Taylor Guitars Next Gen 514CE 500 Series Grand Auditorium CutawayAcoustic/Electric Guitar

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Taylor Next Generation 514ce — Western Red Cedar & Mahogany Acoustic-Electric Guitar (Natural)

If the 714ce is cedar paired with the complexity of rosewood, the 514ce is cedar in its purest form — cedar paired with mahogany, two of the warmest, most organic tonewoods on earth working together in complete agreement. No brightness for brightness's sake. No glassy top-end shimmer. Just warmth, focus, character, and a midrange presence so natural and immediate that players who find it tend to stop looking. The Taylor Next Generation 514ce takes that already distinctive voice and gives it the most meaningful set of upgrades Taylor has introduced in years.

Two Warm Tonewoods, One Remarkable Voice

Western Red cedar and solid mahogany is a pairing built entirely around feel and intimacy. Cedar brings its famous touch sensitivity — the way it vibrates freely at low volumes, responding to the lightest fingertip, blooming into warmth and complexity rather than needing to be pushed or strummed hard to come alive. Notes arrive quickly and expressively. The response feels immediate and personal, like the guitar is listening as much as you are.

Mahogany brings something cedar alone can't provide: a focused, punchy midrange with a dry, woody authority that sits beautifully in a mix without competing for space. Where rosewood spreads wide and sparkles at the extremes, mahogany concentrates its energy in the middle registers — present, direct, and fundamentally musical. The low end is warm and controlled rather than loose and boomy. The trebles are clear without being bright. The result is a guitar with a voice that is genuinely its own — not trying to be rosewood, not trying to be maple, not trying to be anything other than exactly what it is: warm, focused, expressive, and deeply satisfying to play.

This is the tonewood combination that has defined the 514ce since its introduction in the mid-1990s. Players have loved it for thirty years. The Next Generation version is the best it has ever been.

Scalloped V-Class: Depth Without Losing the Character

Cedar and mahogany has always been a guitar that rewards a light touch — and Taylor's Scalloped V-Class bracing deepens that relationship rather than changing it. By adding a scalloped profile to the internal bracing, the top gains additional flexibility and responsiveness, unlocking more open-string resonance, a richer low-end presence, and a fuller bloom on every note. The volume and sustain improve meaningfully. The pitch accuracy that V-Class is famous for stays completely intact. And the fundamental character of the cedar-mahogany voice — warm, focused, woody, immediate — is enhanced rather than overridden.

This is a guitar that was already beautiful to play quietly. Scalloped V-Class makes it beautiful to play at any volume.

Action Control Neck: Your Perfect Setup, Permanently

Cedar's touch sensitivity means the 514ce rewards a well-dialed setup more than almost any other guitar. Too much string height works against the responsiveness that makes this tonewood combination special. The Action Control Neck puts that setup entirely in your hands. A simple bolt adjustment through the soundhole — no string removal, no tools beyond what Taylor provides, no luthier appointment — lets you micro-adjust the neck angle and dial in exactly the action height that lets the cedar do what it does best. Quick, repeatable, and completely adaptable to changing humidity conditions or different playing styles.

The long-tenon joint at the heart of the system also improves the neck-to-body coupling, adding a touch of additional low-end warmth that complements mahogany's natural voice perfectly.

Claria: Warmth, Amplified Faithfully

Getting cedar's soft, nuanced voice through a pickup and into a PA has always required compromise — traditional piezo transducers tend to flatten the warmth and exaggerate the harshness of an otherwise beautiful-sounding guitar. Claria was developed to solve exactly that problem. Two years of real-world testing with touring artists and live sound engineers produced a system that captures cedar's full dynamic range and tonal personality honestly — warm, responsive, and natural. Three soundhole-mounted controls — Volume, Tone, and Mid-Contour — give you intuitive tonal shaping in any room. Plug in and it still sounds like the 514ce. That's harder than it sounds. That's what makes it special.

Refined and Distinctive

The Next Generation 514ce wears an appointment package that feels exactly right for its personality — elegant without being showy, refined without being plain. The full-body natural gloss finish lets the cedar's fine, even grain breathe and glow. White body binding and black and white top purfling frame the edges cleanly. A single-ring green abalone rosette adds a quiet flash of color at the soundhole. The new Meridian inlays in Italian acrylic run up the ebony fretboard — a flowing, geometric pattern that's fresh and distinctive without demanding attention. A faux-tortoiseshell pickguard and Taylor nickel tuners complete a look that's cohesive, warm, and entirely its own.

Ships with a Taylor deluxe hardshell case.

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