Acoustic Guitar Review!Taylor 614ce Grand AuditoriumAcoustic-Electric Guitar

It's a dirty job, but someone has to review these nice guitars

Brevis...

Price: $4,198

Likes: rich sound, amazing playability

Dislikes: USA guitars are quite expensive

Wow Factor! maple never sounded so good

More info: Taylor 614CE

by Bob Kovacs

  It is hard to resist the Siren song of a new guitar. The look, smell, touch, feel, sound… all are intoxicating to a guitar fan. The new Taylor 614ce maple body acoustic/electric hits all the right marks with those sensations, making it a pleasure to hold, play and admire.  I played the Taylor 614ce for a month, and was able to use it at least one live performance. It plays like a dream. Made in El Cajon, Ca. Taylor 614ce has a list price of $4,198.

Features

  The Taylor 614ce is a grand auditorium guitar with a cutaway that gives access to higher notes on the neck. Size-wise there are a couple of slight differences between the shape of the 614ce and a standard dreadnaught guitar: The 614ce is just a bit thinner (by about 1/2 inch) and slightly more pinched at the waist than a full-size dreadnaught guitar. These are not a big differences but you will see them if you look. Taylor refers to the size as “Grand Auditorium,” but it is nearly identical to a full-size guitar in sound and handling.

  Like many guitars today, the 614ce is electrified. In this case, it uses Taylor’s Expression System 2 electronics that has three pickups in the saddle, a pre-amp circuit board inside the guitar and a 9-Volt battery at the base of the guitar next to the strap button. There are three controls on the forward edge: volume, bass and treble, each with an identical knob and center detent. The pre-amp has a phase-reverse switch that can be reached through the sound hole.

  A big feature of the Expression 2 system in the 614ce is that it has three pickups, one each for the E/A, D/G and B/E strings. There are small adjustment screws for these pickups, but the two-page manual for the Expression system cautions against anything other than the most careful adjustment. It does say that you can change the timbre of the sound by adjustment, so really picky players do have some room for tweaking to tailor the sound.

New bracing and maple back/sides make this guitar sing

  The top of the Taylor 614ce is sitka spruce that has been processed with what the company calls “torrefaction,” which ages the wood by warming it to provide a seasoned sound and less tonal change over the life of the guitar. Taylor says that the finish on the top is unusually thin, which causes less dampening than usual guitar finishes.

  The sides and back of the 614ce are dark-stained maple – in the case of the guitar I received, the maple has a beautiful tiger-stripe quality. The fretboard is ebony with variegated plastic inlays on a hard rock maple neck. (Taylor calls the fret inlay material “Grained Ivoroid Wings.”) The neck has a truss rod that can be adjusted through a removable plate on the head.

  The 614ce has nickel-plated Taylor tuning machines that otherwise resemble Gotoh tuners. The nut is made from Tusq and the saddle is Micarta. The guitar comes stringed with Elixir Phosphor Bronze HD light-gauge strings.

  One of the more interesting construction features of the Taylor 614ce is the bracing on the inside of the guitar’s back. Instead of being perpendicular to the neck of the guitar, they angle at quite a noticeable slope. Taylor calls this bracing design “Advanced Performance with Relief Rout.”

  The Taylor 614ce comes with a snug-fitting hard case that has five latches to secure the lid. Inside, there is soft padding that cushions the guitar. The storage compartment is fairly spacious – you won’t run out of space to carry a couple of spare picks with this case.

The audition

  I may have worded things above in a way that makes it sound like I wasn’t impressed with the Taylor 614ce. However, this is a beautiful guitar that plays and feels like a premium instrument. Everything about it is well built, and it exudes an aura of fine construction and quality materials. The spruce top has no flaws, and the maple on the sides and back is perfectly matched. It works together as an attractive package.

  The bracing and internal construction are neat as a pin, with no excess glue anywhere. The three sound controls (volume, bass, treble) on the forward surface of the guitar turn with a pleasant tactile feel. The tuners – which I seldom had to touch because the 614ce held its tune so well – feel just right. They make it easy to find the sweet tuning spot.

  And “sweet” just may be the best one-word description of the Taylor 614ce. The action on the neck was low enough to minimize finger pressure, yet without a hint of buzzing. My hand wrapped around the neck as though it had been there for years – it’s a completely natural feel for me.

  Most guitar players will say that different guitar brands have their characteristic sound, and Taylor is no exception. To me, Taylor guitars always had a strong bass that took nothing away from the treble tones. If anything, this 614ce extends the richness of the brand’s bass, while somehow making the top end sweeter as well.

And “sweet” just may be the best one-word description of the Taylor 614ce. The action on the neck was low enough to minimize finger pressure, yet without a hint of buzzing. My hand wrapped around the neck as though it had been there for years – it’s a completely natural feel for me.

  I’ve also found that my favorite guitars transmit the instrument’s vibration to my body in a pleasing way. The Taylor 614ce has that sensation. It’s hard to describe, but it feels like the guitar is talking to my chest when I’m playing it. In the case of the 614ce, it was saying, “Yes, this is what you’re supposed to do.”

  The Taylor 614ce sounds great when noodling around the house, or even taking out on the front porch to share the tone with my neighbors. However, I wanted to get some experience playing it in front of a crowd, so I went to the local folk club’s weekly gathering to see what others thought of the sound. This was an all-acoustic night with no amplification, so the goal was to play and sing loudly – usually my forte. The room was packed with 80 or so people, most of them musicians who know the sound of a good instrument.

Beautiful striped maple embody this Taylor

  When it came time for my performance, the 614ce had no trouble filling the room. Granted, the rules are that no one can talk when someone performs. However, singing along is encouraged, and most of the room sang along to the familiar songs I played. It was a fine experience, helped in part by the Taylor 614ce’s good projection and balanced tone. The guitar’s sound got only positive comments when the night was over.

  Of course, that didn’t test the pickup quality, so I plugged the 614ce into a PA system at home. There is an amazing amount of volume, and the three knobs worked exactly as I expected. The plugged-in sound of the Taylor 614ce is more naturally “acoustic” sounding than either of my other two guitars with pickups. However, it still isn’t quite the same natural sound quality you get when you mic a guitar properly. It is quite usable though, and no one will mistake the sound of the Taylor 614ce with that of a Fender Telecaster. The 614ce’s plugged-in sound is clearly in the acoustic range, and about as close to a natural acoustic guitar as I have heard from a built-in pickup.

The verdict

  The Taylor 614ce is an expensive guitar, so we should expect that it will have quality construction, fine sound and excellent playability. The 614ce definitely met my expectations in this regard. Only you know if you have the disposable income for a really fine guitar – if you do and you are in the market, the Taylor 614ce will not disappoint.

  What I liked most about the 614ce was that great feedback it gave my body when I played. In my experience, the best guitars have that kind of feedback, and that puts the Taylor 614ce right up there with the best I have ever played. The Taylor 614ce most certainly gets our Everything Guitar Network Grade A Award.

  Bob Kovacs has been playing guitar for 40+years, and has several performance videos on YouTube. Be forewarned… he usually favors novelty songs.