Taylor 814ce

Grand Auditorium sits at the midpoint of Taylor's body-shape lineup by design — not as large as a Grand Pacific or Jumbo, not as compact as a Grand Concert, and that middle-ground size is what makes it read as balanced instead of leaning hard toward bass or treble. The 814ce pairs that shape with Scalloped V-Class Bracing with Relief Rout, a more aggressive version of the V-Class geometry found on Taylor's 200 through 700 Series instruments. The deeper relief rout carved beneath the soundhole lets the spruce top move more freely at a soft playing volume, while the scalloped bracing itself keeps the sustain and up-the-neck intonation accuracy that V-Class was originally built around. Solid Indian rosewood back and sides add the harmonic complexity spruce alone doesn't supply — a wider spread of overtones stacked above the fundamental, which is what gives a well-built rosewood guitar its reputation for sounding bigger and more three-dimensional than a mahogany or sapele body of the same size.

Set next to its 800 Series sibling, the Grand Concert 812ce, the difference is entirely about body size and what that size does to note decay. The 812ce's smaller lower bout and shallower waist push the guitar toward a faster, more immediate response — a note starts and ends quicker, favoring separation over sustain, which is why fingerstyle players and close-mic'd vocalists often prefer it. The 814ce's larger Grand Auditorium chamber holds a note longer and lets it bloom outward before decaying, which is what makes it read as fuller and more forgiving in a strummed-chord context, and why it's the more common first choice for a player who splits time between flatpicking and fingerstyle rather than committing to one technique. Both share the same 25-1/2-inch scale length, 1-11/16-inch nut width, Venetian cutaway, and Expression System 2 electronics, so switching between them at the store means comparing voice, not adjusting to a different neck.

Every 814ce that ships from The Acoustic Shoppe carries the full Dread-Not Guarantee. That starts with a 30-day in-home trial to test the guitar in the room it'll actually be played in, backed by a full year to trade it toward anything else in the store at 90% of the purchase price — the headline benefit, and the number that actually matters to a buyer: on this $3,999 guitar, 90% back is $3,599 in trade credit, which puts real downside exposure at $400 over a full year, not the full purchase price. Before it ships, every unit completes our 23-Point Professional Inspection, performed by a certified in-house tech rather than treated as routine setup work, and includes a free Bluetooth humidity monitoring kit to help the rosewood body stay stable through seasonal humidity swings.

Appointments on the 814ce stay true to standard 800 Series presentation: a gloss finish over the spruce top that shows off the wood's natural grain rather than masking it, paired with ivoroid body and fretboard binding and Taylor's Element fret inlay pattern. The Venetian cutaway keeps the upper frets fully accessible for lead lines and higher-position chord work, and the guitar ships in a Taylor hardshell case built for the instrument to travel as easily as it plays at home. This page is the standing model reference for the 814ce at The Acoustic Shoppe — every serialized unit we sell redirects back here once it's gone, so the product grid above always reflects what's currently on hand.

For the rest of the line, see the Taylor 800 Series collection, or compare directly against the Grand Concert 812ce. For Taylor's complete catalog at The Acoustic Shoppe, visit the Taylor Guitars collection.

The Acoustic Shoppe is an Authorized Taylor Premier Dealer and Gold Label Advantage Dealer. Every instrument ships after a full 23-point professional inspection by our in-house repair tech. As a nine-time consecutive NAMM Top 100 Dealer, we handle warranty concerns directly on your behalf.