For your consideration - a 2022 Taylor 814ce in "near mint" condition. Compare Guitars; New Taylor Models; Builder's Edition; It was the display model and is practically in mint condition. Finish: Natural. I will not GIVE you my numbers. We're constantly dealing with problems that result when a guitar's soundboard just can't withstand the strain of a set of steel strings pulling on the bridge (a set of light gauge strings exerts over 150 lbs of "pull" on a pin bridge). As the top moves, vibrations travel through it and the body of the guitar and produce sound waves. What is it actually doing and how do I know I actually have a guitar that has the class bracing. That rigidity keeps the strings in motion, producing notes that resonate longer before fading out. Many will notice the sound of improved intonation and harmony between the notes, which is a characteristic that is significantly different than other designs. A V-Classic We can't talk about the 812ce without talking about Taylor's new V-Class bracing. Frank Ford and Richard Johnston have been restoring and repairing guitars for almost 50 years and in that time they have seen just about every style of bracing imaginable. As these guitars are played, the increased volume, enhanced sustain and improved intonation begin to change your approach to the instrument as a player, making you a better player and that is what playing a fine instrument is all about. I really like Gibsons and can't argue with Martins, but many times when I strum a Taylor, especially upscale, made-in-US versions, I'm blown away by the power of their guitars. Often termed as the new Sonic Engine, V bracing allegedly improves the sound quality by changing the way the guitar top vibrates. I personally do not like the v braced Taylors. Videos. The controlled flexing movement produces greater volume. Some also resulted in a radical redesign of the acoustic guitar, changing the established shape to accommodate the bracing, for better or worse. Engineered by Powers, V-Class bracing seeks to bring acoustic guitars into a new realm previously beyond imagination. Fan bar styles come in different arrangements, and we use both five-bar and three-bar patterns. Bracing. If you look at the design, you can see these V-braced Taylor soundboards are a lot stronger, but only where they really need to be. The unique bracing helps to regulate the flexibility of the guitar top. Because of the uniformity of the notes, the tone will amplify well. To return to the banjo example, those sharp, loud notes decay very rapidly. It will spark new songwriting ideas, make recording easier, sound better in a performance setting, and give players the fresh musical discoveries they crave. I certainly did, and I threw everything I had in standard tuning at it, with forays into my preferred alternative tunings, DADGAD and open-G. At this level, acoustics don't have flaws they simply have varying degrees of magnificent virtues. The 414ce-R comes with Taylors Expression System 2 electronics. If you look at an X-braced top compared to Taylors V-braced top, one of the things you notice is how the upper portion of the V borders the right and left (bass and treble) sides of the soundhole, after going underneath the larger horizontal brace just below the soundhole. Subscribe now for emails with guitar giveaways and prizes, cool deals, guitar news and more from Taylor Guitars! To increase the guitar tops stability while at the same time improving the volume and sustain is quite an achievement, and so far everyone at Gryphon loves the sound of the V-Class 914ce Taylor sent us. Its rosewood back and sides lend the guitar powerful bass and brilliance in the treble. No matter where you play on the neck, the notes ring out clearly without any variation of timbre or volume. The classic tonewood combination of Indian rosewood and Sitka spruce still delivers its characteristic blend of warmth, low-end presence, and high-range sparkle, but V-Class bracing elevates that tone to new heights. Free delivery for many products! Bracing is the internal architecture, featuring an arrangement of wooden struts, that strengthens the top and back of an acoustic guitar, creating a strategic balance between stiffness and flexibility. Moving through various prototype Andy Powers developed the V-class bracing pattern. i have a 98 414ce ovangkol x braced and 3 v braced taylors : 517gp , 814ce and 322ce 12 fret ; all fine sounding instruments according to my ears. How is v bracing a new idea? I have a 2002 Cocabolo 810-LTD bought new, a 2007 Koa 414ce-SL bought used. The cutaway on the Taylor 314ce V-Class Acoustic-Electric Guitar allows for easy access to upper frets while Expression System 2 electronics provide incredible sound when plugged in. This bracing is so. X bracing is used on our Baby, GS Mini, Academy, 100 and 200 Series. It would be tempting to judge this Grand Pacific model on the difference that V-Class bracing has brought to the party, but it would be wrong to do so. I had my family help me downselect based on tone. By nature of their legacy design, acoustic guitars are never really perfect, and almost everybody fights a bit to achieve what they want, no matter how skilled they are. The reason why is that there's no correlation between cost and results: I've written numerous songs on a $5 Yamaha that I bought at a yard sale. THEPOOYA@GMAIL.COM. Volume is self-explanatory and is a function of how flexible a guitar's top is: More flexible equals more air moved equals louder, and if you have a bigger top, you have more volume. V-Class bracing solves a major problem with acoustic guitar design. V-Class guitar bracing controls the tops flexibility, creating a more orderly rocking motion across both sides of the top. We reveal the creative process that fueled Andys new acoustic engine, and explain why V-Class guitar design. . The truth of the matter is that intonation exists beyond the neck of a guitar and this fact is proven when playing the V-class braced Taylor. Taylors production capability also has enabled guitars to be built with incredible precision and on a large scale. Powers was certainly familiar with the industry standard X-bracing, given his pre-Taylor career as a custom builder and musician. The wavelengths line up with each other in phase picture wavy lines nestled together traveling the same way and strengthen each other. It marks an important evolution beyond traditional X-bracing, introducing an entirely new platform for acoustic performance. ), With flat tops, there are some limits on what a traditional guitar will allow," Powers said when we chatted on the phone. Year: 2019 - 2023. These should give you some idea of the sound though it wont represent perfectly the sound of the instrument in real life. Well be introducing V-Class bracing to our standard line throughout 2018. The Gear Page is the leading online community and marketplace for guitars, amps, pedals, effects and associated gear. The improvement in intonation was so impressive that it fundamentally changes the guitars response and the sound of certain chords that as guitars players we have become so accustomed to being out of tune that we think that is how they should sound. My local shop had one or two of the 14 size models from every class in the Taylor line. Tone is very important, of course, but structural stability is even more vital. The 314ce features a well-build top mede of Sitka, back and sides made of sapele, and as of 2018, this guitar comes fitted the new v-shaped bracing. It will be interesting to see if that little groove around the edge will cause any repair-warranty problems down the road. In truth those chords were often just out of tune, but on a V-class guitar, warble is replaced with stunning sustain and overtones that respond in a linear fashion to the note creating a ring like a seven foot grand piano. Tobacco Sunburst. Consequently, the left and right sides of the top resonate in a less chaotic fashion than the traditional X brace. No matter where you play on the neck, the notes ring out clearly without any variation of timbre or volume. I got a new, old stock, 2015, 416ce today. Typically when you use a capo, the low strings will be sharp, and the high strings will be pretty close. BTO. The trade-off is that when you make something stiffer, you reduce its flexibility, and vice versa. Taylor's new V-Bracing VS the Standard X-Bracing! What Andy Powers discovered when developing the V-class bracing pattern is that when the movement of the top is better controlled the orderly response, along with rigidity inline with the neck improves the intonation, getting rid of the problem areas in a triad and removing the dissonant chord that many guitarists have mis-categorized as complex. X bracing has fuller, more rounded bass than the newer V-bracing that Taylor has come out with. Flexibility on either side generates the air movement necessary for robust projection. Developed for the smaller Taylor GT body shape, our proprietary C-Class bracing leverages some of the foundational, tone-enhancing ideas behind our V-Class design to boost the volume and sustain. So the way the V class is braced, it "should" limit the top moving due to humidity, giving you a guitar with better intonation. Several years of development followed, during which Powers would concoct a design, test it, figure out if something was a fluke, and then get control of a feature so that it could be replicated. Advanced V-Class bracing and compound carve-neck profile + Balanced sounds with a rounded tonality Reasons to avoid - Some dreadnought fans will prefer a boomier low end and hi-fi trebles When Taylor launched its Builder's Edition 517e Grand Pacific in 2019, it came as a surprise to many. "The more we learn, the less we know.". Some of the add-ons on this site are powered by. V-Class bracing is the product of Taylors tradition of ingenuity, a new development that breaks away from the traditional X-bracing pattern to change the way the acoustic guitar sounds. So the way the V class is braced, it "should" limit the top moving due to humidity, giving you a guitar with better intonation. The details are glorious, with a graphite nut, Micarta saddle, very solid Gotoh 510 tuners in a sort of mellow brass, and the onboard Expression amp system, complete with a jack in the strap button. You can also make it louder with a super-flexible top, such as the drumhead on a banjo. Some of these patterns improved sustain at the cost of volume and vice-versa. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Typically, guitar builders must make a choice between sustain and volume. I really couldn't hear it well at NAMM but the pattern struck me as just a modification of ladder bracing. Clearly, this isn't a purchase that any player will take lightly a guitar of this caliber is a lifetime investment. This guitar has a lot of overtones/harmonics that bloom nicely. Yes, and with any other type of musician, since youre not trying to use a different tuning system. The volume and response of the guitar is determined, to a large extent, by how much the top is allowed to move based upon the bracing. Trebles are clear and airy with sparkling complex harmonics and the fine string to string balance makes for easy picking. Each guitar bracing pattern will have a different set of characteristics and is designed to achieve a different result. A guitars top (the soundboard) contributes to both. 35 Full PDFs related to this paper. When Bob Taylor and Kurt, Kawai Medallion Piano Studio Award Winners. The more rigid, or stiff that a guitar can be the longer the string will vibrate. In other words, the frequencies the guitar generates agree more with each other. It is my favorite acoustic. Taylor Reimagines Acoustic Guitar Construction with New V-Class Bracing Concept. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Action As pretty much is always the case, I would lower the action a bit if bought this guitar. Powers recalled. The new bracing profile is the result of Andy Powers question to create more sustain and greater volume, two fundamentals that are at odds with one another when it comes to an acoustic guitar. by . My acid test for a guitar, when you get right down to it, is can I write a song on the instrument. In the context of an acoustic guitar, making the guitar more rigid will increase the sustain but it has consequences for the volume of the guitar. We have an inherent need to tell stories and make music. Then I made a mistake and played a 717e Grand Pacific. Some players will prefer the sound of an X-braced guitar because that is what they have become accustomed to. V-Class bracing changes that. When a guitar string is plucked the vibration of that string produces a note that will ring out and decay. First, the axe: Taylor loaned me a 914ce guitar to review, a $5,000 instrument that reminded me how much better a crummy player such as myself can sound with a truly great guitar in hand. Discover a fresh selection of V-Class-equipped models for 2020, including new Grand Orchestra guitars. Taylor only manufactures guitars in El Cajon, California and Tecate, Mexico. We didn't talk about it in this Taylor 314ce review yet, so here it is. It also creates a more orderly response from the soundboard. But it also highlighted how much a good guitar can help a great player better express him or herself. My sense is that the combination of good database management tools, NC machines and marketing are responsible for how many models of Taylors, Gibsons, Fenders, et al, there are. A short summary of this paper. The V brace delivers both. I can dig in with a pick and its volume is comparable to a dreadnought, yet it has the sensitivity to allow finger-style playing. 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