Taylor Guitars 114ce, Grand Auditorium, Solid Sitka Spruce Top, Sapele Back/Sides, Cutaway, ES-T

Learn About the Taylor Guitars 114ce Model

Quality, style and an attractive price are compelling features you’ll find in the 214 before you even pick one up. Of course, one strum backs everything up with great tone. The Taylor 114ce is a superb option for the budget-minded guitarist or an "extra" guitar for the seasoned player, the 114ce has an extremely rich and versatile voice.

The 114ce offers both the classic look of a rosewood/spruce Dreadnought and optimization for performance with cutaway access and Taylor electronics.

Grand Auditorium Guitars: A Taylor Tradition the Taylor 114ce Continues

Introduced in 1994 to commemorate Taylor’s 20th Anniversary, the Grand Auditorium would go on to establish itself as a definitive Bob Taylor original. Tonally, the guitar embodied the qualities of balance, clarity, and versatility that became hallmark Taylor traits. Visually, the shape gave the world an equally balanced and refined aesthetic of smooth curves. In both respects, the GA was at once big enough and small enough to cover a lot of ground.

The goal, Bob says, was simply to make a guitar that was big like a dreadnought, but without a dreadnought’s traditionally boomy sound, even though the Taylor dreadnought wasn’t boomy compared to other guitar brands. "I was looking for a good, clear tone that had volume when you played fingerstyle, which was pretty popular at the time, but then when you strummed didn’t have too much bass."

The GA has the width and depth of a Dreadnought, but its tapered waist and contours give it the appearance of a smaller instrument, making it comfortable to play. The tonal balance means it’s full in the lower register, present in the midrange, and sparkling on the treble strings.

The GA’s tonal balance also made it a favorite of engineers.

"You put a mic in front of the guitar and set everything to zero, you turn on the tape, and you play," Bob explains. "A lot of studio owners and engineers bought the GA just to put in the studio, because when things started going bad with players' guitars during a session, the engineer would say, 'We can get this job done today if you just play this guitar.' A lot of it was the shape. We made a few bracing changes, but we depended on the shape to change that tone."

More About the 100 Series of Taylor Guitars

Taylor’s 100 Series premium guitars will change your expectations about what a serious entry-level instrument can embody. Featuring solid Sitka spruce tops and either laminated sapeleback and sides, both series deliver the quality sound and feel you’d expect from a Taylor.

You don’t need to sacrifice great tone and playability when you’re looking for extra value. The sapele laminate 100 Series guitars are the real deal, crafted to deliver the complete Taylor experience, and, with laminate back and sides, are extra resilient.

You can feel good in knowing that when you buy a Taylor at any level, you get precision craftsmanship, and great tone.

Taylor 100 Series Guitars: A Rite of Passage

For some young adults, getting a driver’s license is a rite of passage. For others, getting their first Taylor is. The 100 Series Taylor guitars are perfect for young players who are ready to take things to the next level. With the easiest playability and best intonation in the industry, family porch jams never sounded so good.

Tone and Playability: Hallmarks of 100 Series Guitars

Tone and playability are hallmarks of Taylor guitars, and you’ll find the 100 Series® delivers plenty of each. Sporting a solid Sitka spruce top and sapele laminate back and sides, the redesigned 100 Series cutaway and Taylor electronics options. Value, yes. Compromise, no.

About Taylor Guitars

Founded in 1974, Taylor Guitars has evolved into one of the world's leading manufacturers of premium acoustic and electric guitars. Renowned for blending an innovative use of modern technology with a master craftsman's attention to detail, Taylor guitars are widely considered the best sounding and easiest to play in the world. Many of today's leading musicians make Taylor their guitar of choice, including Dave Matthews, Prince, Mick Jagger and Taylor Swift.

Taylor's 114ce features a cutaway and ES-T pickup enhance Taylor's signature Grand Auditorium body shape, for a versatile instrument with style and substance.

114ce Specs Type/Shape: 6-String Grand Auditorium Back & Sides: Sapele Laminate Top: Sitka Spruce Soundhole Rosette: Plastic Neck: Sapele Fretboard: Ebony Fretboard Inlay: Pearloid Dots Headstock Overlay: Indian Rosewood Binding: Black Bridge: Ebony Nut & Saddle: Tusq Tuning Machines: Enclosed, Die-Cast Chrome Plated Scale Length: 25 1/2 Inches Truss Rod: Adjustable Neck Width at Nut: 1 11/16 Inches Number of Frets: 20 Fretboard Radius: 15 Inches Bracing: X-Brace Finish: Varnish Color: Natural Cutaway: Venetian Electronics: Taylor ES-T Body Width: 16 Inches Body Depth: 4 5/8 Inches Body Length: 20 Inches Overall Length: 41 Inches

Loud and robust Sapele Laminate back/sides.

Classic pearloid dot inlays.

ES-T pickup onboard.

The Taylor 100 Series
Tone and playability are hallmarks of Taylor guitars, and you'll find the 100 Series delivers plenty of each. Sporting a solid Sitka spruce top and sapele laminate back and sides, the redesigned 100 Series now features both Dreadnought and Grand Auditorium shapes, along with cutaway and Taylor electronics options. Value, yes. Compromise, no.

Sitka Spruce Top
Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) grows in a coastal "pocket" from Northern California to Alaska. This dense, straight-grained wood has the highest strength and elasticity-to-weight ratio among available tonewoods, an attribute that makes it an ideal material not only for our soundboards, but for our internal bracing, as well. Sitka produces a slightly brighter tone than does Engelmann.

Sapele Laminate Back/Sides
This exceptional, mahogany-like wood grows throughout the tropical rain forests of Nigeria and the Ivory Coast of Africa. Ever since we introduced it in 1998, its legion of fans has grown exponentially. As a tonewood, it's denser and harder than mahogany, so it has a crisper, clearer, brighter, "pop"-ier sound than its more familiar counterpart. Loud and robust, with a lovely ribboned grain, sapele has been used by Spanish guitar makers for many years.

Varnish Finish
A durable varnish finish offers protection, good looks, and a smooth feel to the touch. The spruce top's beauty shines right through.

Grand Auditorium Body Shape
The Grand Auditorium was the first guitar shape designed from scratch by Bob Taylor. It was unveiled to commemorate the company's 20th Anniversary in 1994, and since then it has more than lived up to its promise. Although the GA has the width and depth of a Dreadnought, its narrower waist gives it the appearance of a smaller instrument, adds treble "zing" across the guitar's tonal spectrum, sharpens the definition of individual notes, and also enables it to rest comfortably in the lap. Because we remove mass from the width of the GA's braces, the guitar top moves faster, resulting in a snappy, bell-like tone. The GA, available as a 6- or 12-sting, is designed to be a strong fingerpicking guitar that also can handle medium strumming, and is exceptionally versatile.

Venetian Cutaway
The cutaway allows access to the upper frets. Many players moving to acoustic guitars grew accustomed to the cutaways on their electric guitars. Others simply like the freedom of movement into the upper register that a cutaway allows. Nowadays, cutaways are favored as much for their decorative appeal as for their function. The Venetian cutaway is known for its soft, round lines. The sloping peak of the cutaway will vary depending on the shape of the guitar. Grand Concerts and Grand Auditoriums have a steeper slope, while Dreadnoughts and Jumbos are a bit flatter.

ES-T Pickup
Inspired by Taylor's Expression System technology, the Expression System Transducer, or ES-T, is a single-source, under-saddle transducer with individual elements for each string. (The ES-T was originally called the ES Element, but the name was changed to avoid confusion with another product.) The ES-T has an onboard preamp and the same active controls found on the full Expression System. Featuring a custom-voiced EQ and dynamic response, the system is powered by a 9-volt battery, with a battery life LED power indicator (which is lit when the battery is being used). The pickup also has a Phase switch for feedback control, which is located on the preamp board inside the soundhole.

Chrome-Plate Tuners
Taylor Tuners continue the industry-leading 18:1 gear ratio that they've been using, yet yield even greater precision with the help of a manufacturing process that employs the same gear-cutting machines used by Swiss watchmakers. The more precisely-machined gears virtually eliminate the slight "slop", or slack, typical among tuners, which makes it even easier for Taylor owners to get--and stay--in tune. Taylor Tuners also feature an elegant aesthetic touch, with the Taylor logo cleanly etched on the back.