Taylor K14ce Builders Edition - Acoustic Review

Another interesting review which choses my experiences of playing higher end Taylors. They are great guitars — at this price — with, as you say, a very different sound. The high end necks I have always found comfortable. I've not played the V braced models yet but will do so now! At this price though there is a lot of competition especially in the hand built market!

One thing. All those mics on the wall behind you are fascinating — but shouldn't they have covers on them :-)

I know its hard jackorion but how wold you describe the difference between X and V shaped Taylors?

All of this is from memory, but I'm very familiar with the  X brace Taylor sound (post Andy Powers re-voicing circa 2014) having sold and played lots of them over the years and I sat for a good hour or so with both the X and the V. Both guitars were 914ce's (at Mansons in Exeter if people want to know where you could try out both)

I felt that the X guitar a bit more 'drum' like bass - imagine the soundwave being like this  ' /\_ ' so the bass was very immediate like a kick drum almost but without a smooth decay. Although this is not a good description as the tone was still good, it was almost like a 'thud' then the note emerged as the thud subsided...

The V guitar I felt had less initial impact (no 'thud'), but the note rang longer and clearer - more like a piano I suppose  (or even a keyboard in some ways as it was like the note instantly happened). Although I'm pretty certain the V was louder the difference in volume between the attack and the decay sometimes fooled me into thinking it was quieter...

The X brace had a bit more of a, dare-I-say, Martin-esque mid-range 'scoop' - a typical rosewood spruce eq curve - whereas I thought the V had a bit more overtones in the mid range (similar in some ways to the Collings voice vs the Martin voice).

Trebles on the X were more traditional whereas I think the V had 'thicker' trebles with more overtones - a bit more 'brassy' rather than 'crystal'.

The X brace could get a bit 'loose' sounding - quite a bit of power in the low end and a bit more 'rumbly' whereas I thought the V was tighter although, as I said in the demo, it could only go to certain point in terms of playing hard and still projecting - the X I think might suit a heavy handed strummer a bit better in that respect.

I think the V was an excellent fingerstyle guitar - it almost felt like there was a bit of compression going on that helped with balancing out the tone but I don't remember it being an issue with regards to soft playing, but it definitely came alive a bit more with a slightly more forceful picking hand.

There were a few notes on the X that were perhaps a little 'woofy' but I don't remember the V suffering from that and, if it did, I think they would be around the range where the extra mids would help them ring out.

They were both excellent guitars, and it would have been difficult for me to choose between them - on balance I *think* I might have preferred the V for my style of playing (fingerstyle, often in dadgad or similar, hardly no strumming) and the V definitely has something 'different' going on in the tone that made it interesting to my ear, similar in some ways to what interests me in my new Collings OM2hT - a different mid-range quality I think...

Enjoyed the video Ben, and the follow up X-V impressions were interesting too. I think there's a lot in how notes develop and fade once plucked that determines how we perceive a guitar to sound - not always easy to explain, but you did a good job!

Just a thought - is there any scope for a word or three on how review guitars cope with a capo on, esp higher up around 5th fret? Really important for fingerstyle as you know, and some guitars cope much better with this than others in terms of maintaining tonal balance, sustain and volume. Might mak too much demand on time for your vids though. What do you think?

Keith

Missed the checked shirt though.