Taylor 514ce

The 500 series of the American manufacturer Taylor offers instruments on the range of the luxurious 600, 700 series with many details and the entry level American all-mass models of the 300 and 400 series.

The Taylor 514ce, Urban Ironbark/Torrefied Sitka is a Grand Auditorium-type electroacoustic guitar, an original Taylor design introduced to the public in 1994 that combines the qualities of Dreadnought and Grand Orchestra guitars. The guitar's all-massive body is made of heat-treated Sitka spruce and the back and sides are made of a wood designated Red Ironbark Eucalyptus. Red Ironbark is a premium Australian hardwood that, according to early reviews, sits sonically somewhere between rosewood and ebony.

Glued to the mahogany neck is an ebony fingerboard fitted with twenty frets and decorative position markers. The lower body cutaway (venetian cutaway) makes it easier to play even at higher fingerboard positions. Acoustic properties are enhanced by V-Class ribbing, which improves the guitar's performance in three aspects - increasing the instrument's volume, extending sustain and improving intonation.

The strings are held in the company's tuning machines and ebony fingerboard via a TusQ saddle and zero fret. The high-end workmanship is accentuated by the Tobacco Stain finish on the body and neck and traditional elements in the form of binding, rosette, imitation tortoiseshell pickguard and decorative inlay on the headstock.

The guitar is fitted with the company's high-quality electronics. The Taylor Expression System 2 uses three specially designed independent piezo pickups located behind the fingerboard. Unlike conventional pickups, they do not sense the up and down movement of the board, but the natural back and forth vibration of the fingerboard. This makes the sound much more natural, colourful and pleasing, and more responsive to the dynamics of your playing. At the same time, the new preamp makes the signal 25% stronger. Of course, feedback is eliminated and you can adjust the volume, bass and treble.

The instrument comes in a deluxe carrying case.