Talk me into (or out of) an 814ce

[mikealpine]

Originally Posted by jliew08

The chattanooga area of TN!

Nashville and Franklin have great guitar stores. Gruhn and Artisan would be my stops. Perhaps others can offer some suggestions. That's only about a 2 hour trip, and worth it if you are considering the amount of money you're looking at.

[EmperorPo]

Hard for me to get to Nashville or Atlanta most days. But I will be going to Knoxville GC tomorrow as they have a much better selection than chattanooga.

Any other production guitars I should take a look at while I'm there? If I pull one off the hanger it's because it looks cool or I know something about it, so j could forget something haha. I think I will be able to decide on the 814 tomorrow and try to find a used one elsewhere.

Thanks again all, you guys have been extremely helpful.

[dodge]

I'd look at the new Taylor 614ce if they have one also. You have a lot of options at your price point.

[SOR]

Originally Posted by 6L6

Find yourself a used Collings (they are ALL great guitars), install a K&K Pure Mini, and you'll never think "Taylor" again.

These kind of blanket statements may be true for the individual making them but it certainly can't be applied to others. I in fact have a Taylor that replaced not one but two Collings, a D2H VN and an OM2H. It's always best to speak only for oneself.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by 6L6

Find yourself a used Collings (they are ALL great guitars), install a K&K Pure Mini, and you'll never think "Taylor" again.

Ummm.. nope.

I've owned several Collings and Taylors. While the Collings sound better fingerstyled, the Taylors sound better strummed. Sight and feel, Taylor takes the cake.

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by Fire

Ummm.. nope.

I've owned several Collings and Taylors. While the Collings sound better fingerstyled, the Taylors sound better strummed. Sight and feel, Taylor takes the cake.

Gorgeous. Love your quiver.

[EmperorPo]

Thanks all for the input.

I decided to go with an 816ce. Sweetwater had a demoed First Edition 816ce at a price I was good with. The customer service at Sweetwater has been one of the best I have experienced. Being a demo, the sales engineer pulled the guitar out and checked it over and gave me a detailed explanation of its condition. He said he it had some very light scratches on and near the pickguard but they were very hard to see. Essentially it was a new guitar at a discounted price is what he said. Very excited to get it and hope its the one!

AGF and Sweetwater FTW. NGD post coming soon!

[wcap]

Congratulations! Its always nice getting a good deal due to slight defects that don't really matter. And this will surely be a great guitar - I'm hoping you really love this guitar.

[sled]

Originally Posted by MBE

It's worth noting that the 816ce is built for mediums and the 814ce ships with lights. I had a few GS's and they didn't sound great with light strings. Just another thing to consider - it wasn't a problem for me as I prefer mediums, but might be an issue if someone likes lights.

Actually, the 800 series ships with the HD Lights, which are a hybrid set....

For the 800s, Andy began by switching from Elixir Acoustic 80/20 Bronze Strings with NANOWEB® Coating, which we've been using for years, to Elixir Acoustic Phosphor Bronze Strings with NANOWEB Coating.

"The phosphor bronze strings have a nice, rich shimmer on the high end, with a richer, broader warmth overall," he says.

Andy and the rest of the product development team liked them so much that they made the decision to install the Phosphor Bronze sets on all of Taylor's steel-string models for 2014.

More specifically, as Andy looked to optimize the tone for each body shape within the 800 Series, he explored alternative string gauge options, particularly for the Grand Concert and Grand Auditorium. Andy felt the overall articulation could be enhanced by creating the right tension profile at the bridge. Or, as Bob put it: "He wanted more guts out of the high end."

"One of my favorite tricks in the past was to make this custom, hybrid set," Andy explains. "I'd use medium-gauge for the top two strings, blended into a regular light set on the low end. It gave me the bold quality that I wanted on the treble notes without overloading the soundboard with a lot of extra tension. I ended up with a little louder guitar that was also warmer on the low end."

While Andy was able to get close to what he wanted with his hybrid set, he wanted to fine-tune the calibration even more. A phone call to our friends at Elixir Strings led to some productive collaboration, and ultimately, an ideal solution. The result is a unique set, named HD Light, that blends Elixir light- and medium-gauge strings with a custom .025 gauge third string (a standard light-gauge G string is a .024; the medium is a .026). The specific gauging is: .013, .017, .025, .032, .042, .053.

The custom gauging serves to complement the construction of the Grand Concert and Grand Auditorium and creates an ideal tone profile across the bridge, as Elixir Strings engineer Justin Fogleman explains.

"The increased tension of the treble strings improves their articulation, balancing their voice within the mix," he says. "The interaction of the tension profile with the soundboard also adds to the harmonic content of the bass strings, creating a warmer, fuller sound."

Andy says the new sets are perfect for these shapes.

"The hand feel is incredibly balanced," he shares. "And knowing that I was going to get to use this string set influenced the way I braced and voiced the guitars."

http://www.elixirstrings.com/hdlight/

[sled]

Originally Posted by jliew08

Thanks all for the input.

I decided to go with an 816ce. Sweetwater had a demoed First Edition 816ce at a price I was good with. The customer service at Sweetwater has been one of the best I have experienced. Being a demo, the sales engineer pulled the guitar out and checked it over and gave me a detailed explanation of its condition. He said he it had some very light scratches on and near the pickguard but they were very hard to see. Essentially it was a new guitar at a discounted price is what he said. Very excited to get it and hope its the one!

AGF and Sweetwater FTW. NGD post coming soon!

Congratulations. I had originally wanted an 816ce, but opted for the 814ce when my local store got one in that was there just waiting for me one day....... ambushed me they did!!!!!

[KevWind]

Congrats and Good for you. While I'm certain all those mentioning you get a different brand than a Taylor "for the money" mean well, they are in fact simply confusing personal taste in tonality, style, looks etc.... with over all objective issues like, quality, playability, reliability, etc.

In objective measures you will find no "better" "for the money" than a Taylor. Equal ? sure, Better ? "NOT". For example having been on the road for years and played literally a thousand different guitars of most the major builds... Taylor, Santa Cruz ,Collins, Martin, Gibson, Guild, Goodall, Larrivee, Breedlove, et al. I ended up with two Taylors and a Breedlove, for the way they played and sounded period.

If your 816 is anything like my my 810 you will find ten + years down the road that it's like the energizer bunny just keeps on going and going, sounds great and stays in tune all performance long, day after day year after year.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by jliew08

Thanks all for the input.

I decided to go with an 816ce. Sweetwater had a demoed First Edition 816ce at a price I was good with. The customer service at Sweetwater has been one of the best I have experienced. Being a demo, the sales engineer pulled the guitar out and checked it over and gave me a detailed explanation of its condition. He said he it had some very light scratches on and near the pickguard but they were very hard to see. Essentially it was a new guitar at a discounted price is what he said. Very excited to get it and hope its the one!

AGF and Sweetwater FTW. NGD post coming soon!

Congrats! I decided the same thing. Exchanged the new 814ce for the 816ce. Much happier. And the 816ce ships with nanoweb PB mediums. And they sound great on that guitar. However, I am using 12.5s from Martin and Curt Mangam.

Good luck. I hope you have many years of enjoyment with it.

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