Combining tasteful aesthetics with tone-enhancing details, the 400 Series is Taylor’s popular class of workhorse ovangkol guitars. The 414ce acoustic-electric Grand Auditorium features revolutionary V-Class bracing, which boosts volume evenly across the tonal spectrum, increases sustain, and improves the natural intonation of the instrument by creating a more synergistic response from the soundboard. This fosters a more harmonious relationship between the notes you play, helping chords to ring out in cohesive splendor. If you’re a guitarist who appreciates the robust lows and crisp highs of ovangkol, you’ll relish how well-mannered the overtones are as your notes bloom. While your ears delight in its beautiful tone, your eyes will savor the 414ce’s refined appointments.

V-Class bracing: a sonic revelation

Bracing is the internal framework of an acoustic guitar that helps shape its sound. Although X-bracing has been standard in acoustic guitars for over a century, it creates an innate conflict between two key elements of a guitar’s sound: volume and sustain. The guitar’s top (its soundboard) contributes to both. The flexibility of the top generates volume (projection), while its stiffness generates sustain. And with X-braced guitar tops, here’s where the trade-off comes in: when something is made stiffer, its flexibility is reduced (and vice versa). V-Class bracing changes all that. With Taylor’s V-Class bracing, an acoustic guitar top can be both stiff and flexible — for more volume and sustain. V-Class bracing provides stiffness parallel to the strings for more rigidity and hence sustain. Flexibility on either side generates the air movement necessary for robust projection. It’s the best of both worlds. This groundbreaking innovation also improves intonation — not only producing notes that are louder and have longer sustain, but are also more in tune with each other. Guitarists at Music Experience are gobsmacked. But don’t take our word for it — pick up the superb Taylor 414ce and experience it for yourself!

Grand Auditorium body style delivers exceptional presence

Taylor’s beloved Grand Auditorium body style, featured on the 414ce, employs the width and depth of a dreadnought. But its waist is narrower, which gives Grand Auditorium–bodied acoustic guitars a sleeker look with more treble zing. The Grand Auditorium body style also helps to sharpen the definition of each note — a quality desirable in any musical style. You’ll also find your Grand Auditorium guitar to be incredibly comfortable, whether you’re playing seated or standing.

Choice tonewoods - Sitka spruce meets Ovangkol

When you pick up a Taylor, you can expect outstanding tone - and one of the leading reasons behind that signature Taylor voice is the use of high-quality tonewoods. This particular Taylor, the 414ce, is a prime example of just that. It features time-proven Sitka spruce as its top - which gives you projection - while its body comprises Ovangkol. Ovangkol is an African tonewood with a striking olive-brown coloration and intensely varied grain. It offers a response somewhat similar to the warmth of rosewood - but gives the 414ce a voice all its own. The Taylor 414ce also features an all-gloss finish and a Tropical American mahogany neck, which is lined with a smooth-playing ebony fingerboard.

Taylor Expression System 2 electronics

If you play plugged in, then you’re going to love the Taylor Expression System 2 (ES2) electronics built into your 414ce. The key to this fantastic system is the 3-section proprietary pickup located behind the saddle. Because of where it’s positioned and how it’s integrated into the 414ce’s saddle, the ES2 pickup provides you with remarkably clear and accurate sound. In addition to a master volume control, a pair of tone controls lets you tweak your highs and lows to get the sound you need, and a discrete phase switch offers vital onboard feedback suppression.