My guitar

I haven’t read a lot about Taylors, but I bet there is already a lot written about them. I have been a fanboy of the brand for years and even owned a Taylor dreadnought before. Recently, my Eastman workhorse needed replacement and I went to the local guitar store to test some guitars. The Taylor 214CE met all my requirements: a non-dreadnought guitar with a cutaway, bright sound and easy playability. I never immerse myself in details like how much millimeters the neck is or even the types of wood it’s made of. If a guitar ‘clicks’ with me, I feel it and know that the guitar was made for me. That feeling I felt with this particular guitar. I play percussive fingerstyle, mostly in DADGAD-tuning, so the percussive sound of the body really does matter, and with this guitar responses are very good.

Of course, it’s a new instrument for my hands, so there’s a bit to discover and learn as well. The sound of the strings is bright and full, and the string sounds are very responsive, especially to right-hand slaps. The guitar came with Elixir strings that can even ring a bit too bright occasionally. Fortunately you can roll off the sometimes a bit harsh sounding high frequencies with the excellent Taylor Expression System, a built-in pickup that sounds amazing when plugged in. I bought an Eastman Rare Earth Blend, another pickup system with very good tonal qualities, to build into the Taylor, but the built-in system is so good that I haven’t done it yet.

An interesting experiment is to replace the original Elixir strings with a set of D’addario 012s (I believe they are the phosphor bronze’s) and see (and especially listen) what happens. The harshness of the bright tones disappeared but the response stayed. Great!

This guitar invites me to play more and discover the guitar itself to the core and create new music on it. And yes, that’s definitely worth the 1300 euros I spent on it. I chose to have it with a guitarcasebag. A what? A device that is a guitar case on the inside and a guitar bag on the outside, everything I always wanted – to be able to carry a case on my back. Awesome!

In short, I am very happy and content with the guitar. It’s my new workhorse from now on, with the Eastman as a spare guitar. Or, to say it more specifically, the Taylor is now my guitar for my own live performances, and the Eastman became my music therapy guitar – more on that topic later on. If I can give you advice on buying a new guitar: don’t watch 1000 YouTube-videos, and don’t buy it online. Go to your local shop, and if they don’t have what you need, go to another shop, to try and feel the guitar. You will just know what the right guitar is for you. If you already know what exact guitar you want – and it happens to be this one – or just want to ignore my advice, please take a look here.

Keep playing & doing what you love!