Taylor Legacy 914ce

Sitka spruce is the workhorse top wood on most of Taylor's catalog, prized for its stiffness and dynamic range under a hard attack. Engelmann spruce, used only on the 914ce within the Legacy line, is a lighter, more resonant alternative that trades some of Sitka's raw power for a more complex overtone series and a quicker, more sensitive response to a lighter touch. That's the real reason the 914ce sits at the top of the Legacy line rather than just carrying the highest price: the tonewood itself is a different, more premium choice, not merely a fancier version of the same top. Paired with Scalloped Open X Bracing — the same vintage-voiced bracing pattern running through the whole Legacy line instead of the V-Class bracing found on the rest of Taylor's current catalog — the Engelmann top opens up with a looser, more traditionally-voiced response than a comparable V-Class Grand Auditorium.

The Grand Auditorium body shape is Taylor's most versatile, built to split the difference between a dreadnought's low-end power and a Grand Concert's fingerstyle articulation. On the 914ce, that balanced body shape gives the Engelmann top room to express its added complexity without leaning too far into either a boomy low end or a thin, overly bright top end. Gold hardware finishes the build, a detail exclusive to the 914ce within this line and a visual marker of its flagship position — the same reasoning Taylor uses on its Gold Label and higher-series V-Class models, where gold hardware signals the top tier of a given line rather than just decoration.

Set against its two Legacy siblings, the 914ce is a genuine step up rather than a lateral move. The Legacy 810e (Tapered Dreadnought, $3,399) and Legacy 855e (Jumbo, $3,499, 1-7/8-inch nut) both run Sitka spruce over Indian rosewood, sharing the same tonewood pairing and X-brace philosophy but differing in body size and neck width. The 914ce breaks from that shared tonewood choice entirely, swapping Engelmann for Sitka and adding gold hardware, which is why it sits at $4,999 rather than the roughly $100 gap between the 810e and 855e. Players who've already decided they want the Legacy voicing and are choosing based on body size land on the 810e or 855e; players chasing the most refined, most complex voice in the line land on the 914ce.

Every Legacy 914ce sold through The Acoustic Shoppe ships under the Dread-Not Guarantee — a 30-day in-home trial, followed by a full year of 90% trade-in value toward anything else in the store. On this $4,999 instrument, that's $4,499 in credit, so the real downside exposure is $500 over a full year, not the full purchase price. It ships after professional setup and inspection from a certified in-house tech and includes a free humidity monitoring kit to help protect the solid Engelmann and rosewood build.

That setup is part of our full 23-point professional inspection, run on every instrument regardless of price point. See the Taylor Legacy collection for the full three-model line, or compare directly against the Legacy 810e and Legacy 855e; for the complete Taylor lineup we carry, browse Taylor Guitars.

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.