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What's that Sound?

Taylor 114CE and 524CE Acoustic-Electric Guitars

Taylor 114CE & 524CE Guitars

Beautiful, natural-sounding acoustic-electric instruments with the “wow” factor

The Taylor 114CE

The 114CE guitar is of the Grand Auditorium shape that has a Venetian cutaway allowing your hand to get to the upper frets. Designed by Bob Taylor in 1994, the shape of a grand auditorium guitar is wider than a dreadnought. (A dreadnought, a large bodied guitar shape, is named after the British battleship HMS Dreadnought). It was developed in 1916 and manufactured by C.F. Martin. The lower bout has a skinnier waist and forward bout that makes it a very comfortable guitar to play. My 114CE is laminated walnut on the back and the sides, with a solid sitka spruce top. The pickup is behind the saddle and has piezo-electric sensors. The guitar is powered by Taylor’s Expression System 2 (ES2).

Overall, with Taylor’s custom-designed pre-amp, the result is a natural acoustic sound with incredible range. The pickup also has a switch for feedback control, which is located on the pre-amp board inside the soundhole.

The Taylor 524CE

Right off the bat, this guitar is just amazingly beautiful. You can’t deny that. The sound quality is amazing, and I will explain how this is a little later. The cost is much higher than the 100 series and for good reason – they start at around $2800 brand new. Look around on EBay as I did, and you can get a great used one for around $1700. I bought mine from a reputable guitar store in Florida who has a great feedback history. I am extremely happy for making this purchase. When it arrived, it was in a beautiful hard case and was even in tune!!

The 524CE is a dark, rich-grained mahogany (a stronger wood) with a Venetian cutaway in the Grand Auditorium style, the same as the 114CE. Because of the fine mahogany wood, combined with the V-class bracing, when playing the 524CE, the sound that emanates from the guitar is unique, long-lasting and more beautiful than the 114CE because of the resonating tone. When you play the 114CE and then play the 524CE, a genuine appreciation for the 524CE will give you the wow factor.

A demonstration of the Taylor 524CE (by Tom Culbertson)

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