Taylor Builder's Edition 814ce

Sinker redwood is reclaimed lumber — old-growth logs that sank during river log drives a century or more ago and were later recovered from cold, oxygen-poor riverbeds where they sat, essentially preserved, ever since. That long submersion changes the wood's density and cell structure in a way new-growth redwood can't replicate, and it means the top arrives at the workbench already tonally mature: more headroom and harmonic complexity than a green-cut top typically shows before years of playing time have opened it up. Paired with Honduran rosewood — a denser, more complex-sounding rosewood than the Indian rosewood used elsewhere in Taylor's catalog — the 814ce Sinker Redwood leans toward a fuller, more layered overtone series and a wider dynamic range, which is reflected in its position as the pricier of the two 814ce builds at $5,499.

The 814ce Adirondack takes the traditional flatpicker's route instead: Adirondack spruce, the top wood most associated with pre-war bluegrass dreadnoughts, known for higher dynamic headroom than Sitka or Engelmann spruce and a brighter, more percussive response under a hard attack. Paired with Indian rosewood — Taylor's standard rosewood, still full of harmonic complexity but more widely available and less costly to source than Honduran rosewood — the Adirondack build lands at $4,499, a full $1,000 below the Sinker Redwood build. The choice between the two isn't about which is the "better" 814ce — it's about whether a player wants the Sinker Redwood's already-matured complexity and wider dynamic range, or the Adirondack's brighter, more immediate punch built for hard-driving rhythm and flatpicking.

Both builds share the identical Action Control neck joint and Scalloped V-Class Bracing with Relief Rout as the rest of the Builder's Edition line, including the 914ce, which uses the same sinker redwood-and-Honduran-rosewood pairing as this model's Sinker Redwood build, scaled up into a higher appointment tier at $6,999.

That shared neck joint and bracing matter more on the 814ce than they might on a brighter, more headroom-forward guitar, because both tonewood options here lean toward a fuller, more complex low end already. The Relief Rout carved beneath the fretboard extension removes mass exactly where standard bracing is stiffest, letting the top respond with more touch sensitivity — a meaningful pairing with either the Sinker Redwood build's already-mature harmonic complexity or the Adirondack build's dynamic headroom, since both benefit from a top that isn't fighting extra stiffness to move.

Every Builder's Edition guitar we sell ships under the Dread-Not Guarantee — a 30-day in-home trial to test the instrument in your own space, a full year to trade it in toward anything else in the store at 90% of your purchase price (on this $5,499 instrument, that's $4,949 in trade credit, real downside exposure of just $550 over a full year), a professional setup and inspection by a certified in-house tech before it ships, and a free Bluetooth humidity monitoring kit to help protect the instrument through Missouri's humidity swings. It's backed by our 23-Point Professional Inspection, and as a Taylor Premier Dealer, this model also qualifies for Taylor's 48-month equal-payment Synchrony financing plan (SYF_648) — a term length reserved for Builder's Edition and Custom-tier instruments only, not available on Gold Label or standard numbered-series Taylors.

On the 814ce Adirondack at $4,499, that same guarantee puts $4,049 in trade credit on the table after a year, real downside exposure of just $450.

Browse the rest of the line in our Taylor Builder's Edition collection, or the full Taylor lineup in our 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.