Taylor's Grand Auditorium, Dressed Up and Ready to Play
Some guitars just check every box without making a fuss about it. The Taylor 114ce Special Edition is that guitar. It's part of Taylor's workhorse 100 Series, but the Special Edition treatment gives it a few upgrades that make it stand apart — a full gloss finish that lets the walnut grain breathe, a solid Sitka spruce top, and Taylor's ES2 pickup system wired in and ready when you need it. Whether you pick it up for a quiet evening at home or walk it onto a stage, it's built to handle both without complaint.
The Grand Auditorium body shape is Taylor's signature contribution to acoustic guitar design — wide enough to project well, narrow enough at the waist to sit comfortably whether you're standing or sitting. It responds beautifully to light fingerpicking and holds together under a firm strum, which makes it genuinely useful across a wide range of playing styles and settings.
This one is a particularly good fit if you want a guitar that plays well right out of the case, has real tonal character from the tonewoods, and can plug in without sounding like an afterthought.
Solid Sitka Spruce Top with Layered Walnut Back and Sides
The solid Sitka spruce top is the acoustic engine here. Sitka is the most common top wood in modern acoustic guitars for good reason — it blends stiffness and flexibility in a way that produces a broad dynamic range with crisp, clear articulation. Whether you play softly or dig in hard, the top responds proportionally, giving you real control over your dynamics.
The layered walnut back and sides bring something a little different from the usual mahogany or sapele. Walnut sits tonally between those two extremes — focused in the midrange, with a controlled low end and a brightness that lends definition to chord voicings. The layered construction also makes the guitar more resistant to humidity and temperature swings than a solid back would be, which is a practical advantage if your guitar travels with you or lives somewhere with variable conditions.
The all-gloss body finish lets the walnut grain and natural color show through beautifully — a step up from the standard matte finish on the regular 114ce, and a big part of what makes this Special Edition feel like a more elevated instrument.
Taylor's Neck and Fretboard: Built for Easy Playing
The hard rock maple neck on the 114ce Special Edition is one of the underappreciated highlights of this guitar. Maple necks are stable, stiff, and contribute a touch of brightness and snap to the overall tone. The slim Taylor neck profile is designed for accessibility — it's not a chunky vintage C-shape or a thin shredder profile, but a balanced, comfortable carve that works well for a wide range of hand sizes and playing approaches.
The 1-11/16" nut width gives you enough room for clean chord shapes without stretching, and the 25-1/2" scale length keeps the strings at a firm, responsive tension that translates well for strumming and fingerpicking alike. Up top, the West African Crelicam ebony fretboard is smooth and fast, with 20 accessible frets and a Venetian cutaway that opens up the upper register beyond the 14th fret when you need it.
Taylor ES2 Electronics
Taylor's Expression System 2 is a behind-the-saddle pickup design that sets itself apart by not sitting under the saddle. Because the saddle makes full contact with the bridge without a piezo element in the way, more of the guitar's natural resonance transfers through — and the three individually positioned and calibrated sensors capture that energy with a level of nuance that typical undersaddle pickups often miss.
The result is a plugged-in tone that actually sounds like your guitar, not a generic acoustic approximation. The onboard bass, mid, and treble controls let you dial in your sound for the room or the PA without fussing with a separate preamp. On stage through a PA, into an acoustic amp, or straight into a recording interface — the ES2 handles it cleanly.
Product Features:
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Top: Solid Sitka spruce with gloss finish
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Back and Sides: Layered walnut with matte finish
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Body Shape: Grand Auditorium with Venetian cutaway
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Neck: Hard rock maple with slim Taylor neck profile
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Fretboard: West African Crelicam ebony, 20 frets
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Scale Length: 25-1/2"
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Nut Width: 1-11/16" with Nubone nut
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Bracing: Forward-shifted pattern
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Electronics: Taylor Expression System 2 (ES2) behind-the-saddle pickup with onboard bass/mid/treble controls
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Tuners: Chrome standard tuners
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Finish: All-gloss body (Natural), matte neck
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Appointments: Black binding, black pickguard, 3-ring rosette, ebony bridge and headstock overlay
Brand: Taylor
Model: 114ce Special Edition
SKU: H104002111007931732-R0168
Condition: New
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