Boasting beautiful layered Hawaiian koa back and sides, a solid torrefied spruce top and Taylor's comfortable, versatile Grand Auditorum body shape, the 214ce-K makes a strong case as an ideal guitar for performance, practice and everything in between. Taylor's special roasting process for the top adds a dash of mature warmth and depth, while the C-Class bracing inside enhances the overall response with more volume, longer sustain and a boost to low-end power. Offering plenty of projection for any application, this model also includes ES2 electronics for faithful, clear amplified tone and includes a sturdy structured gig bag for storage and transportation.
Back and sides of layered Hawaiian koa add a striking visual dimension to this all-purpose Grand Auditorium.
Grand Auditorium Body: Taylor's most popular and versatile body shape, the mid-size Grand Auditorium arrived in 1994 bearing refined proportions that fell between a Dreadnought and Grand Concert. While the bigger Dreadnought was traditionally considered a flatpicker’s guitar and the smaller Grand Concert catered to fingerstylists, the GA was designed to deliver on both fronts. The shape produced an original acoustic voice that was big enough to handle medium-strength picking and strumming, yet with impressive balance across the tonal spectrum, especially in the midrange, producing clear, well-defined notes that suited both strumming and fingerstyle playing. The GA’s overall presence tracks well with other instruments both in a studio mix and on stage, and singer-songwriters have embraced its utility both for composing and traveling with one guitar. Many people want a single guitar that can cover a variety of styles, which is why the GA continues to be Taylor's bestselling shape. If you want a great all-purpose guitar, the multi-dimensional GA won’t let you down.
Grand Auditorium Body Specifications: Body Length: 20" / Body Width: 16" / Body Depth: 4 5/8"
Hawaiian Koa Body Woods: A dense tropical hardwood, koa blends midrange focus with extra top-end brightness and chime. The more a koa guitar is played and opens up — especially an all-koa guitar — the more its midrange overtones add warmth and sweetness to its voice.
Origin: Hawaii
Sound: Koa's tone profile blends the midrange of mahogany with the top end of maple. Due to its density, a new koa guitar tends to start out sounding a little bright and tight, somewhat like maple. But the more a koa guitar is played, the more the sound opens up, expanding the midrange and rewarding the player with a richer, sweeter, more resonant tone. A common mistake is when a bright player buys a koa guitar in part for its visual beauty, finds it to be too bright, and doesn't play it enough to allow the wood to warm up.
Goes Well With: Fingerstylists who play more with the pads of their fingers and tend to have a meatier touch. Bright players may want to experiment with different pick materials to produce a warmer tone.
Torrefied Spruce Top Wood: By far the most popular and common wood used for acoustic guitar tops, spruce has a long heritage in the music world. In typical Taylor style, Taylor developed their signature recipe for a process called “torrefaction” to make spruce sound even richer and more sophisticated, adding a new dimension to this much-loved wood.
Torrefaction is a process in which spruce tops (before being added to guitar bodies) are roasted in ovens typically used for drying out wood so that it can be worked. The roasting process lends the wood a slightly darker visual hue while also altering its structure slightly to give it new sonic traits. In particular, torrefied spruce tops tend to sound warmer and sweeter, giving them a played-in quality you would expect from a much older piece of wood. While torrefaction cannot replicate the effects of decades of age and play, it does provide a touch of extra sonic depth without losing spruce’s trademark clarity, articulation or volume.
Origin: Canada and Alaska
Goes Well With: Virtually all musical genres and playing styles.
Expression System® 2: The Taylor Expression System® 2 (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. The location of the sensors enables a more dynamic range of acoustic sound to be captured than ever before. 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.
Venetian Cutaway: The Venetian cutaway is known for its soft, round lines. The sloping peak of the cutaway will vary depending on the shape of the body. The Grand Concert and Grand Auditorium have a steeper slope, while the Dreadnought is a bit flatter. Taylor's Grand Concert nylon-string models also feature a subtle, flatter slope, while Taylor's 200 Series cutaway models incorporate their flattest slope.
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