaw offers the best of Sitka's endearing qualities. Tonally, blackwood behaves somewhere in the middle of rosewood and mahogany, with a little extra shimmer and chime that shows its family resemblance to koa. Pairing blackwood with the mahogany top not only gives you that roll-in effect associated with a mahogany top - really smooth attack and balance - but extra complexity as the note decays. It's a great combination.

Electronics
Taylor's ES2 is a revolutionary pickup design that delivers the latest in Taylor’s ongoing innovation in acoustic guitar amplification. The heart of the Expression System 2 is Taylor’s patented behind-the-saddle pickup, which features three uniquely positioned and individually calibrated pickup sensors. Because the pickup doesn't sit under the saddle, the bottom of the saddle comes in full contact with the bridge, allowing all the nuance of the guitar's tone to come through clearly whether playing acoustically or plugged-in. The location of the sensors enables a more dynamic range of acoustic sound to be captured than ever before while playing plugged-in.

Together with Taylor’s custom-designed “professional audio”-grade preamp, this system produces exceptional amplified tone and responsiveness. On stage through a PA, plugged into your favorite acoustic amplifier, or direct into recording software, the Expression System 2 faithfully conveys the voice of your Taylor guitar. The Taylor Expression System 2 operates through a proprietary 9-volt battery compartment and easy-to-use volume, and active bass and treble controls.

What sets Taylor Guitars apart? Unmatched build quality, the most stable and playable necks, a vast array of tonal options, eco-conscious and ethically-sourced raw materials, and a lifetime of service and support.